What kinds of goods do governments usually place price ceiling?

Answer 1

In most economies attempting to work on some sort of capitalistic economic theory, price controls are generally only placed on "critical" goods. Obviously, "critical" can mean a lot of things in many different context, but, usually, it is limited to items such as:

• basic foodstuff - grains, dairy products, and staple foods deemed fundamental to the nutrition of the country. These are usually domestically-produced foodstuffs, and ones which the culture uses as a major portion of the diet.
• luxury foods in times of crisis - usually, during warfare, price controls (and, more importantly, rationing) of certain "luxury" foods is commonplace. Sugar, sweets, unusual fruits or vegetables, and many meats generally fall into this category. The key here is that the item is available in enough quantity to be served to most people, but is too limited in supply to avoid extreme price markups.
• Gasoline, petrol, and other consumer fuels - generally, price ceilings are placed only on fuels at the retail level, not the industrial or wholesale level.
• Goods or services where there is a "natural" monopoly, such as electric transmission or water/sewer sanitation systems. These goods and services are such that, for efficiency, the market tends towards having a sole provider, so price controls are used to regulate the monopoly effect.
• Housing is sometimes price-controlled, especially rental housing units.
• Certain basic materials - for the most part, these would be raw materials critical for industry, and are usually only price-controlled in situations where the supply is far outstripped by demand, as during wartime.

Note that with price ceilings usually come rationing, which allows only a maximum amount of the good to be bought at once (or, per period of time).