Economic Definition of near-public good. Defined.
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Term near-public good Definition: A good that's easy to keep nonpayers from consuming, but use of the good by one person doesn't prevent use by others. The trick with a near-public good is that it's easy to keep people away, and thus you can charge them a price for consuming, but there's no real good reason to do so. From an efficiency view, the more people who consume a near-public good, the better off society. This mixture of nearly unlimited benefits and the ability to charge a price means that some near-public goods are sold through markets and others are provided by government. For efficiency's sake, none should be sold through markets.
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