Plain Sense Economics

Common goods are non-exclusive (it is hard to prevent anyone from consuming them – can’t sell tickets) and they are rival (consumption reduces their number). The economic parable, “The Tragedy of the Commons” highlights the policy problems with managing common goods.
From the April 9 edition of The New York Times, comes a report of a [...]

Earlier we looked at the difficulty in voting for taxes and levies that will pay for a public good. In the case of the Ashland school levy, social and community values won the day. This post discusses the theory and definition behind public goods and common goods.
Public Goods…
… have three important characteristics:

They are a good [...]