26 Sep 2022

207

Public Goods and Public Policy: What Is Public Good, and Who and What Decides?

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Academic level: Master’s

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Public goods are those that an increased number of consumers can consume without their value being compromised for initial consumers. National security exemplifies this. In the US, for example, the population increases annually, yet, the provision of security to the new population does not deter the security forces from ensuring safety for those initially taken care of (Hyman, 2014). Public health is another public good that citizens enjoy. Heath provision is one of the priorities of the US government. This is the reason for the strategies around universal health, a plan that aims at ensuring the barriers to access to care among citizens are significantly reduced. Public health ensures a healthy population domestically and internationally. This is because health is more global than geographical today. The management of a given viral strain in the US, for example, could curtail its spread beyond its borders, hence, benefit other nationalities. Public parks are other examples of public goods. All citizens enjoy them, and when well-managed, their value does not diminish regardless of how many people use them. They are instrumental as leisure spaces for domestic citizens and international, especially when tourists have to travel and relax in such spaces. Another significant public good is education. Consumers are students. Through quality education, this public good reinforces development both domestically and internationally. This is because the availability of skilled labor positively influences production in different business entities (Hazelkorn et al., 2019). Internationally, educated expatriates are likely to impact economic development positively. 

Demand and supply of public goods is an intricate aspect affected by dynamic factors within a given environment. A thriving economy that shows prospect for growth is likely to positively influence demand for public goods because people have the resources to afford such goods. An example is where the general public has enough income to afford education and health. As demand increases, supply goes up because there are ready consumers for such goods. 

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Politics have a direct impact on the economy. This partly in the form of the implementation of policies that ensure access to public goods. With good policies as a result of good political leadership, improvement of infrastructure and other systems is likely to be witnessed (Hazelkorn et al., 2019). People are likely to co-exist peacefully, and good international relations is likely to impact international trade. In such a state, the demand for public goods and their supply are likely to increase proportionately. 

The external environment also influences the demand and supply of public goods. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand and supply of public health have significantly increased. In some cases, it has been impossible for public health stakeholders to meet the demand satisfactorily. This has, in turn, negatively affected the economy; hence, the demand for other goods such as leisure has significantly reduced. Although the supply could be high, demand is low because of economic difficulties influenced by the pandemic. 

Kenneth Arrow asserts that it is impossible to adhere to a set of specific preferences while at the same time implementing the tenets of fair voting. This social paradox espouses that given the intricacies of ideal fair voting, such a situation cannot be achieved. According to Hyman (2014). Arrow’s impossibility theorem can be summarized into different stipulations. One of them is that voters should have the freedom to choose the alternatives provided in the voting system, but none of the choices should be available for a voter who can be a dictator. He also espouses that the order in which options are presented to voters should not be influenced by public choices neither political equilibrium. Since it is not possible to create an ideal voting system, the challenge is the many possibilities of what is considered just right. There might therefore be a dilemma in choosing the most suitable voting system. Regardless of the system chosen, the voting process is likely to be influenced because of the impossibility of achieving equilibrium in all elements that pertain to the system. 

References 

Hazelkorn, E., & Gibson, A. (2019). Public goods and public policy: what is public good, and who and what decides?. Higher Education , 78 (2), 257-271. 

Hyman, D. N. (2014). Public finance: A contemporary application of theory to policy . Cengage Learning. 

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 14). Public Goods and Public Policy: What Is Public Good, and Who and What Decides?.
https://studybounty.com/public-goods-and-public-policy-what-is-public-good-and-who-and-what-decides-essay

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