Pull the other one…...

Obviously, government intervention to correct market failure is a good thing. A new Pyrotechnics Articles (Safety) Regulations introduced this year reinforced laws bans the sale of explosive items to children. One result is that under-16’s cannot buy indoor or outdoor fireworks - and while this may give retailers a headache as they have to check the ID of their younger customers, it is done with the intention of avoiding the negative externalities of teenagers messing about with fireworks and injuring either themselves or others in the run-up to bonfire night.

But is banning sales of Christmas crackers to under-16’s also necessary? Apparently so, according to this article from the Daily Telegraph, so households up and down the land had better review the Health and Safety implications of their Christmas lunch tables, and decide whether the crackers represent a demerit good that they should avoid. Or is this an example of the Law of Unintended Consequences taking effect?

Alcohol - negative externalities of consumption and production. [12 Apr 2012]
Football Clubs to Pay for Negative Externalities [11 Apr 2012]
Neonicotinoids - resulting in the most significant negative externality of production ever? [3 Apr 2012]
The minimum alcohol price debate [23 Mar 2012]
The Lorax and market failure. [2 Mar 2012]
10 Solutions to Binge Drinking [21 Feb 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Prezi on the Economics of Negative Externalities [2 Jan 2012]
Alcohol. Discuss! [18 Oct 2011]
Fuel for Thought [5 Oct 2011]
EU ruling on sex equality: price differentiation, price discrimination or an Unintended Consequence? [1 Mar 2011]
Bad Snow Fall in London? [11 Oct 2010]
Scotland nudges towards minimum alcohol price [3 Sep 2010]
AS Economics Revision - Government Failure [18 May 2010]
Tax revenue goes up in smoke [15 Mar 2010]
Revision Presentation - EU & Carbon Emissions Trading [22 Feb 2010]
Revision Presentation - Market Failure & the Environment [21 Feb 2010]
Gold price brings prospectors to the Highlands [13 Nov 2009]
Questions in Behavioural Economics -  Reducing Your Carbon Footprint [24 Jun 2009]
Skills crisis in curry restaurants [31 Mar 2009]
Trade-offs in the off trade [3 Mar 2009]

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