Economic Definition of common-property good. Defined.
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Term common-property good Definition: A good that's difficult to keep nonpayers from consuming, but use of the good by one person prevents use by others. Examples include oceans, the atmosphere, many lakes and streams, and large tracts of wilderness area or public parks. The term "common property" aptly describes the situation here, it's commonly owned and thus everyone has access to it, but it can be easily used up or destroyed. Many of our pollution problems occur because common property becomes a convenient place to dump waste materials. For efficiency, government needs to take charge of common-property goods, private exchange through markets can't do the job.
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