Turnpikes, cable TV, and private school education are all examples of
private goods.
toll goods.
common goods.
none of these answers collective goods.
The correct answer and explanation is:
The correct answer is private goods.
Private goods are goods that are both excludable and rivalrous. This means that individuals can be prevented from using these goods (excludability), and one person’s use of the good reduces its availability for others (rivalry). Turnpikes, cable TV, and private school education are examples of private goods because they share these characteristics.
- Turnpikes (toll roads) are private goods because users must pay a toll to access them, making them excludable. If one person uses the road, it reduces the availability of space for others, making it rivalrous.
- Cable TV is a private good as well. Access to cable TV is restricted to those who pay for it (excludability), and if many people use the service at once, the quality of the signal may decrease (rivalry, especially in terms of bandwidth).
- Private school education is also a private good. Access is restricted to those who can afford tuition (excludability), and each student occupies a space in the school, meaning the capacity is limited (rivalry).
In contrast, common goods are goods that are non-excludable but rivalrous. An example would be a fishery or clean water where people can access the resource freely, but overuse by one person depletes the resource for others.
Toll goods and collective goods are not standard categories in economic theory. Collective goods are typically non-rivalrous and non-excludable, like public parks or streetlights, which are not examples of the items listed. Therefore, the best fit for the goods mentioned is “private goods”.