In economics, a public good is a good that is non-rival and non-excludable. This means that consumption of the good by one individual does not reduce the amount of the good available for consumption by others; and no one can be effectively excluded from using that good.^[1] For example, if one individual eats a cake, there is no cake left for anyone else, and it is possible to exclude others from consuming the cake; it is a rival and excludable good, or a private good. Conversely, breathing air does not significantly reduce the amount of air available to others, nor can people be effectively excluded from using the air. This makes it a public good. These are highly theoretical definitions: in the real world there may be no such thing as an absolutely non-rival or non-excludable good; but economists think that some goods in the real world approximate closely enough for these concepts to be meaningful. Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... A good in economics is any physical object (natural or man-made) or service that, upon consumption, increases utility, and therefore can be sold at a price in a market. ... In economics, a good is considered either rivalrous (rival) or nonrival. ... Excludability is defined in economics as whether or not it is possible to exclude people who have not paid for a good or service from consuming it. ... In economics Private good is an opposite of the public good. ...

Non-rivalness and non-excludability may cause problems for the production of such goods. Specifically, some economists have argued that they may lead to instances of market failure, where uncoordinated markets are unable to provide these goods in desired quantities.^{[citation needed]} These issues are known as public goods problems, and there is a good deal of debate and literature on how significant they are, and on what their solutions might be. These debates can become important to political arguments about the role of markets in the economy. More technically, public goods problems are related to the broader issue of externalities. Market failure is a term used by economists to describe the condition where the allocation of goods and services by a market is not efficient. ... Chichicastenango, Guatemala traditional market Market stall in internally displaced persons camp in Kitgum, northern Uganda Mercado dos Lavradores, Funchal (Madeira Islands) A market is a mechanism which allows people to trade, normally governed by the theory of supply and demand. ... An externality occurs in economics when a decision (for example, to pollute the atmosphere) causes costs or benefits to individuals or groups other than the person making the decision. ...

Terminology, and types of public goods

Paul A. Samuelson is usually credited as the first economist to develop the theory of public goods. In his classic 1954 paper The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure^[2] he defined a public good, or as he called it in the paper a "collective consumption good", as follows: Paul Samuelson (born May 15, 1915) is an American economist known for his work in many fields of economics. ...

...[goods] which all enjoy in common in the sense that each individual's consumption of such a good leads to no subtractions from any other individual's consumption of that good...

This is the property that has become known as Non-rivalness. In addition a pure public good exhibits a second property called Non-excludability: that is, it is impossible to exclude any individuals from consuming the good. A nonrival good in economics is one where one partys use of the good does not diminish anothers access to it or benefit from it. ... Non-excludable goods are defined in economics as goods whereby it is impossible to stop a person consuming that good when it has become publicly available at a relatively low cost. ...

The opposite of a public good is a private good, which does not possess these properties. A loaf of bread, for example, is a private good: its owner can exclude others from using it, and once it has been consumed, it cannot be used again. In economics Private good is an opposite of the public good. ...

A good which is rival but non-excludable is sometimes called a common pool resource. Such goods raise similar issues to public goods: the mirror to the public goods problem for this case is sometimes called the tragedy of the commons. For example, it is so difficult to police deep sea fishing that the world's fish stocks can be seen as a non-excludable resource, but one which is finite and diminishing. The terms common-pool resource (CPR), alternatively termed a common property resource, is a particular type of good, and a natural or human-made resource system, whose size or characteristics of which makes it costly, but not impossible, to exclude potential beneficiaries from obtaining benefits from its use. ... The Tragedy of the Commons is a type of social trap, often economic, that involves a conflict over resources between individual interests and the common good. ...

It should be emphasised that these concepts are highly theoretical. For example, the definition of non-excludability states that it is impossible to exclude individuals from consumption. In reality, perhaps any good can become excludable: for example, radio or television broadcasts have in the past been used as a classic example of non-excludable goods. But as technology has developed, it is now possible to encrypt these signals so that anyone without a special decoder is excluded from the broadcast.

