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Merit Goods

Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy

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Introduction

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.

The topic of merit goods is relatively marginal in economics; most of the relevant literature produced in the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

    Péter Cserne

  2. Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK

    Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay

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  1. Péter Cserne
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  2. Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay
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Correspondence to Péter Cserne .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for International & Comparative Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Mortimer Sellers

  2. Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, University of Salzburg, Austria, Salzburg, Austria

    Stephan Kirste

Section Editor information

  1. Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

    Tetsu Sakurai

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Cserne, P., Desmarais-Tremblay, M. (2021). Merit Goods. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_164-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_164-1

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Merit Goods
    Published:
    11 November 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_164-2

  2. Original

    Merit Goods
    Published:
    27 December 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_164-1

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