1. A merit good is a good that the government compells it's citizens
to consume. A merit good is called such because it's believed to have
some kind of moral or political 'good' in it. There is a further
argument called 'paternalism', which is where the government thinks it
knows better than the citzenry. By being the 'father' of the citzens
and compelling them to do things they wouldn't ordinarily do, the
citizens are made better off.
In a sense, education is a merit good in that it is against the law to
not attend school. This of course only applies to primary and
secondary, not tertiary education. The government believes that the
nation as a whole is better off with education (making it a partial
public good) rather than without it.
4. Private education. One of the arguements against relying on an
entirely private education system is that the benefits of education
are not held entirely by the individual. The society as a whole
benefits. But when individuals engage in any kind of trade (including
the education market) they only value their own private benefits. So
the government steps in to ensure that the individual, in one way or
another, makes decisions based on both private and social benefits.
One way this is done is through subsidisation of the private market,
and another way is through the public provision of the good. Most
nations have private school systems coexisting with government.
Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to provide a more researched
answer than what I could find so far :) I hope this helps :) |
