A problem underlying the provision of public goods that occurs when a person consumes or benefits from a good without making payment. The free-rider problem is the primary reason that public goods are produced by governments. Because public goods are characterized by the inability to exclude nonpayers, once a public good is produced anyone, everyone, can consume without making payment, that is, get a "free ride." Voluntary payments like those occurring in markets will not provide enough revenue to pay production costs. The only way to finance public goods is to force free-riders, and everyone else, to pay through government taxes. The free-rider problem also applies to common-property goods.

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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time at the confiscated property police auction wanting to buy either semi-gloss photo paper that works with your neighbor's printer or a birthday gift for your father that doesn't look like every other birthday gift for your father. Be on the lookout for empty parking spaces that appear to be near the entrance to a store.
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This isn't me! What am I?

-- Babe Ruth, baseball player

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