What would be a scholarly definition for the term, public goods?
Can you provide some source”s of public goods, possibly two examples?
Can public goods be offered by the private sector? Public sector?
How could you defend this or your answer to the questions above?
Public goods:As the name suggests, public goods are goods which are provided to the public at a very reasonable cost or generally free of cost which are are non-rival, non- excludable in nature. Non – rival means: If a product is used by one person, then the product will not lose it’s availability for another person. It will be equally available for another person. Non- excludableas the name suggests means, that if a person is using the product then it cannot exclude the other people from using the same product. Nobody has a sole right over the product.
Public goods goods are generally provided to the public of the nation by either the government, private sector organizations. The main purpose of giving these goods is to benefit the society as a whole..
A few examples of public goods are as follows: lights on the street, public parks and open gyms, water and electricity supply, dustbins, defence services, air services, train services etc.
Though public goods are generally provided by the government to the public of the nation, but there is a possibility that they are provided by the private sector. However due it’s features such as non-rival and non-excludable private sectors generally avoid providing public goods.