The nonrivalrous property holds when use of a unit of the good by one consumer does not preclude or diminish the benefit from another consumer using the same unit of the good. Thus there is jointness in consumption of the good— one unit of the good produced generates multiple units of consumption. Nonrivalrous implies that the opportunity cost of the marginal user is zero. Some classic examples...

Standard economic analysis assumes the sets of public and private goods to be exogenously given. Yet societies very often choose the public-private mix, using resources to convert seemingly private goods into ones with public goods characteristics and vice versa. And, in practice, we see a bewilderingly large variety of public-private mixes across societies. This papers advances an analysis of ...

Centralized sanctioning institutions are of utmost importance for overcoming free-riding tendencies and enforcing outcomes that maximize group welfare in social dilemma situations. However, little is known about how such institutions come into existence. In this paper we investigate, both theoretically and experimentally, the endogenous formation of institutions in a public goods game. Our theo...

This paper considers incentives to provide goods that are non-excludable along social or geographic links. We find, first, that networks can lead to specialization in public good provision. In every social network there is an equilibrium where some individuals contribute and others free-ride. In many networks, this extreme is the only outcome. Second, specialization can benefit society as a who...

In a simple public good economy, we propose a natural bargaining procedure whose equilibria converge to Lindahl allocations as the cost of bargaining vanishes. The procedure splits the decision over the allocation in a decision about personalized prices and a decision about output levels for the public good. Since this procedure does not assume price-taking behavior, it provides a strategic fou...

The electronics industry is one of fastest growing manufacturing industries in India. However, the increase in the sales of electronic goods and their rapid obsolescence has resulted in the large-scale generation of electronic waste, popularly known as e-waste. E-waste has become a matter of concern due to the presence of toxic and hazardous substances present in electronic goods which, if not ...