Abstract
The term ‘merit goods’ has no generally agreed application. It is best applied where individual choice is restrained by community values. It may apply also where charity or political redistribution imposes the donors’ preferences on recipients; in primary redistribution, society may define fair shares in cash or kind, the latter chosen with regard to what are considered meritorious items for the recipient. However, the concept of merit goods remains within the realm of consumer sovereignty when individuals’ ‘higher’ preferences are imposed on their ‘lower’ ones.
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Musgrave, R.A. (2018). Merit Goods. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1139
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1139
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