Private vs. public goods in the UK and social welfare
This assessment focused on the difference between private goods, which can be
efficiently provided by markets, and public goods, which markets fail to supply in an
equitable way to the public. Merit and demerit goods will also be considered in order
to analyse their positive or negative impacts on society, and why government
intervention may be required to control access to these goods.
Task 1: 45/100 marks (900+ words)
1. Using economics theories from Krugman & Wells textbook (2020, 5th
edition), and current UK examples from the past three years (2018–2021),
explain why the UK economy requires both public and private goods, giving
examples of when the UK market fails to provide access to necessary
private goods, why and how the UK government must provide public goods.
2. Analyse examples of when the UK government has difficulty in providing
sufficient access to public goods. Explain whether you think UK social
welfare programmes do or do not result in fair access to public goods. Use
relevant examples of UK public and private goods, providing real–life
examples and references from the UK market and UK news in 2020 to
support your explanations.
1. Using economics theories from Krugman & Wells textbook (2020, 5th
edition), and current UK examples from the past three years (2018–2021),
discuss merit and demerit goods in the UK market. Analyse real–life
examples of merit and their positive impacts on society, and contrast this
with analysis of demerit goods in the UK and their negative impact on
society.
2. Analyse how the UK government used policies and funding to improve
access to merit goods, and how it discourages and reduces access to
demerit goods, providing real examples of UK government interventions
and strategies.
3. Explain whether you believe that the UK government interventions does or
did not effectively address the fair provision of merit goods. Include relevant
examples and references from the UK from the past three years (2018–2021),
UK news, and UK government publications to support your explanations.
Referencing: 10/100 marks
Correct Harvard style referencing, clear formatting (including spelling,
punctuation), and effective communication.
Total marks available:
100
Instructions:
1. The coursework should begin with a cover page, including your student ID,
the module name and code, date, coursework title, and your word count.
Do not include your name anywhere on the document or in its title to allow
for anonymous marking. All pages must be numbered and your student ID
should appear at the top of each page (excluding the cover page).
2. Following the cover page, write a brief executive summary that addresses
issues in the topic statement above (no more than 200 words). The
executive summary counts within the word limit.
3. Provide both an introduction paragraph and a conclusion paragraph for the
full coursework, both of which must also be aligned to your executive
summary.
4. Base your coursework on the content from lectures 1–14 of ARUL Business
Economics and the required reading from chapter 1–14 in the Krugman &
Wells textbook (2020, 5th edition) textbook on Kortext. Using further relevant
content from the Krugman & Wells textbook will add to the quality and of
your coursework. The textbook is a required reference for this assessment,
lack of use of course materials will result in a significant loss of marks.
5. After the final conclusion paragraph, you must finish your coursework with
a Harvard style list of references or bibliography with the approved data
sources in alphabetical order by author surname (only one reference
listing per source, regardless of number of times used in the coursework).
Students should use at least five different approved data sources listed
below and this must include the Krugman & Wells (2020, 5th edition) EFB
MOD3327 textbook.
6. Plain formatting is preferred throughout. Avoid unnecessary coloured text,
or decorative images that are not directly providing data (avoid decorative
cover pages as they are not academically necessary or useful). A simple
table of contents after the cover page is acceptable but not required. You
must check spelling, formatting, graph labels, in–text citations, referencing,
and grammar before submission to avoid loss of marks (up to 10% loss for
formatting errors).
Approved data sources:
(Do NOT use any external sources that are not on this list or you will risk the loss of
significant marks. These sources provide more than sufficient information to
complete the assessment):
1. ARUL EFB MOD2237 textbook on Kortext: Krugman & Wells, 2020 (5th
edition)
2. ARUL EFB MOD3327 lectures, PowerPoint slides, & videos: Young, M.
2020–2021 (use correct in–text citation and Harvard reference format for
university lectures).
3. ARUL Digital Library sources available online (include ARUL website URL for
any ARUL Digital Library sources in references)
4. Tutor2U website & videos
5. Investopedia
6. Financial Times newspaper
7. The Guardian newspaper
8. BBC News
9. UK Office of National Statistics
10. UK Government websites ending in “gov.uk” and “parliament.uk”