Economics Atlas

How Wealth Is Ordered
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Browse By

All Welfare, Market Failure and Decision Concepts

Ideas about when markets fail or choices go wrong, including externalities, moral hazard, adverse selection, principal-agent problems, transaction costs, deadweight loss, Pareto efficiency, sunk costs and loss aversion. A concept belongs here when its cited article describes a market failure, an information problem or a decision bias. The group brings together the entries filed under the heading Welfare, Market Failure and Decision Concepts, so a reader can compare them and move from one to another within the same part of the economic field.

All Welfare, Market Failure and Decision Concepts
Filter Results8 entries
Sources
Adverse selection (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Adverse Selection, Lead paragraph
Quote, Has Member: Adverse Selection, Lead paragraph
is a market situation where asymmetric information results in a party taking advantage of undisclosed information to benefit more from a contract or trade.
View the Source
Moral hazard (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Moral Hazard, Lead
Quote, Has Member: Moral Hazard, Lead
In economics, a moral hazard is a situation where an economic actor has an incentive to increase its exposure to risk because it will not bear the full costs associated with that risk.
View the Source
Transaction cost (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Transaction Costs, Lead
Quote, Has Member: Transaction Costs, Lead
In economics, a transaction cost is a cost incurred when making an economic trade when participating in a market.
View the Source
Loss aversion (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Loss Aversion, Lead
Quote, Has Member: Loss Aversion, Lead
In cognitive science and behavioral economics, loss aversion is a cognitive bias in which the same situation is perceived as worse if it is framed as a loss, rather than a gain.
View the Source
Sunk cost (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Sunk Cost, Lead
Quote, Has Member: Sunk Cost, Lead
In economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost (also known as retrospective cost) is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered.
View the Source
Deadweight loss (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Deadweight Loss, Lead
Quote, Has Member: Deadweight Loss, Lead
In economics, deadweight loss is the loss of societal economic welfare due to production/consumption of a good at a quantity where marginal benefit (to society) does not equal marginal cost (to society).
View the Source
Principal-agent problem (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Principal-Agent Problem, Lead
Quote, Has Member: Principal-Agent Problem, Lead
The principal-agent problem (often abbreviated agency problem) refers to the conflict in interests and priorities that arises when one person or entity (the "agent") takes actions on behalf of another person or entity (the "principal").
View the Source
Externality (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Externalities, Lead
Quote, Has Member: Externalities, Lead
In economics, an externality is a cost or benefit to an uninvolved third party that arises as an effect of another party's (or parties') activity.
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.