Market Failure and the Efficiency Case for State Intervention

About the lecture

In this module, we look at what markets look like when they efficiently allocate resources, how this can fail and the case for government intervention when this happens. In particular, we will focus on: (i) a review of how efficient markets allocate resources, with use of a diagram to show consumer and producer surplus and an explanation of the term Pareto efficiency; and (ii) what happens when markets fail, including a discussion of the types of market distortions and a diagram to show what happens to consumer and produce surplus in a situation of market failure.

About the lecturer

Dr Toke Aidt is a Reader in Economics at the University of Cambridge, where he also serves as Director of the Keynes Fund. He specialises in the research areas of Public Choice and Political Economics. With these areas in mind, he has written widely, such as 'Franchise extension and fiscal structure in the United Kingdom 1820-1913: A new test of the Redistribution Hypothesis' (Cliometrica, 2022) and 'Review of Forging the Franchise: The Political Origins of the Women's Vote' (Journal of Economic Literature, 2022).