Identify the goods that are excludable and rival in nature from the following:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Private goods.
Think of a loaf of bread. The baker can refuse it to anyone who does not pay, so a non-payer can be excluded; and once one person eats it, nobody else can, so consumers are rivals for it. A good that has both features, excludability and rivalry, is a private good. Clothes, cars and food items are the usual examples.
A public good, such as a public park or clean air, has neither feature: its benefits are available to all, and one person’s use does not reduce what is left for others. For this reason public goods are provided by the government instead of being sold in a market.
Why the other options are incorrect
Option (1) Common Resource. — Incorrect. A common resource, such as the fish in the sea, is rival, since what one person takes is not left for others, but it is not excludable: no one can easily be kept from using it.
Option (2) Club goods. — Incorrect. A club good, such as a cable television service, is excludable, since non-members can be kept out, but it is not rival: one member’s use does not reduce what is available to the others.
Option (4) Public goods. — Incorrect. Public goods, such as national defence or a public park, are neither rival nor excludable: one person’s use does not reduce what is available to others, and those who do not pay cannot be kept out, which is why the government has to provide them.
Note: A same/similar question was asked in CUET (UG) in the papers below.
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
| 11-05 S1* 21-05 S1 31-05 S1* | – | – | – | – |
* A similar question.
NCERT (2025-26): “Allocation Function of Government Budget … 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.…” |