Public Goods Calculator

Population Size:

Marginal Cost of Provision ($):

Fixed Cost ($):

High-Value Users (%):

High-Value Willingness to Pay ($):

Low-Value Willingness to Pay ($):

Current Provision Level:

Private Voluntary Contribution ($):

Government Tax Funding ($):

Optimal Provision Level: 0 units

Total Social Benefit:

Total Cost: $0.00

Net Social Welfare: $0.00

Free-Rider Loss: $0.00

Lindahl Tax (High-Value): $0.00

Lindahl Tax (Low-Value): $0.00

Non-Rivalrous: One person's consumption doesn't reduce availability for others (e.g., national defense, lighthouse).

Non-Excludable: Difficult or impossible to exclude people from using the good once provided.

Free-Rider Problem: Individuals have incentive to benefit without paying, leading to under-provision.

Optimal Provision: Set where sum of individual marginal benefits equals marginal cost (Samuelson condition).

Lindahl Pricing: Theoretical solution where each person pays according to their marginal benefit.

Government Role: Often necessary to provide public goods due to market failure in private provision.