Market failure

In economics, market failure is a situation in which the allocation of goods and services by a free market is not efficient.

Quotes

• Market power and externalities are examples of a general phenomenon called market failure—the inability of some unregulated markets to allocate resources efficiently. When markets fail, public policy can potentially remedy the problem and increase economic efficiency. Microeconomists devote much effort to studying when market failure is likely and what sorts of policies are best at correcting market failures. As you continue your study of economics, you will see that the tools of welfare economics developed here are readily adapted to that endeavor. Despite the possibility of market failure, the invisible hand of the marketplace is extraordinarily important.
  • N. Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Economics (6th ed., 2012), Ch. 7. Consumers, Producers, and the Efficiency of Markets

• We need to recognise that the entire information sector—from music to newspapers to telecoms to internet to semiconductors and anything in-between—has become subject to a gigantic market failure in slow motion. A market failure exists when market prices cannot reach a self-sustaining equilibrium. The market failure of the entire information sector is one of the fundamental trends of our time, with far-reaching long-term effects, and it is happening right in front of our eyes.
  • Eli Noam in: "Eli Noam: Market failure in the media sector" at news.ft.com, February 16 2004