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    • Thu Mar 20th 10:34 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Mystery of the Bear Stearns Stock Price
      Take issue w/ excludability being the important attribute distinguishing public from private goods. Paul Samuelson's earlier distinction (circa 1954) on "second user" value is of much more interest, as evidence on ability to exclude is function of contracts, which morph. Lighthouses, bee production are some of the examples of where what was once alleged to be non-excludable , was not so in fact.

      A more useful distinction is the one given in the footnotes of the info page on last years

      1 Goods are called private if one person’s consumption of them precludes their consumption by another person. Typical examples are food and clothes.
      2 Goods are called public if one person’s consumption of them does not preclude consumption by others. Typical examples are television programs and (uncongested) roads

      nobelprize.org/nobel_p...

      The second person to eat a given apple will have a significantly degraded experience in the way the second person to view "Mona Lisa" does not. THAT, not excludability is the important distinction.
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