Merit Goods

“10 Grand” Design

If, like me, you dream of living in a modern home of the like seen in Grand Designs, this link from the BBC gives you hope - and perhaps offers a solution to the UK housing shortage.

Merit and De_Merit Goods

We had an interesting brainstorming session in our AS micro today! We wanted to discuss which examples of consumption and/or production deserved the sobriquet of merit or de-merit goods. The point was made very early on that what each of us regards as socially beneficial or socially damaging depends very much on our own value judgements. And the other aspect of merit and de-merit that we emphasised was the ever-present issue of information failure. Just today there was an article in the Telegraph about how ”taking aspirin can cut breast cancer risk by 20%” and at the same time, we know the risks of addiction to painkillers and other treatments.

This was the list of merit and de-merit goods that my two groups came up with - fuelled it has to be said by a plentiful supply of mini doughnuts and chocolate cookies from Sainsburys! I used this as an example. We wanted to test doughnuts and consider their social benefits (!) but the plastic packaging and waste we created also has a social cost. I have linked to some relevant BBC news stories as well.

Mobile Shopping

mShopper is a new retail tool which allows consumers to make purchases via mobile phone.

Internet sales (’clicks‘) are already challenging traditional retail (’bricks‘) markets and the economics behind these changes is fascinating.

Reconsidering merit goods

What is a merit good? There has been an interesting exchange of views on the TES forum this week prompted by this post

“A merit good usually, but not always, yields postive externalities when consumed”

When would positive externalities NOT be yielded?