Market Corrections Not Government Interventions

The choice of whether to recommend a market solution or a government intervention to address an economic or social problem is the eternal issue of public policy analysis. Throughout the decades, academics, policymakers, and the public have alternated between market-friendly and market-skeptical perspectives. But do these shifting views accurately reflect our knowledge about market and government performance?

In this book, Clifford Winston examines the extensiveness as well as the persistence of government failures in the US economy and the potential for market corrections to address those failures. He provides contemporary empirical evidence that strongly questions the effectiveness of government interventions, and he explores whether markets can self-correct to solve economic and social problems more efficiently.

Offering a comprehensive overview of government failures, the book includes key definitions and classifications. Winston synthesizes the available empirical evidence and analyzes the findings, which reveal persistent losses in economic welfare, despite the positive theoretical expectations of government interventions. Theoretical explanations of government failures are then evaluated and found to lack the ability to guide efficient policy reforms. Finally, the robustness of markets to overcome their inefficiencies or failures is characterized in terms of market corrections. Empirical evidence is presented to show that, in contrast to government failures, markets have often corrected their failures.

The implications of the book for academics and policymakers are twofold. First, when they are considering the efficacy of a market solution or a government intervention to address an economic or social problem, they should be much more cognizant of the potential for government failure and for this failure to persist. Second, they should also take a long-run view of markets and account for their ability to self-correct. Thus, the book calls for a more stable perspective toward markets and government—one where market corrections, not government interventions, are envisioned as offering a path for improving the US economy.

Author Biography

Clifford Winston is a senior fellow in the economic studies program at the Brookings Institution. He is author or editor of several books, including Reforming Occupational Licensing in the US.