Many forms of creative works have characteristics of public goods. For example, a poem can be read by many people without reducing the consumption of that good by others; in this sense, it is non-rival. Similarly, the information in most patents can be used by any party without reducing consumption of that good by others. Creative works may be excludable in some circumstances, however: the individual who wrote the poem may decline to share it with others by not publishing it. Copyrights and patents both encourage and inhibit the creation of such non-rival goods by providing temporary monopolies, or, in the terminology of public goods, providing a legal mechanism to enforce excludability for a limited period of time. Note that for public goods, the "lost revenue" of the producer of the good is not part of the definition: a public good is a good whose consumption does not reduce any other's consumption of that good. A creative work is a tangible manifestation of creative effort such as literature, paintings, software, and this article. ... Not to be confused with copywriting. ... For other uses, see Patent (disambiguation). ...

As well as public goods there can be public bads that have negative externality effects instead of positive ones. For example, pollution or political corruption may be bads that show some of the same non-excludability and non-rivalness properties. Excludability is defined in economics as whether or not it is possible to exclude people who have not paid for a good or service from consuming it. ... In economics, a good is considered either rivalrous (rival) or nonrival. ... In economics Private good is an opposite of the public good. ... The terms common-pool resource (CPR), alternatively termed a common property resource, is a particular type of good, and a natural or human-made resource system, whose size or characteristics of which makes it costly, but not impossible, to exclude potential beneficiaries from obtaining benefits from its use. ... The common good is a term that can refer to several different concepts. ... Club goods are a type of goods in economics, sometimes classified as a subtype of public goods, that are non-competetive and excludable. ... In economics, an externality is an impact (positive or negative) on anyone not party to a given economic transaction. ...

The economic concept of public goods should not be confused with the expression "the public good", which is usually an application of a collective ethical notion of "the good" in political decision-making. Another common confusion is that public goods are goods provided by the public sector. Although it is often the case that Government is involved in producing public goods, this is not necessarily the case. Public goods may be naturally available, they may be produced by private individuals and firms, by non-state collective action, or they may not be produced at all. For other uses, see Ethics (disambiguation). ... < [[[[math>Insert formula here</math>The public sector is that part of economic and administrative life that deals with the delivery of goods and services by and for the [[government </math></math></math></math> Direct administration funded through taxation; the delivering organisation generally has no specific requirement to meet commercial... The economic theory of collective action is concerned with the provision of public goods (and other collective consumption) through the collaboration of two or more individuals, and the impact of externalities on group behavior. ...

The theoretical concept of public goods does not distinguish with regard to the geographical region in which a good may be produced or consumed. However some theorists (such as Inge Kaul) use the term global public good to mean a public good which is non-rival and non-excludable throughout the whole world, as opposed to a public good which exists in just one national area. Knowledge has been held to be an example of a global public good^[3]. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

Collective good

Collective goods (or social goods) are defined as public goods that could be delivered as private goods, but are usually delivered by the government for various reasons, including social policy, and financed from public funds like taxes. In economics Private good is an opposite of the public good. ... Social policy is the study of the welfare state, and the range of responses to social need. ... Money given from tax revenue or other govenmental sources to an individual, organization, or entity. ... -1...

Note: Some writers have used the term public good to refer only to non-excludable pure public goods. They may then call excludable public goods club goods. ^{[citation needed]} Club goods (also known as collective goods) are a type of good in economics, sometimes classified as a subtype of public goods that are excludable but non-rivalrous, at least until reaching a point where congestion occurs. ...

