Religion & Liberty Online

An introduction to externalities

Note: This is post #36 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics.

What are externalities and what are the different kinds of costs? And what does this have to do with the rise of “superbugs”? In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Alex Tabarrok introduces externalities, including the concepts of private cost, external cost, and social cost.

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d recommend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Previous in series: What are the arguments against international trade?

Joe Carter

Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).