The Conceptual Overlap Between Public Goods, Externalities And Merit Goods
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55532/1806-8944.2020.89Keywords:
public good, rivalry, exclusion, externalities, merit goodsAbstract
In a given situation, any good has the following characteristics: rivalry, exclusion, space, and time. The last two are the physical variables of position in space and time. Rivalry may be seen as an intrinsic physical quality of any good and appears as a binomial variable with the categories yes and no, denominated as rival or non-rival. Exclusion reflects the institutional handling of the allocation of a good and appears as a continuous variable that measures the resource cost for enforcing property norms. With these two characteristics, most goods may be classified from pure private goods to pure public goods, with an infinite number of intermediary cases. Space is associated with local public goods. Externalities may be considered as a joint production of a rival and non-rival good that results from a market transaction. Finally, merit goods may be seen as a form of externality.
References
Arrow, Kenneth J. 1970. The organization of economic activity: Issues pertinent to the choice of market versus non-market allocation. In Robert H. Haveman and Julius Margolis (eds), Public Expenditure and Policy Analysis, Chicago : Markham, 59-73.
Atkinson, Anthony B. and Joseph E. Stiglitz. 1980. Lectures on Public Economics. Maidenhead, Berkshire : McGraw-Hill.
Batina, Raymond G. and Toshihiro Ihori. 2005. Public Goods: Theories and Evidence. Berlin : Springer-Verlag.
Baumol, William J. 1965. Welfare Economics and the Theory of the State. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press.
Becker, Gary S. 1965. A theory of the allocation of time. Economic Journal, 75(299) : 493-517.
Boadway, Robin W. 1979. Public Sector Economics. Cambridge, Mass. : Winthrop Publ.
Bowen, Howard R. 1943. The interpretation of voting in the allocation of economic resources. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 58 : 27-48.
Bradford, D. F. 1971. Joint products, collective goods, and external effects: Comment. The Journal of Political Economy, 79(5) : 1119-1128.
Buchanan, James M. (1965). An economic theory of clubs. Economica, 32(125) : 1-14.
Coase, Ronald H. 1960. The problem of social cost. The Journal of Law and Economics, 3 : 1-44.
Cornes, Richard and Todd Sandler. 1996. The Theory of Externalities, Public Goods, and Club Goods. 2nd ed. New York : University of Cambridge.
Cremer, Helmuth and Jean-Jacques Laffont. 2003. Public goods with costly access. Journal of Public Economics, 87(9) : 1985-2012.
Debreu, G. 1959. Theory of Value. New York : John Wiley & Sons.
Demarais-Tremblay, Maxime. 2014. On the definition of public goods: Assessing Richard A. Musgrave's contribution. Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, 2014.04, ISSN : 1955-611X, .
Desai, Maghnad. 2003. Public goods: A historical perspective. In Inge Kaul et al. (eds), Providing Public Goods: Managing Globalization, New York: Oxford University Press, 63-77.
Demsetz, H. 1964. The exchange and enforcement of property rights. Journal of Law and Economics, 7 : 11-26.
Foley, Duncan. 1970. Economic equilibrium with costly marketing. Journal of Economic Theory, 2(3) : 276-291.
Furubotn, Eirik G. 1990. Different approaches to the economic analysis of institutions:
Some concluding remarks. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 146(1) : 226-232.
Furubotn, Eirik G. and Rudolf Richter. 2005. Institutions and Economic Theory: The Contribution of the New Institutional Economics, 2nd ed. Ann Arbor, Mich. : The University of Michigan Press.
Kaizuka, K., 1965, Public goods and decentralization of production. Review of Economics and Statistics, 47(1) : 118-120.
Kolm, S. C. 2010. History of public economics: The historical French School. The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 17(4) : 687-718.
Laffont, Jean-Jacques. Fondements de l'Économie Publique. Paris : Economica, 1982.
Lancaster, Kelvin J. 1966. A new approach to consumer theory. The Journal of Political Economy, 74(2) : 132-157.
Lindahl, Erik. [1919] 1958. Just taxation—A positive solution. In R.A. Musgrave and A.T. Peacock (eds.), Classics in the Theory of Public Finance, London : MacMillan, 168-176.
Mazzola, Ugo. [1890] 1958. The formation of the prices of public goods. In R.A. Musgrave and A.T. Peacock (eds.), Classics in the Theory of Public Finance, London : MacMillan, 37-47.
McInerney, James O. et al. 2011. The public goods hypothesis for the evolution of life on Earth. Biology Direct, 6 : 41.
