Both public goods and common resources are:

Both public goods and common resources are:

a. rival in consumption.

b. nonrival in consumption.

c. excludable.

d. nonexcludable.

Answer: d. nonexcludable.

Another feature that is evident in public goods and common resources is the fact that they cannot be excludable, implying that it is either very hard or is simply impossible to stop any non-paying person from using these goods. For instance, national defence, a public good is accorded to all the citizens irrespective of their contribution to the tax base and fish in the high seas is a common resource for any fisher. However, they differ in rivalry: As claimed in the lecture, public goods are non-excludable, meaning that when one person consumes them, it does not exclude others from consuming them at the same time, thus an example of a public good is a radio broadcast which one person can listen to without hindering another person from listening as well, on the other hand, common resources are excludable, meaning that when one person uses them, it will not be available for another person This characteristic generally results in problems of free riders and overuse.