Examples

Common examples of public goods include: defense and law enforcement (including the system of property rights), public fireworks, lighthouses, clean air and other environmental goods, and information goods, such as software development, authorship, and invention. Some goods -such as orphan drugs- require special governmental incentives to be produced, but can't be classified as public goods since they don't fulfill the above requirements (Non-excludable and non-rivalrous.) In military science, defense (or defence) is the art of preventing an enemy from conquering territory. ... For the band, see The Police. ... This page deals with property as ownership rights. ... For other uses, see Fireworks (disambiguation). ... Eddystone Lighthouse, one of the first wavewashed lighthouses For other uses, see Lighthouse (disambiguation). ... Air pollution is a chemical, particulate matter, or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. ... Environmental goods is a sub-category of public goods which includes: clean air clean water quiet beautiful landscape scenic towns green transport infrastructure (footpaths, cycleways, greenways, etc) a diverse flora a diverse fauna public parks town squares urban parks rivers mountains forests beaches See also Public goods Town planning Landscape... Information good in economics and law is a type commodity whose main market value derive from information it contains. ... “Software development” redirects here. ... Authorship is the act of creating a work, idea or theory. ... For the musical form, see Invention (music). ... The granting of the orphan drug status is designed to encourage the development of drugs which are necessary but would be prohibitively expensive/un-profitable to develop under normal circumstances. ...

The provision of a lighthouse has often been used as the standard example of a public good, since it is difficult to exclude ships from using its services and no ship's use detracts from that of others. However, since most of the benefit of a lighthouse accrues to ships using particular ports, lighthouse maintenance fees can often profitably be bundled with port fees (Ronald Coase, The Lighthouse in Economics 1974). This has been sufficient to fund actual lighthouses. Eddystone Lighthouse, one of the first wavewashed lighthouses For other uses, see Lighthouse (disambiguation). ... Ronald Harry Coase (b. ... An academic paper written by American economist Ronald H. Coase. ...

Technological progress can create new public goods. The simplest examples are street lights: they are relatively recent inventions (by historical standards), one person's enjoyment of them does not detract from other persons' enjoyment, and it currently would be prohibitively expensive to charge individuals separately for the amount of light they presumably use. On the other hand, a public good's status may change over time. Technological progress can significantly impact excludability of traditional public goods: encryption allows broadcasters to sell individual access to their programming. The costs for electronic road pricing have fallen dramatically, paving the way for detailed billing based on actual use. A streetlight in front of a red sky at night A street light, also known as a light standard, is a raised light on the edge of a road, turned on or lit at a certain time every night. ... Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. ... Road pricing is a term that refers to the charging for the use of streets and roads. ...

The free rider problem

Main article: Free rider problem

Public goods provide a very important example of market failure, in which market-like behavior of individual gain-seeking does not produce efficient results. The production of public goods results in positive externalities which are not remunerated. Because no private organization can reap all the benefits of a public good which they have produced, there will be insufficient incentives to produce it voluntarily. Consumers can take advantage of public goods without contributing sufficiently to their creation. This is called the free rider problem, or occasionally, the "easy rider problem" (because consumer's contributions will be small but non-zero). In economics and political science, free riders are actors who consume more than their fair share of a resource, or shoulder less than a fair share of the costs of its production. ... Market failure is a term used by economists to describe the condition where the allocation of goods and services by a market is not efficient. ... The term inefficiency has several meanings depending on the context in which its used: Economic inefficiency refers to a situation where we could be doing a better job, i. ... In economics, an externality is an impact (positive or negative) on anyone not party to a given economic transaction. ... In economics and political science, free riders are actors who consume more than their fair share of a resource, or shoulder less than a fair share of the costs of its production. ...

For example, consider national defense, a standard example of a pure public good. A purely rational person (also known as homo economicus) is an individual who is extremely individualistic, considering only those benefits and costs that directly affect him or her. Public goods give such a person incentive to be a free rider. Homo economicus, or Economic man, is the concept in some economic theories of man (that is, a human) as a rational and self-interested actor who desires wealth, avoids unnecessary labor, and has the ability to make judgments towards those ends. ...

Suppose this purely rational person thinks about exerting some extra effort to defend the nation. The benefits to the individual of this effort would be very low, since the benefits would be distributed among all of the millions of other people in the country. Further, there is a very high possibility that he could get injured or killed during the course of his or her military service.

