Uncertainty and Capacity Costs Redefine Public Goods, Enabling Efficient Monopoly Provision
This article explores how some private goods, like visits to parks or hospitals, possess characteristics of public goods, meaning everyone benefits from them. The researchers compare these goods with traditional public goods and private goods. They find that these "Weisbrodian public goods" are different because they involve uncertainty in usage and the cost of changing their availability. In contrast, a discriminating monopoly could efficiently provide the right capacity for these goods.