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Article
On the private provision of public goods
Journal of Public Economics (1986)
  • Ted Bergstrom, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Hal R Varian
  • Larry Blume, Cornell University
Abstract

We consider a general model of the non-cooperative provision of a public good. Under very weak assumptions there will always exist a unique Nash equilibrium in our model. A smallredistribution of wealth among the contributing consumers will not change the equilibrium amount of the public good. However, larger redistributions of wealth will change the set of contributors and thereby change the equilibrium provision of the public good. We are able to characterize the properties and the comparative statics of the equilibrium in a quite complete way and to analyze the extent to which government provision of a public good ‘crowds out’ private contributions.

Keywords
  • public goods,
  • private provision,
  • donations,
  • contributions
Disciplines
Publication Date
January 1, 1986
Citation Information
Ted Bergstrom, Hal R Varian and Larry Blume. "On the private provision of public goods" Journal of Public Economics Vol. 29 (1986)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ted_bergstrom/69/