Markkinahäiriöt

Markkinahäiriöt, in economics, refer to situations where the allocation of goods and services by a free market is not efficient. This means that the market fails to produce the socially optimal outcome, leading to a misallocation of resources. Several factors can cause market failures, including externalities, public goods, asymmetric information, and market power.

Externalities occur when the production or consumption of a good affects a third party who is not directly involved in the transaction. Positive externalities, such as vaccination, benefit society as a whole, while negative externalities, like pollution, impose costs on others. Public goods are non-excludable and non-rivalrous, meaning that once provided, they cannot be withheld from anyone, and one person's consumption does not diminish another's. Examples include national defense and street lighting.

Asymmetric information arises when one party in a transaction has more or better information than the other. This can lead to adverse selection, where undesirable participants are more likely to engage in a transaction, or moral hazard, where one party changes their behavior after a transaction due to the other party bearing the cost. Market power, such as monopolies or oligopolies, allows firms to influence prices and output, leading to higher prices and lower quantities than would occur in a competitive market.

Governments often intervene to address market failures through various policies. These can include taxes and subsidies to correct externalities, direct provision or regulation of public goods, mandatory disclosure or quality standards to address information problems, and antitrust regulations to limit market power. The goal of these interventions is to move the market outcome closer to the socially efficient level.