Essay On Market Failure

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Market failures can be viewed as scenarios where individuals’ pursuit of pure self-interest leads to results that are not efficient- that can be improved upon from the societal point of view (Paul, Robin, 2006) Merit goods refer to goods or services provided free for the benefit of the entire society by a government, because they would be under-provided if left to the market forces or private enterprise. For example, the provision of food stamps to support nutrition can be seen as merit goods. There are some reasons that governments provide merit goods. Firstly, governments aim to encourage consumption so that positive externalities of merit goods can be achieved for example free inoculation against infectious diseases. Secondly, providing…show more content…
Imperfect competition is real and exists everywhere. Sellers try to influence the price of the product to earn more profit. Unlike the perfect competitive, where the market price of the product cannot be influenced by any firm or person, also there is no barrier for entry the industry. In perfect competitive market, the suppliers offer similar goods and there exist information asymmetry that encourage costs and price asymmetry. In case of perfect market, it will have characteristics that are exactly opposite to the perfect competitive market. Externalities refer to all costs or benefits of a market activity borne by a third party, that is, by someone other than the immediate producer or consumer (Arnold, 2013). A negative externality is an economic activity that imposes a negative effect on an unrelated third party. For example, water pollution by industries that add effluent, which harms plants, animals, and humans. Government intervention may be needed to move the mix of output closer to society’s optimal point. Whenever externalities are present, the preference expressed in the marketplace will not be a complete measure of a good’s value. As a consequence, the market will fail to produce the right mix of output. Specially, the market will under produce goods that yield external benefits and overproduce those that generate external

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