The market and the lighthouse: public goods in historical perspective

Erik Lindberg ()
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Erik Lindberg: Uppsala University

No 9018, Working Papers from Economic History Society

Abstract: "Ronald Coase’s controversial paper “The Lighthouse in Economics” is widely cited as demonstrating that private enterprise can produce public goods. In this paper I re-examine Coase’s claims and add empirical evidence from two national lighthouse systems between 1600 and 1910 and inquire under what circumstances private ownership might be preferable to public, and why private enterprise in the provision of public goods in the end was largely abolished both in Britain and in Sweden in the nineteenth century."

JEL-codes: N00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-04
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