Transfer Payments and Direct Provision Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Transfer Payments and Direct Provision Deck (12)
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1
Q

Transfer Payments

A

a welfare payment made that is not linked to economic output

2
Q

Examples of Transfer Payments

A
  • Unemployment benefits.
  • Housing benefits.
  • State pensions.
  • Disability benefits.
  • Donations to charity.
  • Pocket money.
3
Q

Purpose of Transfer Payments

A
  • Helps those people most in need.
  • To improve the standard of living.
  • Redistribution of income.
4
Q

Are Transfer Payments a part of GDP?

A

No

5
Q

Advantages of Transfer Payments

A
  • Targets people most in need of help by providing a minimum level of income.
  • This leads to an increasing in living standards of recipients, which helps to reduce inequality and lower the levels of poverty.
6
Q

Disadvantages of Transfer Payments

A
  • Costly to the government.
  • Opportunity cost to the government.
  • Expensive to administer (payments are looked into before they are made).
  • Disincentive effects (some people may choose to remain on benefits instead of seeking employment).
  • Unproductive (money is being taken out of the productive part of the economy (employed workers) and given to unproductive parts of the economy (unemployed people).
7
Q

Direct Provision

A

government provision of merit goods and public goods.

8
Q

Examples of Direct Provision

A
  • Public goods, such as street lighting, road signs, information.
  • Merit goods, such as education, healthcare.
9
Q

Purpose of Direct Provision

A
  • To overcome the free-rider problem associated with the provision of public goods.
  • To overcome the problem of under-provision and under-consumption associated with merit goods.
10
Q

How direct Provision Affects Demand Supply Curve

A
  • Government supplies quantity a to the market for free (price = 0).
  • At price = 0, quantity demanded (b) is more than the quantity supplied, resulting in excess demand (distance a to b).
  • Queueing and rationing are likely to occur.
11
Q

Advantages of Direct Provision

A
  • More consumption of public goods and merit goods.
  • The free-rider problem of public goods is overcome.
  • The problem of under-production and under-consumption of merit goods is reduced.
  • Higher standard of living (especially for poorer consumers).
12
Q

Disadvantages of Direct Provision

A
  • Expensive.
  • Opportunity costs.
  • Excess demand, which leads to rationing and queuing.
  • Lack of profit motive by the government may reduce efficiency and lower quality.