Market Failures, Taxes, and Subsidies: Crash Course Economics #21

This week on Crash Course Econ, Jacob and Adriene are talking about failure. Specifically, we’re talking about market failures. When markets don’t provide a good or service efficiently, that’s a market failure. When markets fail, often governments step in to provide those services. Stuff like public education or military protection are good examples of market failures. So, what are some of the ways governments address, market failures? Well, it’s funny you should ask, as we also talk about that in this episode. We’ll get into taxes and subsidies and externalities and a bunch of other important stuff this week on Crash Course Econ. Crash Course is on Patreon! You can support us directly by signing up at Thanks to the following Patrons for their generous monthly contributions that help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever: Mark, Eric Kitchen, Jessica Wode, Jeffrey Thompson, Steve Marshall, Moritz Schmidt, Robert Kunz, Tim Cur