Consumers in such markets will be faced by prices that exceed marginal cost, and the allocation of resources will be inefficient An imperfectly competitive private market will produce less of a good than is efficient As we saw in the chapter on monopoly, government agencies seek to prohibit monopoly in most markets and to regulate the prices charged by those monopolies that are permitted Government policy toward monopoly is discussed more fully in a later chapter Assessing Government Responses to Market Failure In each of the models of market failure we have reviewed here—public goods, external costs and benefits, and imperfect competition—the market may fail to achieve the efficient result There is a potential for government intervention to move inefficient markets closer to the efficient solution Figure 15.3 "Correcting Market Failure" reviews the potential gain from government intervention in cases of market failure In each case, the potential gain is the deadweight loss resulting from market failure; government intervention may prevent or limit this deadweight loss In each panel, the deadweight loss resulting from market failure is shown as a shaded triangle Attributed to Libby Rittenberg and Timothy Tregarthen Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books/ Saylor.org 792