On the other hand, the free rider knows that he or she cannot be excluded from the benefits of national defense, regardless of whether he or she contributes to it. There is also no way that these benefits can be split up and distributed as individual parcels to people. So the free rider would not voluntarily exert any extra effort, unless there is some inherent pleasure or material reward for doing so (such as, for example, money paid by the government, as with an all-volunteer army or mercenaries).

In the case of information goods, an inventor of a new product may benefit all of society. But hardly anyone is willing to pay for the invention if they can benefit from it for free. Information good in economics and law is a type commodity whose main market value derive from information it contains. ...

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (January 2006)

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...

Possible solutions

Dominant assurance contracts

Assurance contracts are contracts in which participants make a binding pledge to contribute to a contract for building a public good, contingent on a quorum of a predetermined size being reached. Otherwise their money is refunded. A dominant assurance contract is a variation in which an entrepreneur creates the contract and refunds the initial pledge plus an additional sum of money if the quorum is not reached. In game theory terms this makes pledging to build the public good a dominant strategy: the best move is to pledge to the contract regardless of the actions of others. Assurance contracts are a financial technology that facilitates the private creation of public goods and Club goods in the face of the free rider problem. ... Assurance contracts are a financial technology that facilitates the private creation of public goods and Club goods in the face of the free rider problem. ...

Coasian solution

The coasian solution, named for the economist Ronald Coase and unrelated to the Coase theorem, proposes a mechanism by which potential beneficiaries of a public good band together and pool their resources based on their willingness to pay to create the public good. Coase (1960) argued that if the transaction costs between potential beneficiaries of a public good are sufficiently low, and it is therefore easy for beneficiaries to find each other and pool their money based on the public good's value to them, then an adequate level of public goods production can occur even under competitive free market conditions. However, Coase (1988) famously wrote: Ronald Harry Coase (b. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... In economics and related disciplines, a transaction cost is a cost incurred in making an economic exchange. ...

"The world of zero transaction costs has often been described as a Coasian world. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is the world of modern economic theory, one which I was hoping to persuade economists to leave."

A similar alternative for arranging funders of public goods production is to produce the public good but refuse to release it into the public until some form of payment to cover costs is met. Author Stephen King, for instance, authored chapters of a new novel downloadable for free on his website while threatening not to release subsequent chapters unless a certain amount of money was raised. Sometimes dubbed holding for ransom, this method of public goods production is a modern application of the street performer protocol for public goods production. Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of over 200 stories including over 50 bestselling horror novels. ... The term ransom refers to the practice of holding a prisoner to extort money or property extorted to secure their release, or to the sum of money involved. ... The Street Performer Protocol (SPP) is a way of encouraging the creation of creative works in the public domain, described by the cryptographers John Kelsey and Bruce Schneier[1] of Counterpane Systems (although the underlying idea is much older). ...

In some ways, the formation of governments and government-like communities such as homeowners associations can be thought of as applied instances of practicing the coasian solution by creating institutions to reduce the transaction costs. A homeowners association, (or, as they are known in the industry, community association[1]) is an organization comprised of all owners of units[2] in a common interest development, and is given authority to enforce the covenants, conditions, and restrictions and managing the common amenities of the development. ...

Government provision

If voluntary provision of public goods will not work, then the obvious solution is making their provision involuntary. (Each of us is saved from our own individualistic short-sightedness, our tendency to be a free rider, while also being assured that no one else will be allowed to free ride.) One general solution to the problem is for governments or states to impose taxation to fund the production of public goods. The difficulty is to determine how much funding should be allocated to different public goods, and how the costs should be split (see resource allocation mechanisms, public finance). For other uses, see State (disambiguation). ... Look up allocation of resources in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Sometimes the government provides public goods using "unfunded mandates". An example is the requirement that every car be fit with a catalytic converter. This may be executed in the private sector, but the end result is predetermined by the state: the individually involuntary provision of the public good clean air. Unfunded mandates have also been imposed by the U.S. federal government on the state and local governments, as with the Americans with Disabilities Act, for example. “Car” and “Cars” redirect here. ... Catalytic converter on a Dodge Ram Van. ... The private sector of a nations economy consists of all that is outside the state. ... Air pollution is a chemical, particulate matter, or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. ... The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is the short title of United States Public Law 101-336, signed into law on July 26, 1990 by George H. W. Bush. ...

