market failure

Noun

market failure (countable and uncountable, plural market failures)

1. A situation in which the allocation of goods and services by a free market is not efficient.
   • From a policy perspective, market failure should be a matter of concern when market performance significantly deviates from the appropriate efficiency benchmark.2007, Clifford Winston, Government Failure versus Market Failure: Microeconomics Policy Research and Government Performance, Brookings Institution Press, →ISBN, page 3
   • "Climate change is a result of the greatest market failure the world has seen. The evidence on the seriousness of the risks from inaction or delayed action is now overwhelming. We risk damages on a scale larger than the two world wars of the last century. The problem is global and the response must...2007 November 29, Alison Benjamin, “Stern: Climate change a 'market failure'”, in The Guardian