Market Failure Flashcards
Technical Efficiency
When firms pursue the least cost method of production, where firms produce at minimum average cost
Allocative Efficiency
When resources are allocated to its best use
Define “pareto optimality”
When market is in equilibrium, with no external influences
Define “market failure”
A situation when the free market under or over allocate good or services, which leads to under or over consumption and under or over production
Demerit goods
Private goods that has negative externalities associated with its consumption
e.g. smoking, porn, drugs, prostitution, alcohol
Merit goods
Private goods that has positive externalities associated with its consumption
e.g. education, medical care
How does government response to fix market failure?
- Direct provision
- Taxation
- Subsidizing
- Negative and positive advertising
- Extending property rights
- Legislation
Market failure can arise with…
- lack of public goods to benefit society
- inequality of wealth/income
- people make decisions based on imcomplete information
- people make decisions without considering long term
- under supply of merit goods
- over supply of demerit goods
- abuse of monopoly power (firms)
- externalities (4 types)
Public Goods Characteristics
Non-rivalrous – jointly consumed by people without reducing the amount available to others
Non-exclusive – good or service can be used by people who do not pay for them
Thereby consumers have no incentive to pay for the good – leads to the “free-rider” problem
Private goods characteristics
rivalrous and exclusive
What can a government do to intervene in response to a need for public goods?
From the syllabus:
- Direct provision
- Contracting out to the private sector
Common Access Resources (Common Pool)
The ‘gifts of nature’ over which there is no private ownership and therefore no effective means of regulating use of the resource
Possible solutions for Common Access Resources Issues
- Privatization
- Tradeable permits
Privatization
- assigning private ownership of a resource
- creates incentives for owners to protect and manage it sustainably
Tradeable permits
- issuing permits to private users to allow limited amount of extraction in a period of time
- limit exploitation and maintain sustainable usage
(Asymmetric) Information - HL ONLY
Decisions are based on incomplete information – either the buyer or the seller (usually the seller) has more information than the other party
Government solution for asymmetric information
- Legislation
- Regulation
- Provision of information
Opportunistic Behaviour
- This is when one party takes advantage of the fact the other party lacks information
- Results in adverse selection or moral hazard
Adverse selection
- Results of decisions when buyers and sellers have access to different information
- Distorts price and quantity
Moral hazard
When a risk-protected party behaves differently due to more information, imposing costs on less-informed parties or society
Government solution to income inequality
- Taxation system
- Transfer payments
Taxation system
- Progressive Tax - rate of tax increases the higher the income
- Proportionate Tax - rate of tax is proportionate to income
- Regressive Tax - rate of tax decreases the higher the income