Integrating Sex and Drugs into the Principles Course: Market-Failures Versus Failures-of-Market Outcomes

The author’s central argument in this article is that the current micro principles course is structured around an approach to policy that avoids many of the controversial but central issues of policy. These include (1) the interplay of moral issues and efficiency, (2) questions of consumer sovereignty, and (3) questions of the interrelation between measures of efficiency and income distribution. The current market-failure organizing framework of microeconomics principles textbooks excludes discussion of a broader set of failures of market outcomes: situations in which the market is doing everything it is supposed to be doing, but society is still unhappy with the result. The author suggests a dual market-failure and failure-of-market-outcome policy framework that encourages discussion of these broader issues.