Exam 11: Public Goods and Common Resources

Table 11-5 A small island off the coast of Cape Cod contains two restaurants and two retail stores. Tourists need to take a ferry boat to reach the island, but with a recent slowdown in the economy, tourists are less willing to pay for the boat ride to visit the island. The owners of the restaurants and stores on the island - Restaurants 1 and 2, and Stores A and B - think that if tourists could ride the ferry for free, they would be happy to visit the island, eat and shop. The business owners are considering contributing to a pool of money that will be used to pay for roundtrip ferry service each day. The table represents their willingness to pay, that is, the maximum amount that each business owner is willing to contribute, per day, to pay for each ferry trip. -Refer to Table 11-5. Suppose the cost to run the ferry for each roundtrip is $750 per day and the 4 business owners have agreed to split the costs of the ferry trips equally. How many ferry trips would the owner of Restaurant 1 prefer to have?

Economists think that the best way to determine the value of a human life is to

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is a tolled freeway running through the state of Pennsylvania. Motorists must pay tolls at various points along the Turnpike based on the distance they traveled on the freeway. Suppose that despite the tolls, many motorists in the urban areas use the Turnpike causing traffic to slow during peak times. What type of good would the Turnpike be classified as in this case?

Goods that are excludable include both

The U.S. military defends Jacob from foreign attackers. The fact that Jacob enjoys this protection does not detract from others Americans' enjoyment of it. For this reason, we say that national defense is

Aristotle writes, "What is common to many is taken least care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than for what they possess in common with others." In this statement, Aristotle is referring to the free-rider problem that occurs when a person receives the benefit of a good without paying for it.

Seymour owns 3 acres of beautiful waterfront property on a large inland lake. In his will, Seymour donates the land to the state with the understanding that the land will be used as a state beach. Seymour wants an efficient way to prevent overcrowding at the beach, so he should require

A cheeseburger is a

Fire protection is a

An example of the "Tragedy of the Commons" is litter in the picnic area of a local park.

If no one can be prevented from using good x, then good x is one of two types of goods. What are those two types?

Private companies will invest in medical research if

Table 11-6 Consider the city of Widgetapolis with only four residents, John, James, Mary, and Lydia. The four residents are trying to determine how many hours to spend in cleaning up the public lake. The table below shows each resident's willingness to pay for each hour of cleaning. ​ ​ -Refer to Table 11-6. Suppose the cost to clean the lake is $32 per hour and that the residents have agreed to split the cost of cleaning the lake equally. It would maximize Mary's surplus if 3 hours of cleaning is done. ​

If one person's use of a good diminishes another person's enjoyment of it, the good is

Suppose that a small county is considering adding a guard rail to a dangerous curve by a river. The guard rail will cost $70,000. The average damage done to vehicles that slide off the road at the curve is $10,000. It is expected that the guard rail will prevent 5 vehicles from sliding off the road during its usable life. What should the county do?

Imagine a 2,000-acre park with picnic benches, trees, and a pond. Suppose it is publicly owned, and people are invited to enjoy its beauty. When the weather is nice, it is difficult to find parking on summer afternoons. Otherwise, it is a great place. An efficient solution to the parking problem would be to

Even economists who advocate small government agree that national defense is a good that the government should provide.

In some cases the government can make everyone better off by raising taxes to pay for certain goods that the market fails to provide.

Governments can improve market outcomes for

Seymour owns 3 acres of beautiful waterfront property on a large inland lake. In his will, Seymour donates the land to the state with the understanding that the land will be used as a state beach that anyone may use without paying any fees. This state beach