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Microeconomics: The Role of Markets

The free rider problem and the provision of public goods

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 01

Overview

Recall questions on the free rider problem, missing markets, how public goods are financed and provided, technology's effect on public goods, and public versus merit goods.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Evaluation

What is a missing market?

Evaluation

Why is it difficult to decide the right quantity of a public good to provide?

Key term

Why does the free rider problem cause market failure?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is the free rider problem?

    Model answer

    People can consume a non-excludable good without paying for it, so they have no incentive to reveal what they would be willing to pay.

  2. 2

    Why does the free rider problem cause market failure?

    Model answer

    If consumers will not pay, firms cannot earn revenue, so a profit-seeking market provides none of the good at all.

  3. 3

    What is a missing market?

    Model answer

    A market that never comes into existence, so private sector provision of the good is zero even though society values it.

  4. 4

    How are public goods normally financed and provided?

    Model answer

    They are funded from general taxation, with government deciding the quantity and supplying it free at the point of use.

  5. 5

    Why is it difficult to decide the right quantity of a public good to provide?

    Model answer

    Individual valuations are not revealed through prices, so government must estimate them, for example by cost-benefit analysis.

  6. 6

    What historical example suggests that private provision of a seemingly public good is possible?

    Model answer

    Lighthouse services were once funded by dues levied on ships using nearby ports, which made a form of exclusion practicable.

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