Private good
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
In economics Private good is an opposite of the public good.
Its main features are:
- excludability (also referred in this context as rivalry) - cannot be consumed by everybody since consumption by one person reduces or excludes consumption by another
- depletability (it is finite)
Private goods are almost exclusively made for profit.
An example of the private good is bread: there is a finite amount of it, and bread eaten by a given person cannot be consumed by another.
One of the most common way of looking at goods in economy, illustrated in the table below, is the classic division based on:
- is there a competition involved in obtaining a given good
- whether it is possible to exclude a person from consumption of a given good
| Classic division of goods in economy</font> | Exclusion from consumption | ||
| YES | NO | ||
| Competition in consumption | YES |
private good: food, clothing, toys, furniture, cars |
common good: natural environment |
| NO |
club good: private schools, cinemas, clubs, |
public good: national security (army and police forces) |
|
