The lightship in economics

Rosolino A. Candela () and Vincent Geloso
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Rosolino A. Candela: Brown University

Public Choice, 2018, vol. 176, issue 3, No 7, 479-506

Abstract: Abstract What role does government play in the provision of public goods? Economists have used the lighthouse as an empirical example to illustrate the extent to which the private provision of public goods is possible. This inquiry, however, has neglected the private provision of lightships. We investigate the private operation of the world’s first modern lightship, established in 1731 on the banks of the Thames estuary going in and out of London. First, we show that the Nore lightship was able to operate profitably and without government enforcement in the collection of payments for lighting services. Second, we show how private efforts to build lightships were crowded out by Trinity House, the public authority responsible for establishing and maintaining lighthouses in England and Wales. By including lightships into the broader lighthouse market, we argue that the provision of lighting services exemplifies not a market failure, but a government failure.

Keywords: Government failure; Lighthouse; Lightship; Market failure; Public goods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H40 P48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11127-018-0573-x

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