NEAR-PUBLIC GOOD: A good that's easy to keep nonpayers from consuming, but use of the good by one person doesn't prevent use by others. The trick with a near-public good is that it's easy to keep people away, and thus you can charge them a price for consuming, but there's no real good reason to do so. From an efficiency view, the more people who consume a near-public good, the better off society. This mixture of nearly unlimited benefits and the ability to charge a price means that some near-public goods are sold through markets and others are provided by government. For efficiency's sake, none should be sold through markets. See also | excludability | rival consumption | good types | common-property good | public good | private good | efficiency | user charge |
