Extract C states: 'Critics argue that heavy-handed state interventions in the childcare sector, such as rigid staff-to-child ratios and price-controlled "free" hours, frequently result in market distortions, forcing nursery closures and reducing the overall availability of places for working families.'
Use the extracts and your knowledge of economics to assess the view that the market for childcare services should be left to market forces with only the minimum of government intervention.
378 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Economics 1.8 The market mechanism, market failure and government intervention in markets, covering 1.8.1 How markets and prices allocate resources, 1.8.2 The meaning of market failure, 1.8.3 Public goods, private goods and quasi-public goods, 1.8.4 Positive and negative externalities in consumption and production, 1.8.5 Merit and demerit goods, 1.8.6 Market imperfections, 1.8.7 Competition policy (A-level only), 1.8.8 Public ownership, privatisation, regulation and deregulation of markets (A-level only), 1.8.9 Government intervention in markets, and 1.8.10 Government failure. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.