Economic System and Supply of Public Goods

Public Supply of Private Goods

Public Goods and Economic Development

Effective provision of public goods is a key element of quality of life. While poverty is frequently measured and conceived in terms of private consumption, this is too narrow a view. Two groups of people with similar private consumption will have very different qualities of life if there are significant differences in their access to safe drinking water or medical care. Mechanisms for effectiv...

Do Government Subsidies Increase the Private Supply of Public Goods?

We study three different models in which public goods are supplied by private contributions. In one of these models, tax-financed government subsidies to private contributions will definitely increase the equilibrium supply of public goods. In the other two models, government subsidies are neutralized by offsetting changes in private contributions. We explain why it is that these models lead to...

Do Women Supply more Public Goods than Men ?

Do Women Supply more Public Goods than Men? Preliminary Experimental Evidence from Matrilineal and Patriarchal Societies Steffen Andersen, Erwin Bulte, Uri Gneezy and John A. List Some 35 years ago the Club of Rome published a book that sold more than 30 million copies across 30 different translations (Donella Meadows et al. 1972). The book predicted the collapse of modern society if population...

Imperfect competition, the marginal cost of public funds and public goods supply

This paper analyses the impact of changes in product market competition on the marginal cost of public funds (MCPF) and public goods supply when distortionary commodity taxes are used to raise revenue. First, less competition (measured by a switch from Bertrand to Cournot conduct, or a decrease in the elasticity of demand) does not necessarily raise the MPCF. Second, even if it does, optimal pu...