Common Resources & Public Goods

Common Resources

goods that are non excludable and rivalrous

Common Resources Ex

Because the waters of the Caribbean are open to all conch fishermen, and because anything that you catch can’t be caught again

Garret Hardin

This ecologist put the tag “Tragedy of the Commons” and defined it as the problem of over harvesting

Problem Of Property Rights

since nobody owns the ocean, or the conch that crawl on the sand beneath it, no one individual has an incentive to protect that resource and responsibly harvest it

The Rise In Life Expectancy 1st Factor

-Systems for providing clean water and disposing of human waste helped to prevent the transmission of many diseases.

The Rise In Life Expectancy 2nd Factor

there are changes in public behavior that have advanced health. The most recent change is reducing the # of people who smoke tobacco and precautions to limit STD's

The Rise In Expectancy 3rd Factor

Medicine has played a huge role. Immunizations for diphtheria, cholera, pertussis, tuberculosis etc. Penicillin led to a series of other anti biotic drugs for brining infectious diseases under control

Public Good

To understand defining characteristics, consider an ordinary private good, like pieces of pizza. It can be brought and sold fairly easily because it is a separate and identifiable item.

Non-excludable

it is costly or impossible to exclude someone from using the good

Non- rivalrous

means that when one person uses the public good another can also use it

Public Goods Cont

they can be defined with these two characteristics: non- excludable & non rivalrous

Free Rider

people have an incentive to let others pay for the public good and then to “free ride” on the purchase of others. Can be expressed in terms of the prisoner’s dilemma game.