Daniel Heyen, Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau: "Public Gobs"

Gobs are goods for which agents have non-monotonic preferences: more of the good is welcome only up to some point. Beyond that ideal gob level, one prefers not to have more, even if one can have it for free. We study public gobs, i.e. gobs that are non-excludable and non-rival. We show that the private provision of public gobs is not sufficient. In addition to the usual free-riding motives, public gobs can also suffer from over-provision. Key determinants are contribution costs and the heterogeneity in ideal gob levels.