Governments intervene in the provision of both public goods as well as merit goods as the free market fails to provide public goods and tends to under-provide/under consume merit goods. Since there is partial market failure in the provision of merit goods (i.e. free market tends to under provide/under-consume merit goods) and complete market failure in the provision of public goods (free market results in non-provision of public goods), government intervention is required, either through direct provision or through the use of a combination of market based as well as non-market based policies.