Subsidies

A government may subsidize production of a public good in the private sector. Unlike government provision, subsidies may result in some form of competitive market. The potential for cronyism (for example, an alliance between political insiders and the businesses receiving subsidies) can be limited with secret bidding for the subsidies or application of the subsidies following clear general principles. Depending on the nature of a public good and a related subsidy, principal agent problems can arise between the citizens and the government or between the government and the subsidized producers; this effect and counter-measures taken to address it can diminish the benefits of the subsidy. In economics, a subsidy is generally a monetary grant given by a government to lower the price faced by producers or consumers of a good, generally because it is considered to be in the public interest. ... The private sector of a nations economy consists of all that is outside the state. ... Competition is the act of striving against others for the purpose of achieving gain, such as income, pride, amusement, or dominance. ... Crony capitalism is a pejorative term describing an allegedly capitalist economy in which success in business depends on an extremely close relationship between the businessman and the state institutions of politics and government, rather than by the espoused equitable concepts of the free market, open competition, and economic liberalism. ... The principal-agent problem in economics refers to the difficulties that arise under conditions of incomplete and asymmetric information when a principal hires an agent. ...

Subsidies can also be used in areas with a potential for non-individualism: For instance, a state may subsidize devices to reduce air pollution and appeal to citizens to cover the remaining costs.. In economics, a public good is a good that is non-rivalrous and non-excludable. ... Air pollution is a chemical, particulate matter, or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. ...

Privileged group

The study of collective action shows that public goods are still produced when one individual benefits more from the public good than it costs him to produce it; examples include benefits from individual use, intrinsic motivation to produce, and business models based on selling complement goods. A group that contains such individuals is called a privileged group. A historical example could be a downtown entrepreneur who erects a street light in front of his shop to attract customers; even though there are positive external benefits to neighboring businesses that aren't paying from the street light, the added customers to the paying shop provide enough revenue to cover the costs of the street light. The economic theory of collective action is concerned with the provision of public goods (and other collective consumption) through the collaboration of two or more individuals, and the impact of externalities on group behavior. ... Intrinsic motivation is evident when people engage in an activity for its own sake, without some obvious external incentive present. ... The term business model describes a broad range of informal and formal models that are used by enterprises to represent various aspects of business, such as operational processes, organizational structures, and financial forecasts. ... A complement or complementary good is defined in economics as a good that should be consumed with another good; its cross elasticity of demand is negative. ... In economics, a privileged group is one possible condition for the production of public goods. ... A high pressure sodium vapor street lamp from Australia. ...

The existence of privileged groups is not a complete solution to the free rider problem, however, as underproduction of the public good can still result. The street light builder, for instance, would not consider the added benefit to neighboring businesses when determining whether to erect his street light, making it possible that the street light isn't built when the cost of building is too high for the single entrepreneur even when the total benefit to all the businesses combined exceeds the cost.

An example of the privileged group solution could be the Linux community, assuming that users derive more benefit from contributing than it costs them to do it. For more discussion on this topic see also Coase's Penguin. This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... Coases Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm, is an essay written in 2002 by Yochai Benkler, Professor of Law at the Yale University School of Law. ...

Merging free riders

Another method of overcoming the free rider problem is to simply eliminate the profit incentive for free riding by buying out all the potential free riders. A property developer that owned an entire city street, for instance, would not need to worry about free riders when erecting street lights since he owns every business that could benefit from the street light without paying. Implicitly, then, the property developer would erect street lights until the marginal social benefit met the marginal social cost, since in this case they are equivalent to the private marginal benefits and costs.

