Public Goods: Re-examination, Related Concepts and Distinctions

School of Tourism and Management, Wuhan Business University, Wuhan Hubei China

Abstract

The essay is aiming at answering‘How do economists distinguish between public goods and private goods? What problems does the existence of public goods pose for the market? How might the government intervene to address the problems of public goods? Illustrate with an example or examples drawn from your work experience or the academic literature’. This essay consists of three parts exploring different issues related to the resolution of public goods and externalities problems. The first section is to identify the public goods and private goods from an economic scope. Whereas the second part is to explore the possible obstacles the public goods would pose for the market. And the final part is to figure out how government would resolve the addressed problems by intervention and use valid empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of these intervention and actions.