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B) Externalities

The document discusses externalities, which are costs or benefits experienced by third parties from economic transactions outside the market. It differentiates between negative externalities, often associated with demerit goods like cigarettes, and positive externalities linked to merit goods such as education. The text also outlines government policies to address these externalities, including taxes, subsidies, regulation, and the provision of information.

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18 views5 pages

B) Externalities

The document discusses externalities, which are costs or benefits experienced by third parties from economic transactions outside the market. It differentiates between negative externalities, often associated with demerit goods like cigarettes, and positive externalities linked to merit goods such as education. The text also outlines government policies to address these externalities, including taxes, subsidies, regulation, and the provision of information.

Uploaded by

bankmathhouse
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Edexcel​ ​(A)​ ​Economics​ ​A-level

Theme​ ​1:​ ​Introduction​ ​to​ ​Markets​ ​and


Market​ ​Failure
1.3 Market Failure ​
1.3.2 Externalities

Notes

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Externalities
o An externality is the cost or benefit a third party receives from an economic
transaction outside of the market mechanism. In other words, it is the spill-
over effect of the production or consumption of a good or service.

o Externalities can be positive (external benefits) or negative (external costs).

o Negative externalities are caused by demerit goods. These are associated


with information failure, since consumers are not aware of the long run
implications of consuming the good, and they are usually overprovided. For
example, cigarettes and alcohol are demerit goods. The negative externality
to third parties of consuming cigarettes is second-hand smoke or passive
smoking.

o Positive externalities are caused by merit goods. These are associated with
information failure too, because consumers do not realise the long run
benefits to consuming the good. They are underprovided in a free market.
For example, education and healthcare are merit goods. The positive
externality to third parties of education is a higher skilled workforce.

o The extent to which the market fails involves a value judgement, so it is hard
to determine what the monetary value of an externality is. For example, it is
hard to decide what the cost of pollution to society is. Different individuals
will put a different value on it, depending on their own experiences with
pollution, such as how polluted their home town is. This makes determining
government policies difficult, too.

Private costs

Producers are concerned with private costs of production. For example, the rent, the
cost of machinery and labour, insurance, transport and paying for raw materials are
private costs.
This determines how much the producer will supply.
It could refer to the market price which the consumer pays for the good.

Social costs

This is calculated by private costs plus external costs

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On a diagram, external costs are shown by the vertical distance between the two
curves. In other words, external costs are the difference between private costs and
social costs.
It can be seen that marginal social costs (MSC) and marginal private costs (MPC)
diverge from each other. External costs increase disproportionately with increased
output.

Private benefit

Consumers are concerned with the private benefit derived from the consumption of
a good. The price the consumer is prepared to pay determines this.
Private benefits could also be a firm’s revenue from selling a good.

Social benefit

Social benefits are private benefits plus external benefits.


On a diagram, external benefits are the difference between private and social
benefits.
Similarly to external costs, external benefits increase disproportionately as output
increases.

Social optimum position:

This is where MSC = MSB and it is the point of maximum welfare.


The social costs made from producing the last unit of output is equal to the social
benefit derived from consuming the unit of output.

External costs of production:

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External costs occur when a good is being produced or consumed, such as pollution.
They are shown by the vertical distance between MSC and MPC.
The market equilibrium, where supply = demand at a certain price, ignores these
negative externalities. This leads to over-provision and under-pricing.
With negative externalities, MSC>MPC of supply. At the free market equilibrium,
therefore, there are an excess of social costs over benefits at the output between Q1
and Qe.
The output where social costs > private benefits is known as the area of deadweight
welfare loss, shown by the triangle in the diagram.
The market fails to account for the negative externalities that occur from the
consumption of this good, which would reduce welfare in society if it was left to the
free market.

External benefits of production:

An example of an external benefit from the production or consumption of a good or


service could be the decline of diseases and the healthier lives of consumers through
vaccination programmes.
Since consumers and producers do not account for them, they are underprovided
and under consumed in the free market, where MSB>MPB. This leads to market
failure.
The triangle in the diagram shows the excess of social benefits over costs. It is the
area of welfare gain.

Government policies for negative externalities:

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Indirect taxes: to reduce the quantity of demerit goods consumed. This increases the
price of the good. If the tax is equal to the external cost of each unit, then the supply
curve becomes MSC rather than MPC, so the free market equilibrium becomes the
socially optimum equilibrium. This internalises the externality. In other words, the
polluter pays for the damage.

Subsidies: encourage the consumption of merit goods. This includes the full social
benefit in the market price of the good.

Regulation: to enforce less consumption of a good. For example, the minimum


school leaving age. If there was a compulsory recycling scheme, it would be difficult
to police and there could be high administrative costs. Bans could be enforced for
harmful goods, although they can still be consumed on the black market. Bans are
only useful where MSC > MPB (the MSC curve is above MPB).

Provide the good directly: The government could provide public goods which are
underprovided in the free market, such as with education.

Provide information: so there is no information failure, and consumers and firms


can make informed economic decisions.

Property rights: this encourages innovation because entrepreneurs can create new
ideas, which are protected, and earn profit.

Personal carbon allowances: They could be tradeable, so firms and consumers can
pollute up to a certain amount, and trade what they do not use.

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