What is a (so-called) public good? Give some examples.
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What is a (so-called) “public good”? Give some examples.
Started by Murphy, Sep 07 2005 07:56 PM
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#2
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Posted 28 July 2008 - 02:50 PM
Some policy makers and "economists" believe that some things are so important to the welfare of the state that they need to be collectively produced, due primarily to the many positive externalities. These can be through forced labor: pyramids, or taxes: schools, parks, roads. These are usually referred to as public goods.
#3
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Posted 20 September 2008 - 10:20 PM
Mart Grams, on Jul 28 2008, 02:50 PM, said:
Some policy makers and "economists" believe that some things are so important to the welfare of the state that they need to be collectively produced, due primarily to the many positive externalities. These can be through forced labor: pyramids, or taxes: schools, parks, roads. These are usually referred to as public goods.
Yes. If you want to be anal about it, the technical definition of a public good is that it is "non-rivalrous" in consumption, and non-excludable in delivery. The first condition means that if you enjoy the public good, it doesn't take away from my enjoyment of it. (In contrast, if you eat a piece of pizza, that's one less piece for me to eat.) The second condition means that if you create the public good, then you can't restrict its enjoyment to paying customers.
What's funny is that a lot of the textbook examples of public goods don't obey this official definition. E.g. you can exclude non-paying kids from schools, so it's not clear if education fits this.
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