Harberger triangle
Harberger triangle noun: a graphical representation of the deadweight loss (as measured on a supply and demand graph) in the trade of a given product or service caused by market failure or government failure.
Noun
Harberger triangle (plural Harberger triangles)
- A graphical representation of the deadweight loss (as measured on a supply and demand graph) in the trade of a given product or service caused by market failure or government failure.
- “It takes a heap of Harberger triangles to fill an Okun gap,” wrote James Tobin in 1977, four years before winning the Nobel Prize in economics. He meant that the big issue in economics was not battling against monopolists but preventing recessions and promoting recovery. […] The Harberger triangle...2014 August 12, Tim Harford, “Monopoly is a bureaucrat’s friend but a democrat’s foe”, in Financial Times
Forms of Harberger triangle
| plural | Harberger triangles |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Harberger's triangle |
Origin of Harberger triangle
Named after Arnold Harberger (born 1924), American economist.
Questions about Harberger triangle
- What does Harberger triangle mean?
- Harberger triangle means a graphical representation of the deadweight loss (as measured on a supply and demand graph) in the trade of a given product or service caused by market failure or government failure.
- What part of speech is Harberger triangle?
- Harberger triangle is a noun.
- What is the plural of Harberger triangle?
- The plural of Harberger triangle is Harberger triangles.
Words near Harberger triangle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Harberger triangle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “Harberger triangle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/harberger_triangle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.