What is a quasi-public good? Provide an example.

• A. Quasi-public goods are always non-excludable and non-rival.
• B. A quasi-public good is a good with some public good characteristics; example: a toll road or a national park with limited capacity.
• C. Quasi-public goods are pure private goods.
• D. Quasi-public goods are always excludable and rival.

Answer: (B)

Quasi-public goods mix characteristics of public and private goods. They have some features of public goods—such as being accessible to many people without everyone reducing others’ enjoyment—but they can also be excludable or become rival in use as capacity limits or congestion arise. A toll road illustrates this well: it is excludable because you must pay to use it, but it’s non-rival when traffic is light; as more drivers enter, congestion makes it rival and limits how many can use it efficiently. A national park with limited capacity works the same way: access is open to the public, yet the limited space means not everyone can use it at once, so fees or permits help allocate limited use.

That’s why this option is the best: it describes a good with some public good characteristics and provides realistic examples. The other statements describe pure public goods, pure private goods, or always-excludable, always-rival goods, which don’t capture the mixed nature of quasi-public goods.