Samuelson Machines and the Optimal Public-Private Mix

Simon Clark and Ravi Kanbur

Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series from Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh

Abstract: 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 the choice of the public-private mix in the framework of voluntary contributions to public goods provision, by envisaging that, starting from a situation where all goods have private characteristics, some goods can be changed to have public goods characteristics at a cost (by purchasing a "Samuelson machine"). It characterizes the jointly optimal choice of the public-private mix and the efficient supply or not of the public goods in the mix. This characterization generates a number of testable predictions on the public-private mix, and on the prevalence of free riding.

Keywords: public goods; public-private mix; Samuelson machine; cost of publicness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D11 D61 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22
Date: 2002-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mic and nep-pbe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Samuelson machines and the optimal public-private mix (2006)
Working Paper: Samuelson Machines and the Optimal Public-Private Mix (2002)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:edn:esedps:83

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