Common good (economics)

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For the philosophical term see common good.

In economics the term common good is used to refer to competitive non-excludable goods.

One of the most common ways of looking at goods in economics, illustrated in the table below, is the classic division based on:

• whether there is competition involved in obtaining the goods
• whether it is possible to exclude a person from consumption of the goods

	Excludable	Non-excludable
Rivalrous	Private goods food, clothing, toys, furniture, cars	Common pool resources water, fish, hunting game
Non-rivalrous	Club goods cable television	Public goods national defense, terrestrial television
Private and public goods

The goods referred to as common pool resources are also known as common goods.

Sometimes, club and common goods are included in the broad definition of public goods. There are always some goods that can be argued to belong in more than one of the above categories.

Common goods should not be confused with another subtype of public goods: the social goods, which are defined as goods that could be delivered as private goods, but are delivered instead by the government for various reasons (usually social policy).

[edit] See also

• Tragedy of the commons

Types of goods public good - private good - common good - common-pool resource - club good - anti-rival goods rivalrous good and non-excludable good complement good vs. substitute good free good vs. scarce good, positional good (non-)durable good - intermediate good (producer good) - final good - consumer good - capital good. inferior good - normal good - ordinary good - Giffen good - luxury good - Veblen good - superior good search good - (post-)experience good - merit good - credence good - demerit good