Short answer: Yes — a school compelling families to buy a specific device, at a fixed price, from a single approved supplier can be analysed as a form of market failure, depending on which strand of the theory you apply.
🎯 Core takeaway
A compulsory, single‑supplier device scheme can exhibit monopoly power, asymmetric information, and distorted incentives — all recognised forms of market failure in Leaving Cert Economics.
🧩 1. Monopoly Power (Partial Market Failure)
When a school mandates one specific device from one specific company, it effectively creates a captive market.
- Families cannot choose cheaper alternatives.
- The supplier faces no competitive pressure to lower prices.
- The price may be higher than the socially efficient level.
This aligns directly with monopoly power as a cause of market failure.
🧩 2. Asymmetric Information
Parents often cannot judge:
- whether the device is necessary,
- whether the price is fair,
- whether cheaper substitutes would work just as well.
The school and the EdTech company hold more information than families.
This is classic asymmetric information leading to sub‑optimal outcomes.
🧩 3. Externalities (Negative)
A compulsory device scheme can impose unintended costs on families and society:
- financial strain on households,
- increased digital distraction,
- e‑waste and environmental costs.
These are negative externalities not reflected in the €600 price.
🧩 4. Government / Institutional Failure
If the school (or Department) creates a policy that:
- restricts competition,
- increases costs for families,
- benefits a small number of suppliers,
…this can be framed as government failure — another recognised cause of market failure.
🧩 5. Missing Market for Alternatives
If students are not allowed to bring their own device (BYOD), even when cheaper or already owned, then the market for alternatives is effectively blocked.
This resembles a missing market created by policy rather than by nature.
Economically, yes — you can argue that:
> A compulsory, single‑supplier device scheme restricts competition, limits consumer choice, and leads to inefficient allocation of resources.
That is the textbook definition of partial market failure.