Who Sets the Price?

I recently published an essay exploring pricing not as a question of how high prices are, but of how they are set — and by whom.

The essay moves across very different contexts: Soviet grain quotas in the late 1920s, FIFA World Cup ticketing, concert pricing, and current debates around taxi fares in Dublin. What links them is not economics in the narrow sense, but legitimacy — the point at which people feel prices are imposed on them rather than arrived at with them.

The article also touches lightly on the role of data, algorithms and modern pricing systems, without treating technology as either villain or saviour. The focus throughout is on agency, trust, and where pricing systems still feel fair — and where they don't.

Read the full piece on Substack:
Who Sets the Price?

Originally published on Substack.