Goods - Typology

Products/services are categorized by its degree of excludability and scarcity.

-................Excludable...............Non-Excludable

Rivalry..........Private goods............Commons goods

Non rivalry......Collective goods........Public goods

Description

Summary of Elinor Ostrom's classification by Wayne MacIntosch [1]

If we take two axes:

Rivalrous versus non-rivalrous goods

and

Excludable versus non-excludable goods.

The matrix then classifies for types of goods:

• Common-pool resource (i.e non-excludable and rivalrous - eg the classic tragedy of the grazing commons, and a hard copy library book. When one partron has the book, another patron cannot take the book out at the same time)
• private goods (i.e. excludable and rivalrous - eg commercially sold book)
• toll good (i.e. excludable and non-rivalrous - eg paid subscription to an online journal. Digital copies are infinitely accessible)
• Public Good (i.e. non-excludable and non-rivalrous eg knowledge or free content.)

Encyclopedia

1. Common Goods
2. Global Public Goods
3. Rival vs Non Rival Goods
4. Worldwide Public Goods

More Information

1. Ecosystem Goods and Services
2. Free Goods as Civilization Building
3. Markets are inefficient for non-rival goods
4. Ownership of Software vs. Ownership of Goods