Identify, which of the following does not represent a public good. (Choose the correct option) (A) Free vaccin

Question 45 of 54

Q. Identify, which of the following does not represent a public good. (Choose the correct option) (A) Free vaccines provided by the government (B) Defence services provided by the military (C) Purchase of railway ticket by an individual (D) Street light installed by a city municipality

Lakshadweep CbseCBSE Class XII Board 2025MCQ· 1mImportance★★★★★

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Concept understanding — Public Goods Provision

You are walking home with a friend who bought a pack of biscuits. She opens it and starts eating. You can smell the biscuits from a metre away. Can she stop you from enjoying that smell? No. And if she eats one biscuit, is there less biscuit left for her? Yes. That simple difference is the entire foundation of public goods.

The Two Key Properties

Economists classify goods based on two questions:

Rivalry: If I consume one unit, does that leave less for you? (A biscuit is rival – once eaten, it's gone. A song on the radio is non-rival – my listening doesn't reduce it for you.)
Excludability: Can the seller prevent you from consuming it if you don't pay? (A cinema ticket is excludable – no ticket, no entry. A lighthouse beam is non-excludable – you can't stop a ship from seeing it.)

A public good is a good that is both non-rival and non-excludable.

Important

Public Good = Non-Rival + Non-Excludable

The classic textbook example is national defence. If the army protects the country from invasion, it protects everyone within the borders. My being protected does not reduce the protection you get (non-rival). And you cannot be excluded from that protection even if you refuse to pay taxes (non-excludable).

Another example is clean air. Everyone breathes the same air. One person breathing doesn't use it up, and you can't stop someone from breathing.

The Problem: The Free Rider

Here is where the trouble begins. Because a public good is non-excludable, a rational person thinks: "Why should I pay for it? I will get the benefit anyway, whether I pay or not."

This is the free rider problem. If everyone thinks this way, no one pays. The good is either not provided at all, or is provided at a much lower level than society actually wants.

Think of a streetlight in your colony. If the residents are asked to voluntarily contribute money to install it, many will say, "I can see from my window just fine without paying. Let others pay." If everyone does that, the streetlight never gets installed, even though everyone would be better off with it.

Watch out

A common mistake is to think "public good" means "provided by the government." That is not the definition. A public good is defined by its economic properties (non-rival, non-excludable). The government often provides it (like defence or streetlights) precisely because the free rider problem makes private provision impossible.

The Solution: Government Provision

Because the market fails to provide public goods efficiently, the government steps in. It uses its power of taxation to force everyone to contribute. The tax is the "price" you pay for the public good, whether you wanted it or not.

The government then decides how much of the public good to provide. This is a difficult decision because there is no market price to signal what people want. The government must use tools like cost-benefit analysis or voting to decide the optimal level.

Note

Private Goods (a biscuit, a phone) are rival and excludable. Markets handle these well.

Common Resources (a public park, a fishing ground) are rival but non-excludable. These face the "tragedy of the commons" – overuse. …

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Public goods are characterized by non-rivalry and non-excludability. A railway ticket is a private good because its consumption is rivalrous (one person's use prevents another's) and excludable (non-payers can be prevented from using it).

In economics, goods and services are often classified based on two key characteristics: rivalry and excludability. Understanding these concepts is crucial for identifying what constitutes a public good.

Rivalry: A good is rivalrous if one person's consumption of it prevents or diminishes another person's ability to consume the same unit of the good. For example, if you eat an apple, no one else can eat that same apple.
Excludability: A good is excludable if it is possible to prevent people from consuming it if they do not pay for it. For example, a cinema can exclude you from watching a movie if you don't buy a ticket.

A public good is a good that is both non-rivalrous and non-excludable .

Because public goods are non-excludable, it is difficult to charge individuals for their use, leading to the "free-rider problem" where people can benefit without paying. Because they are non-rivalrous, the marginal cost of an additional person consuming the good is zero. These characteristics often mean that private markets under-provide public goods, necessitating government provision.

Let's analyze each option:

(A) Free vaccines provided by the government: While an individual vaccine dose is rivalrous (one person uses one dose) and excludable (you can be denied a dose), the public health benefit of widespread vaccination (e.g., herd immunity, reduced disease transmission) is largely non-rivalrous and non-excludable. When the government provides free vaccines, it aims to achieve these broader public health outcomes, which function as public goods. The societal benefit of a healthier population is a classic example of a positive externality that takes on public good characteristics.
(B) Defence services provided by the military: This is a quintessential example of a pure public good.
- Non-rivalrous: The protection provided by national defense to one citizen does not reduce the protection available to any other citizen.
- Non-excludable: It is practically impossible to exclude any citizen within the country's borders from benefiting from national defense, regardless of whether they pay taxes for it. …

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Q.Identify, which of the following does not represent a public good. (Choose the correct option) (A) Free vaccines provided by the government (B) Defence services provided by the military (C) Purchase of railway ticket by an individual (D) Street light installed by a city municipality

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