If the quantity of any good remains available the same after consuming by people such goods are called?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Public Good.
A chocolate eaten by one person is gone for everyone else. A road, a public park or the country’s defence is different: one person can enjoy it without reducing what is left for others, so the quantity available stays the same after people have used it. Goods of this kind are public goods, and they have two features:
Non-rivalrous: one person’s use does not reduce the quantity available to others.
Non-excludable: there is no practical way of keeping anyone, even a person who does not pay, from enjoying them.
This is why the market cannot provide them and the government has to.
Why the other options are incorrect
Option (1) Private Good. — Incorrect. A chocolate eaten or a shirt worn by one person is not available to others. Private goods are rival: one person’s consumption reduces the quantity left for others.
Option (3) Common Resource. — Incorrect. A common resource, such as the fish in a lake or groundwater, is open to all, but what one person takes is no longer available to others, so its quantity does fall with use.
Option (4) Club Goods. — Incorrect. A club good, such as a members’ swimming pool or a cable television service, can be shared without being used up until it gets crowded, but it is available only to those who pay. A good whose benefits are available to all is a public good.
NCERT (2025-26): “Allocation Function of Government Budget … Examples of such goods are national defence, roads, government administration etc. which are referred to as public goods. To understand why public goods need to be provided by the government, we must understand the difference between private goods such as clothes, cars, food items etc. and public goods. There are two major differences. One, the benefits of public goods are available to all and are not only restricted to one particular consumer. For example, if a person eats a chocolate or wears a shirt, these will not be available to others. It is said that this person’s consumption stands in rival relationship to the consumption of others. However, if we consider a public park or measures to reduce air pollution, the benefits will be available to all. One person’s consumption of a good does not reduce the amount available for consumption for others and so several people can enjoy the benefits, that is, the consumption of many people is not ‘rivalrous’. Two, in case of private goods anyone who does not pay for the goods can be excluded from enjoying its benefits. If you do not buy a ticket, you will not be allowed to watch a movie at a local cinema hall. However, in case of public goods, there is no feasible way of excluding anyone from enjoying the benefits of the good. That is why public goods are called non-excludable.…” |