From computer chips to chicken wings, the pandemic has led to shortages across the economy. One reason they’ve been so severe and so widespread is an economic phenomenon known as the “bullwhip effect.

The shocks of the pandemic economy gave us a bunch of enormous natural experiments, which helped to prove or disprove conventional economic thinking. Take, for example, the bullwhip effect, the idea ...

Michael Okrent does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...