Talk:Demerit good

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of the Economics WikiProject, an effort to create, expand, organize, and improve economics-related articles..
Stub	rated as stub-Class on the assessment scale
Low	rated as low-importance on the importance scale

I have reverted this user's edits, which cleared much useful information and was largely incoherent. It is reproduced below:

In economics, a demerit good is a good which is socially undesirable and its consumption usually results in negative externalities.Like merit good, a demerit good is excludable and rival in consumption and has no inherent characteristics. Examples of demerit goods include alcoholic drinks ,addictive drugs andcigarettes.

In most cases, the government has to intervene in the provision of demerit goods as consumers may over estimate the benefits of the good and hence overconsume it. This is largely due to consumer's imperfect knowlege of the good. As a result, the government may intervene through taxes,regulation,moral suasion and international co-operation.

In case anybody wants to discuss this, please post here. -Grick(^{talk to me!}) 16:37, 16 September 2006 (UTC)