Preventing bush fires - are toxin free retardents merit goods?

As those living in Australia, Greece and California can testify through recent experience, protecting human life, buildings and foliage when bush and forest fires break out is often incredibly difficult and very expensive.

This Danish inventor believes that he has developed a toxin-free fire retardent that can protect buildings and limit some of the costs when fires explode into action. It is a good example of innovation driving market demand and also the importance of patenting new products especially in a market space where the existing multinational chemical companies are already piling serious money into developing better and less environmentally damaging retardent products.

Martin Wolf on Global Shocks [10 Feb 2012]
Russia’s monopoly power over gas supplies [5 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Inflation [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Per Capita Incomes [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Competitive Advantage in Trade (Some Videos) [12 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Factors Driving Business Investment [10 Jan 2012]
Hopes and Fears 2012 [10 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Video Clips on Negative Production Externalities [29 Dec 2011]
Economics of Deforestation [20 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Brand Loyalty in Mobile Phones [27 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Unilever hit by rising costs [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Time of Use Pricing for Energy [2 Nov 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Costs and Benefits of a Super Sewer for London [1 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Economies of Scale and the Kinect [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Is the Sun Dipping on Solar Subsidies? [27 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: University fees and elasticity of demand [24 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Ofcom gives stamp of approval for flexible pricing in mail [21 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Importance of Investment [19 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tesco Behaving Badly - Price Anchoring [17 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Positive and Negative Multiplier Effects [14 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Can Exports Drive a Recovery? [13 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Unit Labour Costs and Inflation [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: UK suffers a weak recovery [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Homework Assignment on Consumer Spending [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Homework Assignment on Market Prices [2 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Supply and Demand Rap! [28 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Equilibrium Market Prices [27 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Supply [26 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Demand [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Greek Economy at Default’s Door [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Bangladesh and Comparative Advantage in Textiles [19 Sep 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Fixed and Variable Costs [18 Sep 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Short Run Costs of Production [6 Sep 2011]
NHS spending good, private provision bad? [5 Sep 2011]
Starter Activity: Health Economics [1 Sep 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Quiz on Business Costs and Profits [25 Aug 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Price of Football [2 Aug 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Cotton Prices and the Retail Price of Clothing [13 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of Volatile Corn Prices [12 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Reducing Unemployment after a Recession [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: FirstBuy, Affordability and Effective Demand in Property [10 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: High price of petrol drains demand [9 Jul 2011]
Where there’s muck there’s brass [6 Jul 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
Lady Gaga and Baby Food! [29 May 2011]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [25 May 2011]
AQA Macro: Remember to revise inflation [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Demand Pull Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Cost Push Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Economic Recovery [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Recession [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Spare Capacity [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: The Output Gap [23 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro:  Monopsony Power in Markets [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: The Importance of Profit [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: High and Low Marginal Cost Products [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Examples of Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Perfect Competition [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Competition and Efficiency [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Outsourcing [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Business Growth [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation and Economic Policies [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation Efficiency and Welfare [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Moving Away from Profit Max [18 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Diseconomies of Scale [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Minimum Efficient Scale [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: External Economies of Scale [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Economies of Scope [18 May 2011]
AS economics: Using the cost-benefit principle [18 May 2011]
The economics of price gouging after a natural disaster. [16 May 2011]
AS Micro: What´s really behind the oil price rise? [10 May 2011]
Interest Rates Held at 0.5% once again [5 May 2011]
AS Micro: Commodity Prices [5 May 2011]
AS Macro: Extended House Price Deflation? [5 May 2011]
AS Micro: Rising Global Food Prices [2 May 2011]
AS and A2 Macro Revision: Keynesian Economics [28 Apr 2011]
A2 Micro: EU Aviation - State Aid and State Ownership [28 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: Mock Exam Question on Sugar Prices [28 Apr 2011]
Wiki Revision: A to Z on Monopoly [23 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: Importance of Elasticity of Supply [23 Apr 2011]
A2 Micro: Changes in Costs and Profits [23 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Taxes and Subsidies [18 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Costs and Profits [16 Apr 2011]
Smartphones and Creative Destruction [16 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Prices [15 Apr 2011]
China set to become exporter of inflation [14 Apr 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Solar Panels and Economies of Scale [11 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Seasonal Unemployment [10 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: Prices for New and Second Hand Cars [9 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Double-Dip Recession [8 Apr 2011]
UK Minimum Wage rises by 2.5% in October 2011 [8 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Fiscal Austerity [6 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Aggregate Supply Shock [6 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Inflationary Pressure [5 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Current Account Deficit [2 Apr 2011]

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