Exclusion and Moral Hazard: The Case of Identical Demand
Journal of Public Economics, Volume 52, Issue 2, September 1993, Pages 217–235
University of Alberta School of Business Research Paper No. 2013-1190
Posted: 5 Jan 2016
Date Written: 1992
Abstract
This paper examines the problem of costly exclusion of individuals from a public good. Previous analyses of exclusion have treated it as solely a question of technologies; in our analysis exclusion depends on technology and incentives. In this paper providers of the good design a mechanism to provide an optimal level of deterrence to free riders. If individuals are heterogeneous optimal deterrence may allow some free riders. We examine the effect of costs of exclusion on the Samuelson condition for optimal provision, and see that the desire to deter free riding leads to underprovision of the good irrespective of the degree of rivalry of the good.
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