EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

On the public provision of positional goods

Désirée Christofzik and Sebastian Kessing

Oxford Economic Papers, 2024, vol. 76, issue 3, 708-721

Abstract: We investigate whether the public provision of positional goods can be a sensible instrument to address inefficiencies arising from relative-standing externalities associated with the excessive consumption of such goods. In situations where consumers face a discrete choice between a private and a public alternative, providing the latter for free or at a subsidized rate generates incentives to opt for the public alternative. This allows to reduce excessive consumption. We show that such policies can increase welfare and characterize situations where they can even implement efficiency. Efficiency can typically be achieved if the non-positional utility component is sufficiently important. Moreover, we investigate how the public provision of positional goods may be a useful policy instrument in second-best situations, where either the government is constrained to rely on distortionary taxes, or where it redistributes facing information constraints.

JEL-codes: D62 H42 H52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oep/gpad034 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: On the Public Provision of Positional Goods (2023) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:76:y:2024:i:3:p:708-721.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Oxford Economic Papers is currently edited by James Forder and Francis J. Teal

More articles in Oxford Economic Papers from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-22
Handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:76:y:2024:i:3:p:708-721.