While the purchase of all potential free riders may solve the problem of underproduction due to free riders in smaller markets, it may simultaneously introduce the problem of underproduction due to monopoly. Additionally, some markets are simply too large to make a buyout of all beneficiaries feasible - this is particularly visible with public goods that affect everyone in a country. This article is about the economics of markets dominated by a single seller. ...

Legislated exclusion

Another solution, which has evolved for information goods, is to create intellectual property laws, such as copyright or patents, covering the public goods. These laws attempt to remove the natural non-excludability by prohibiting reproduction of the good. Although they can solve the free rider problem, the downside of these laws is that they imply private monopoly power and thus are not Pareto-optimal. For example, in the United States, the patent rights given to pharmaceutical companies encourage them to charge high prices (above marginal cost), to advertise to convince patients to nag their doctors to prescribe the drugs, to sue even mild imitators in court, and to lobby for the extension of patent rights in a form of rent seeking. For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ... Not to be confused with copywriting. ... For other uses, see Patent (disambiguation). ... Pareto efficiency, or Pareto optimality, is a central concept in game theory with broad applications in economics, engineering and the social sciences. ... In economics and finance, marginal cost is the change in total cost that arises when the quantity produced changes by one unit. ... The phenomenon of rent-seeking was first identified in connection with monopolies by Gordon Tullock, in a paper in 1967. ...

This near-ubiquitous problem arises because the underlying marginal cost of giving the good to more people is low or zero, but, because of the limits of price discrimination (including both arbitrage and a lack of incentives to provide cheap, high quality copies to those with little ability to pay), those who are unwilling or unable to pay a profit-maximising price, do not get access to the good. In economics and finance, marginal cost is the change in total cost that arises when the quantity produced changes by one unit. ... Price discrimination exists when sales of identical goods or services are transacted at different prices from the same provider. ... In economics and finance, arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets: a combination of matching deals are struck that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices. ...

Joseph Schumpeter claimed that the "excess profits," or profits over normal profit, generated by the copyright or patent monopoly will attract competitors that will make technological innovations and thereby end the monopoly. This is a continual process referred to as "Schumpeterian creative destruction", and its applicability to different types of public goods is a source of some controversy. The supporters of the theory point to the case of Microsoft, for example, which has been increasing its prices (or lowering its products' quality), and predict that these practices will make increased market shares for Linux and Apple largely inevitable. Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an economist from Austria and an influential political scientist. ... Creative destruction, introduced in 1942 by the economist Joseph Schumpeter, describes the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation. ...

Social norms

If enough people do not think like free-riders, the private and voluntary provision of public goods may be successful. A free rider might litter in a public park, but a more public-spirited individual would not do so, getting an inherent pleasure from helping the community. In fact, one might voluntarily pick up some of the existing litter. If enough people do so, the role of the state in using taxes to hire professional maintenance crews is reduced. This might imply that even someone typically inclined to free-riding would not litter, since their action would have such a cost.

Public mindedness may be encouraged by non-market solutions to the economic problem, such as tradition and social norms. For example, concepts such as nationalism and patriotism has been part of most successful war efforts, complementing the roles of taxation and conscription. To some extent, public spiritedness of a more limited type is the basis for voluntary contributions that support public radio and television. Contributions to online collaborative media like Wikipedia and many other projects utilising wiki technology can also be seen to represent an example of such public spiritedness, since they provide a public good (information) freely to all readers. For the opening number of Fiddler on the Roof, see Tradition (song). ... In sociology, a norm, or social norm, is a pattern of behavior expected within a particular society in a given situation. ... Eugène Delacroixs Liberty Leading the People, symbolising French nationalism during the July Revolution 1830. ... Defence of the fatherland is a commonplace of patriotism: The statue in the courtyard of École polytechnique, Paris, commemorating the students involvement in defending France against the 1814 invasion of the Coalition. ... Public broadcasting (also known as public service broadcasting or PSB) is the dominant form of broadcasting around the world, where radio, television, and potentially other electronic media outlets receive funding from the public. ... Wikipedia (IPA: , or ( ) is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization. ... Look up Wiki in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Efficient production levels of public goods

