Economics Assessment – Outcome 3
Market Failure
The term market failure means when free running markets within an economy fail to provide all goods and services needed. The government develops a way of controlling these problems, e.g. by providing the economy with some amount of good and services:-

Public goods

Public goods are goods that are provided by the government to the economy as they are not provided by the private sector as the private sector are unable and unwilling to pay for these goods, as they are of little importance. The private sector are unable to make a profit if they provide these goods as people would be unwilling and unable to pay for these goods/service provided for there to be a profit made. Some of these are:- * Street Lights * Public Parks * Pavements

Merit Goods

Merit goods are goods and services provided to an economy by the government, as they are not provided by the private sector as they are unable to make a profit from these goods because there would be no one willing to pay for these or maybe even unable to be for them, as these goods/services are seen as not of enough importance. Some of these good are:- * Armed Forces * Health Care * Education

Externalities

Externalities is when something happens or something some does that could affect someone else. The government intervenes to try and improve negative externalities, by on most occasions introducing new legalisation to reduce these negative externalities for examples, paying tax on car pollution or fines giving people who have been illegally dumping. Examples of externalities are:- * People driving around in their cars creates a lot of pollution with in the air which affects others passing by, making them unwell and possibly having to go to hospital. * People go to college/university to be educated which then helps them get qualifications, which then helps getting a job. * People paying taxes to the government. The government then uses some of these taxes to provide the economy with Health Care

Imperfect Competitions

Perfect competition in a market means all companies get to trade freely. This also means that within a market there is no fixed pricing, no monopoly power and no externalities. Within the market only normal profits would be made in the long run and abnormal profit in the short run. Imperfect competition means that there is no free trading with a market. Therefore, in market there is fixed price, monopoly and externalities and the government intervenes to control this, by stopping firms from trying to stop them from fixed pricing goods & services, by introducing new legalisation and also by stopping firms from having too much monopoly power.

The types of imperfect competition are: * Monopoly, one single seller owning more than 25% of the market * Oligopolies, two companies come together and work together * Mergers, two companies come together and become one.

Environment Policy – Reducing and managing waste a) The policy I have chosen is reducing and managing waste policy. This policy was first introduced on 9th April 2013, and was introduced to reduce waste, reduce food waste within the food and drinks industry, making businesses responsible for what they produce (laws that require some businesses to make sure that a proportion of what they sell is recovered and recycle), improve recycling and waste collection of households, help businesses reduce and manage waste collection from households, help businesses reduce and manage waste, deal with waste crime e.g. fill tipping, disposing of tyres, regulating landfill site and landfill waste, controlling hazardous waste, recycling ships. (Prevent waste, which is a great option for the environment, preparing for re-use, recycling other recovery and disposal.

b) Environmentally Act 1990 which is an act to make provision for improving control of pollution, provision for disposal of waste, provision for clean air due to reducing pollution and waste, provision for to reducing pollution and waste, provision for amend the law relating to litter, provision for keeping public places clear of litter, provision for keeping public places clear of litter, provision for controlling the dumping of waste at sea and provision for reducing oil pollution.

Environment Act 1995 which is an act that was introduced to provide a person of which is to be known as the environment agency. Provision for contaminated land and abandoned mines, provision for control of pollution and provision for conservation of natural resources.

Environment agency was introduced to the UK from the Environment Act 1995. The environment agency were founded in 1996 to help protect and improve the environment and also work to develop a better place for people and wildlife.

c) The government has being doing a lot in trying to control of reducing and managing waste. In 2012 supermarkets gave out over 8 billion single-use carrier bags across the UK, this is around 80,000 tonnes of waste a year, so on the 20th October 2014 the government brought in law in which a charge for single-use carrier bags was put into place. A charge of five pence a carrier bag is what was introduced in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the law will be introduced in England in October 2015.
Also on the 31st of March 2014, the environment agency took actions on disposing of tyres. The UK produces about 55 million waste of tyres a year, if these tyres are not disposed of correctly they can be harmful to the environment and also affect local areas. People are also dumping tyres illegally and also burning them, this can cause pollution, be harmful to the environment and costs to have these fires cleared up. The environment agency are working with tyres retailers, disposers and trade associates to make sure tyres are disposed of correctly, they are also working together with the police so people can be prosecuted for dumping tyres illegally.
Also the environment agency are trying to improve recycling and waste collection from households. The environment agency are working with the local councils to make recycling easier and improve the quality of rubbish collected. They are also trying to find ways to improve weekly collections and environmental benefits. This should hopefully help improve recycling rates. They are also changing the law to stop households facing penalties for the way in which they put their rubbish out for collection.
Also the environment agency are also trying to reduce and prevent the amount food waste. The UK throws away around 7.2 million tonnes of food and drink from households every year, most of which could have been eaten. This harms the environment, costs around £12 billion a year and wastes resource, and food industries waste around £5 billion a year. The environment agency are conducting research and developing a policy to reduce and prevent food waste within the economy. This will save households and businesses money and helps the environment.