Michael Reiter, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
Public Goods, Club Goods and the Measurement of Crowding
(with Alfons J. Weichenrieder)
December 1997, revised July 1998
Abstract
The paper shows that some frequently used measures of the degree of
publicness of publicly provided goods and club goods
are seriously affected by metrization problems.
The paper proposes measures that do not depend
on arbitrary metrization conventions,
and discusses the relationship of these measures
to the question of private provision and optimal club size.
One finding is that increasing marginal congestion
and the existence of a gridlock population
are not essential characteristics of a club good.
In particular, they are unncecessary for the existence
of an optimal club size.