<p>Are there any good studies on what are estimated values of public goods? For example, suppose a public library, bridge, school, or lighthouse is a public good, what is the value per person for these goods? I am just looking for typical cases, like a public park in a typical American city.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-02T23:15:41.783Z
Most of the goods you mention are not public goods. Public goods should be non-excludable and non-rivalrous. Public library, both excludable and rivalrous (especially more prominent ones), school is the same. Bridge can be argued to be non-rivalous unless traffic is bad but it is definetly excludable. Some park in nature might fit but a park in city could be just easily made excludable. Lighthouse is  probably the only good example of an actual public good from the list you provided.
1muflon1
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-03T02:38:22.180Z
While I agree with you, I still am looking for an empirical sense of the value per citizen of what many consider public goods.
Some Guy
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-03T12:00:06.417Z
but if you use tag public goods on an economic forum when you actually don’t want to know value of public goods but just some general government/municipality provided goods you will just confuse people and decrease your chances of actually getting proper answer
1muflon1
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-13T10:13:12.953Z
Maybe you should rephrase the question. Are you looking for ways to measure the utility an individual derives from these amenities? Then looking at stated preference methods (e.g., choice experiments, contingent valuation) or revealed preference methods (e.g., hedonic pricing) maybe a first step.
ju_pi_car
<public-economics><public-goods>
What are concrete values of public goods?
Some Guy
# What are concrete values of public goods?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-08-02)

Are there any good studies on what are estimated values of public goods? For example, suppose a public library, bridge, school, or lighthouse is a public good, what is the value per person for these goods? I am just looking for typical cases, like a public park in a typical American city.

**Tags:** public-economics, public-goods

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Most of the goods you mention are not public goods. Public goods should be non-excludable and non-rivalrous. Public library, both excludable and rivalrous (especially more prominent ones), school is the same. Bridge can be argued to be non-rivalous unless traffic is bad but it is definetly excludable. username_0 park in nature might fit but a park in city could be just easily made excludable. Lighthouse is  probably the only good example of an actual public good from the list you provided.  
> **username_0**: While I agree with you, I still am looking for an empirical sense of the value per citizen of what many consider public goods.  
> **username_1**: but if you use tag public goods on an economic forum when you actually don’t want to know value of public goods but just username_0 general government/municipality provided goods you will just confuse people and decrease your chances of actually getting proper answer  
> **username_2**: Maybe you should rephrase the question. Are you looking for ways to measure the utility an individual derives from these amenities? Then looking at stated preference methods (e.g., choice experiments, contingent valuation) or revealed preference methods (e.g., hedonic pricing) maybe a first step.  

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