Merit goods

Peter Cserne; Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_164-2

Merit goods

Peter Cserne^* (Corresponding Author), Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay

^*Corresponding author for this work

Law

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary

Abstract

The German-born Harvard economist Richard A. Musgrave (1910–2007) introduced the twin concept of merit wants and merit goods to the economic analysis of the public sector. When he coined the name “merit goods” in 1957, he pointed out that certain goods such as free school lunches or subsidies to low-cost housing did not have the characteristics of a pure public or private good. If a government is dissatisfied with the level of consumption of such goods in the free market, it may intervene to increase consumption, even against the wishes of consumers, to promote their private as well as some social interests. Musgrave noticed that a term was missing for this domain which could not be described in terms of either private or public goods, although he acknowledged that, e.g., in education, there was an overlap between public (what he called social) and merit wants.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy
Editors	Stephan Kirste, M.N.S. Sellers
Place of Publication	Dordrecht, Netherlands
Publisher	Springer
Number of pages	6
Edition	1
ISBN (Electronic)	978-94-007-6730-0
ISBN (Print)	978-94-007-6730-0
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_164-2
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 11 Nov 2022

Keywords

Merit goods
Merit wants
Government intervention
Public economics
Public goods
Normative individualism
Paternalism

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10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_164-2Licence: Unspecified

Cite this

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abstract = "The German-born Harvard economist Richard A. Musgrave (1910–2007) introduced the twin concept of merit wants and merit goods to the economic analysis of the public sector. When he coined the name “merit goods” in 1957, he pointed out that certain goods such as free school lunches or subsidies to low-cost housing did not have the characteristics of a pure public or private good. If a government is dissatisfied with the level of consumption of such goods in the free market, it may intervene to increase consumption, even against the wishes of consumers, to promote their private as well as some social interests. Musgrave noticed that a term was missing for this domain which could not be described in terms of either private or public goods, although he acknowledged that, e.g., in education, there was an overlap between public (what he called social) and merit wants.",

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AB - The German-born Harvard economist Richard A. Musgrave (1910–2007) introduced the twin concept of merit wants and merit goods to the economic analysis of the public sector. When he coined the name “merit goods” in 1957, he pointed out that certain goods such as free school lunches or subsidies to low-cost housing did not have the characteristics of a pure public or private good. If a government is dissatisfied with the level of consumption of such goods in the free market, it may intervene to increase consumption, even against the wishes of consumers, to promote their private as well as some social interests. Musgrave noticed that a term was missing for this domain which could not be described in terms of either private or public goods, although he acknowledged that, e.g., in education, there was an overlap between public (what he called social) and merit wants.

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KW - Government intervention

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KW - Public goods

KW - Normative individualism

KW - Paternalism

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Merit goods

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