"jacking up prices has no benefit" Jacking up prices gives distant suppliers an incentive to divert resources towards the disaster-struck area, reducing shorta

"jacking up prices has no benefit" Jacking up prices gives distant suppliers an incentive to divert resources towards the disaster-struck area, reducing shortages. Jacking up prices discourages people from buying goods that they don't really need, making them available to people who really do need them. On the other hand, if prices are not allowed to increase, people have an incentive to hoard the scarce goods that they anticipate will become scarce. This of course creates those very shortages. And the hoarded goods go unused while the people who really need them are unable to buy anything.