Regardless of the method of providing public goods, the efficient level of such provision is still being subjected to economic analysis. For instance, the Samuelson condition calculates the efficient level of public goods production to be where the ratio of the marginal social cost of public and private goods production equals the ratio of the marginal social benefit of public and private goods production. The Samuelson condition, authored by Paul Samuelson, is a condition for the efficient production of public goods. ... In physics, the term renormalization refers to a variety of theoretical concepts and computational techniques revolving either around the idea of rescaling transformations, or around the process of removing infinities from the calculated quantities (see also regularization). ... Social cost, in economics, is the total of all the costs associated with an economic activity. ...

See also

• Collective action
• Common-pool resource (also common property resource)
• Externalities
• Lindahl equilibrium, a method proposed by Erik Lindahl for financing public goods
• Mechanism design, the art of designing rules to achieve a specific outcome
• Nash equilibrium
• Natural monopoly, a situation where a single firm can produce a desired output at a lower cost than several firms
• Public Choice, the use of economic tools to study problems of constitutional democracy
• Public goods game, a standard of experimental economics

The economic theory of collective action is concerned with the provision of public goods (and other collective consumption) through the collaboration of two or more individuals, and the impact of externalities on group behavior. ... The terms common-pool resource (CPR), alternatively termed a common property resource, is a particular type of good, and a natural or human-made resource system, whose size or characteristics of which makes it costly, but not impossible, to exclude potential beneficiaries from obtaining benefits from its use. ... An externality occurs in economics when a decision (for example, to pollute the atmosphere) causes costs or benefits to individuals or groups other than the person making the decision. ... The Lindahl equilibrium is a method proposed by Erik Lindahl for financing public goods. ... Mechanism design is a sub-field of game theory. ... In game theory, the Nash equilibrium (named after John Forbes Nash, who proposed it) is a kind of solution concept of a game involving two or more players, where no player has anything to gain by changing only his or her own strategy unilaterally. ... In economics, the term natural monopoly is used to refer to two different things. ... Public choice theory is a branch of economics that studies the decision-making behavior of voters, politicians and government officials from the perspective of economic theory. ... The Public goods game is a standard of experimental economics; in the basic game subjects secretly choose how many of their private tokens to put into the public pot. ...

External sources

1. ^ For current definitions of public goods see any mainstream microeconomics textbook, eg.: Hal R. Varian, Microeconomic Analysis ISBN 0-393-95735-7; Mas-Colell, Whinston & Green, Microeconomic Theory ISBN 0-19-507340-1; or Gravelle & Rees, Microeconomics ISBN 0-582-40487-8.
2. ^ Paul A. Samuelson (1954). "The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure". Review of Economics and Statistics 36 (4): 387-389. 
3. ^ Joseph E. Stiglitz, Knowledge as a Global Public Good in Global Public Goods, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-513052-2

For example, Gravelle and Rees: The defining characteristic of a public good is that consumption of it by one individual does not actually or potentially reduce the amount available to be consumed by another individual. Paul Anthony Samuelson (born May 15, 1915, in Gary, Indiana) is an American neoclassical economist known for his contributions to many fields of economics, beginning with his general statement of the comparative statics method in his 1947 book Foundations of Economic Analysis. ...

• Ronald Coase (1974). "The Lighthouse in Economics". Journal of Law and Economics 17 (2): 357-376. 

Ronald Harry Coase (b. ...

External links

• Lecture notes on public goods from University of California, Berkeley
• Public Goods: A Brief Introduction - by The Linux Information Project (LINFO)
• SpecialInvestor.com's Definition of Public Goods
• The Library of Economics and Liberty's Article on Public Goods and Externalities
• Global Public Goods - analysis from Global Policy Forum
• Fallacies of the Public Goods Theory and the Production of Security
• A Theory of the Theory of Public Goods
• Libertarian Nation: Public Goods Theory
• The Tragedy of the Commons an editorial by David J. Theroux