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Are Public Goods Myths?

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  • Richard Cornes
  • Todd Sandler

Abstract

This paper makes the case that nonrivalness and nonexcludability properties of public goods are still relevant and crucial considerations. Although these characteristics of publicness may be socially endogenous with institutional choice, these properties are not necessarily determined by this choice. For club goods, a wide range of institutional structures are consistent with the same properties of publicness. Even when these publicness properties are endogenous, the resulting characteristics of the public good are still important for comparing equilibrium outcomes with social optima. Although public good theory has been misused by some to support public provision of such goods, this misuse does not mean that the modern theory is devoid of interest.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Cornes & Todd Sandler, 1994. "Are Public Goods Myths?," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 6(3), pages 369-385, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:6:y:1994:i:3:p:369-385
    DOI: 10.1177/0951692894006003006
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Todd Sandler, 1977. "Impurity Of Defense: An Application To The Economics Of Alliances," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 443-460, August.
    2. Eggertsson,Thrainn, 1990. "Economic Behavior and Institutions," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521348911, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Cauley, Jon & Cornes, Richard & Sandler, Todd, 1999. "Stakeholder incentives and reforms in China's state-owned enterprises: A common-property theory," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 191-206.
    2. Elinor Ostrom, 1994. "6. Constituting Social Capital and Collective Action," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 6(4), pages 527-562, October.
    3. Trofimov, Ivan D., 2017. "International policy entrepreneurship and production of international public goods: the case of multilateral trade regime," MPRA Paper 80819, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, 2014. "On the Definition of Public Goods. Assessing Richard A. Musgrave's contribution," Post-Print halshs-00951577, HAL.
    5. Ivan D. TROFIMOV, 2017. "International policy entrepreneurship and production of international public goods: the case of multilateral trade regime," Journal of Economics Library, KSP Journals, vol. 4(4), pages 473-501, December.
    6. Epiphane Assouan & Tina Rambonilaza & Bénédicte Rulleau, 2018. "Renewal of water-related infrastructure and user\'s contribution: a few benchmarks," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2018-19, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    7. Faruk ÜLGEN, 2018. "Financial stability as a global public good and relevant systemic regulation as a problem of collective action," CIRIEC Studies Series, in: Philippe BANCE & CIRIEC (ed.), Providing public goods and commons. Towards coproduction and new forms of governance for a revival of public action, volume 1, chapter 5, pages 95-112, CIRIEC - Université de Liège.
    8. Elinor Ostrom, 2003. "How Types of Goods and Property Rights Jointly Affect Collective Action," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 15(3), pages 239-270, July.
    9. Ver Eecke, W., 1999. "Public goods: An ideal concept," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 139-156, July.

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