Meade, J. E. 1952. External economies and diseconomies in a competitive situation. Economic Journal, 62(245) : 54-67.
Medema, Steven G. 2005. “Marginalizing” government: From la scienza delle finanze to Wicksell. History of Political Economy, 37(1) : 1-25.
Milleron, Jean-Claude. 1972. Theory of value with public goods: A survey article. Journal of Economic Theory, 5(3) : 419-477.
Mishan, E. J. 1969. The relationship between joint products, collective goods, and external effects. Journal of Political Economy, 77(3) : 329-348.
Mundell, Robert A. 1968. Man and Economics: The Science of Choice. New York : McGraw-Hill.
Musgrave, Richard A. 1939. The voluntary exchange theory of public economy. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 53(2) : 213–237.
Musgrave, Richard A. 1956/1957. A multiple theory of budget determination. Finanzarchiv / Public Finance Analysis, N.S., 17(3) : 333–343.
Musgrave, Richard A. 1959. The Theory of Public Finance. New York : McGraw-Hill.
Musgrave, Richard A. 1969. Provision for social goods. In Julius Margolis and Henry Guitton (eds). Public Economics, London : Macmillan, 124-144.
Musgrave, Richard A. 1985. A brief history of fiscal doctrine. In A.J. Auerbach and M. Feldstein (eds), Handbook of Public Economics, New York : Elsevier, volume I, 1-59.
Musgrave, Richard A. 1996. The role of the state in fiscal theory. International Tax and Public Finance, 3 : 247-258.
Musgrave, Richard A. and Peggy B. Musgrave. 1976. 2nd ed. Public Finance in Theory and Practice. New York: McGraw-Hilll.
Myles, Gareth D. 1995. Public Economics. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Navabi, Ash 2017. An 'Existence Proof' of Public Goods. GMU Working Paper in Economics. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2972770.
Oakland, William H. Theory of public goods. 1987. In: Auerbach, A.J.; Feldstein, M. (eds.) Handbook of Public Economics, Amsterdam: Elsevier, volume I, ch.9.
Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collection Action. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press.
Pickhardt, Michael. 2006. Fifty years after Samuelson’s “The pure theory of public expenditure”: What are we left with? Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 28(4) : 439-460.
Samuelson, Paul A. 1954. The pure theory of public expenditures. Review of Economics and Statistics, 36(4) : 387-89.
Samuelson, Paul A. 1955. Diagrammatic exposition of a theory of public expenditure. Review of Economics and Statistics, 37(4) : 350–356.
Samuelson, Paul A. 1969a. Pure theory of public expenditure and taxation. In Julius Margolis and Henry Guitton (eds), Public Economics, London : Macmillan, 98-123.
Samuelson, Paul A. 1969b. Contrast between welfare conditions for joint supply and for public goods. Review of Economics and Statistics, 51(1) : 26-30.
Sandmo, Agnar. 1972. Optimality rules for the provision of collective factors of production. Journal of Public Economics, 1(1) : 149–157.
Sandmo, Agnar. 1973. Public goods and the technology of consumption. Review of Economic Studies, 40(4) : 517–528.
Scotchmer, Suzanne. 2002. Local public goods and clubs. In A.J. Auerbach and M. Feldstein (eds), Handbook of Public Economics, New York : Elsevier. Volume IV, 1998-2042.
Starrett, David A. 1988. Foundations of Public Economics. New York : Cambridge Univ. Press.
Stiglitz, Joseph E. 1988. Economics of the Public Sector. 2nd ed. New York : W.W. Norton.
Sturn, Richard. 2006. Subjectivism, joint consumption and the state: Public goods in Staatswirthschaftslehre. European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 13 : 39–68.
Sturn, Richard. 2010. ‘Public goods’ before Samuelson: Interwar Finanzwissenschaft and Musgrave's synthesis. The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 17(2) : 279-312.
Thurow, Lester C. 1971. The income distribution as a pure public good. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 85(2) : 327-336.
Tiebout, Charles M. 1956. A pure theory of local expenditures. The Journal of Political Economy, 64(5) : 416-424.
Tiebout, Charles M. 1961. An economic theory of fiscal decentralization. In Universities-National Bureau, Public Finances: Needs, Sources, and Utilization. Princeton : Princeton University Press, 79-96.
Ver Eecke, Wilfried. 2008. Ethical Dimensions of the Economy: Making Use of Hegel and the Concepts of Public and Merit Goods. Berlin : Springer.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The articles can be copied, since quoted the source.
