Impure Public Goods

1054 Words3 Pages

Matt Rahn
A97013046
Econ 145
Squires
Assignment 2
Impure Public Goods and the Conservation of Marine Biodiversity
A public good is a good that is non-rivalrous and non-excludable. An example of this is the air we breathe. Me breathing in air, does not effect someone else breathing in air so it is not rivalrous. There is also no way to regulate the amount of air someone breathes, or who can breathe it, so air is also non-excludable. This can also be called a pure public good, because it is perfectly non-rivalrous and non-excludable. With pure public goods, there are also impure public goods. These types of goods have aspects of them which are public, and aspects that are private. An impure public good can be non-rivalrous, but at the same time excludable. Private goods are rivalrous and excludable, so the excludable part is the private aspect of the good. A real-life example of an impure public good is cable television. Although me getting cable television and watching it has no effect on another person who does the same thing, the cable company can refuse to provide somebody with the same good. Therefore, cable television is excludable, but it can also be seen as non-rivalrous. An example that pertains more to marine biodiversity, and environmental life are whales. They can initially be seen as a common resource, because they reside in the open seas. However, after being protected, they become an impure public good. This is because although they remain non-rivalrous, they are now excludable. The difference between cable television and whales is the fact that whales have values beyond just having them. Whales provide benefits other than just the fact that you have them and these benefits are what make the conserv...

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...ing public goods present problems of their own. Many of them provide incentives to undersupply and to free-ride because of the many suppliers that are relied upon. It is seen as better off from an individual’s perspective to minimize your individual costs while maximizing your benefits that are being provided by others. The conservation of marine biodiversity is looked upon as a whole, is important to everyone and provides great benefit. However, the individual’s self-interests are always taken into account and through each and every implemented strategy and system, there will always be those that look at those self-interests. In order for the perfect preservation of marine biodiversity, individuals need to ignore the incentives of the present, that influence them to try to maximize their current profits, and focus on the possible future profits of everybody.

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