merit good

(noun)

Merit goods are services that may be under-provided by the market, including the provision of food stamps to support nutrition or the delivery of health services to improve quality of life, among others.

Related Terms

Examples of merit good in the following topics:

  • Providing Public Services

    • A public service may sometimes have the characteristics of a public good.
    • In economics, a public good is a good that is both non-excludable in that individuals cannot be effectively excluded from use and where use by one individual does not reduce availability to others.
    • However, most public services are merit goods, which are services that may be under provided by the market.
    • Examples of merit goods include the provision of food stamps to support nutrition, the delivery of health services to improve the quality of life and reduce morbidity, subsidized housing and, arguably, education.
    • Buses are an example of a public good delivered by local governments in the United States.

  • Termination

    • The Pendleton Civil Service Reform of United States is a federal law established in 1883 that stipulated that government jobs should be awarded on the basis of merit.
    • Civil service reform is a deliberate action to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, professionalism, representation and democratic character of a bureaucracy, with a view to promoting better delivery of public goods and services, with increased accountability.
    • The Pendleton Civil Service Reform of United States is a federal law established in 1883 that stipulated that government jobs should be awarded on the basis of merit.
    • To enforce the merit system and the judicial system, the law also created the United States Civil Service Commission.

  • Federal Grants and National Efforts to Influence the States

    • When the government is procuring goods or services for its own direct benefit, and not for a broader public purpose, the law requires use of a federal contract.
    • For project grants, states compete for funding; the federal government selects specific projects based on merit.

  • Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

    • He had been a National Merit Scholar in high school and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a GPA of 3.51.
    • The strongest contention by the University of California in countering the law suit was the justification of affirmative action by the good of diversity in the classroom.

  • The Diversity Debate

    • Debates over affirmative action center around the question of whether diversity in the classroom merits a program of state intervention.

  • Federal Jurisdiction

    • Judges must strain to remove the influence of the merits from their jurisdictional rules.

  • Bureaucratic Reform

    • It eventually placed most federal employees on the merit system and marked the end of the so-called "spoils system. " Drafted during the Chester A.

  • Controversies Surrounding Affirmative Action

    • Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has argued that affirmative action programs disadvantage minority students because others think that they achieved success due to affirmative action rather than their own merits.

  • Models of Bureaucracy

    • Weberian characteristics of bureaucracy are clear, defined roles and responsibilities, a hierarchical structure and respect for merit.

  • Promoting Public Welfare and Income Redistribution

    • Liberals and conservatives are divided on the merits of the law, but regardless of one's political assessment of the law, it speaks to the government's attempts to improve the wellbeing of the public.