Time Inconsistency in Government Policy

Hmmm... I don't have a better analogy for you off the top of my head, but I'm not sure these are illustrations of time inconsistency. They seem more like subgame (im)perfection or simple lying.

The classic example is a government that tells people that it won't provide post-flood assistance to people who build in the flood plain. Once the flood happens, politics dictates that they do it anyway. Everyone knows this will happen, so the government's threat to not provide assistance is not credible. So people go ahead and build in the flood plain. It's called time inconsistency because what was optimal for the government in the first period (don't provide assistance) is not optimal in the second, post-flood period.

@Bob Murphy,
I think you're right.
@Jeff,
Ditto what I said to Bob.
If I could retract this post, I would. Not one of my best, to put it mildly.

The example in my Price Theory is rent control. The mayor wants to buy the votes of renters at the expense of landlords, so he freezes rents. To avoid an inefficient allocation of existing apartments, he leaves sublet rents uncontrolled, thus making rent control into a partial property transfer from landlords to existing tenants. To avoid discouraging future construction, he announces that new apartments will be uncontrolled.

Ten years later ... .