Correcting Market Failures Summary
Readings: James Phills and Lyn Denend (Packet), pp. 73-106. For any written assignment, please
select one of the three entrepreneurs (David Greene, Victoria Hale, or Jim Fruchterman), and use
answer the four questions below.
Study Questions:
1. Discuss the advocacy of the three entrepreneurs.
2. What problems did they face?
3. How did they address these problems?
4. Discuss how these cases illustrate the definition of “market failure.”
While the questions are similar across all three entrepreneurs, your cases should be submitted in
separate files: Do not use one file for two or more cases because I will have difficult ranking and
evaluating them. To be clear: if you combine the cases in a single file, I will be returning the file
to you—uncorrected. Please me mindful of this requirement.
Please save your submissions as follows: First Name, Last Name, Case.
Example: Gerardo Ungson, David Greene
Because I evaluate your cases comparatively, work on continuously improving your
submissions. In other words, what you might have done well in an earlier case might not
translate to the same grade because others are also ramping up the quality of their submissions.
Ask yourself the following:
Completeness. Have you identified all the appropriate issues? In stating them, are you
focused on building a clear core argument?
Context: Are you providing enough justification in your own words, or are you simply
restating the conclusions already reached in the case?
Development: By way of comparison, a one-sentence answer will typically not be
sufficient. The questions are written in a way to invite substantiation.
Originality: I leave this criterion up to you, although some of you have attempted to relate
answers to the class lectures, readings, and materials.
Correcting Market Failures
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation
Course Name and Number
Lecturer's Name
Date
Correcting Market Failures
David Green was an advocate for providing high-quality, low-cost medical equipment to prevent and cure deafness and blindness in third-world countries. Green's focus was on making essential goods and services and addressing the disparities in pricing and patient rights. He wanted medical supplies to be more affordable to a large percentage of the world's population, especially those who could not afford them. He had an unconventional method to make high-quality products at a meager cost of the market price. His main aim was to be able to touch the lives of the world's poorest people. These people believed below $1 per day. Green felt that it was not fair that those who could not afford the best be stuck with inferior technology that could not have helped them.
Before Green became a prominent social entrepreneur, there were problems that he faced before he could assist the helpless. One of them was getting donors. Initially, he acquired donations at manufacturing cost but soon, the donations began to dry up. The second problem was that the inventory he bought at reduced rates was insufficient, and the poor were still unable to afford the markup necessary to get access to the products. Another problem he encountered was the mysterious nature of suture technology. At the time, this technology belonged to a single multinational technology that had monopolized the market. There was also the problem of hearing loss. Those who ha...