The Debatable Concept of Consumer Surplus and the Rationing Mechanism

We show that computing the consumer surplus as the area below the demand curve and above the equilibrium price level is consistent with the definition of consumer surplus, as the monetary gain obtained because consumers are able to purchase for a price less than the highest price that they would be willing to pay, only if every consumer buys one unit of the good. An alternative computation in line with the previous definition can radically change the policy implication of the use of the surplus as evaluation tool in situations such as the setting of a maximum price together with a rationing mechanism