> The economic definition could use an update, or at least some asterixis. My goal is to provide some of the asterisks. The "market failure" theorems require t

> The economic definition could use an update, or at least some asterixis. My goal is to provide some of the asterisks. The "market failure" theorems require the economic definition. One cannot presuppose the existence of the inefficiency in circumstances where the assumptions of the theorems are not satisfied. Take medical research. Given the existence of patents and the crappy medical papers I am seeing everywhere, I am not convinced there is an underfunding problem. Education is very much excludable and to a great extent rival (especially if you consider the issue of finding the appropriate environment and teacher to learn from). Of course, institutions matter ... That is not the issue here. The question is whether this crypto scheme exists to eliminate a well-defined inefficiency in a coherent way, or does it just boil down to a heap of presuppositions?