Question

Objective:

In this assignment, you will apply your knowledge and understanding of public goods to the topic of education.

Instruction:

Respond to the following prompts in a post with a minimum of 250 words, then comment on at least TWO other posts. Feel free to bring in additional references to these reply posts. [Please note that you can access the grading rubric by clicking on the top right corner of this post and select 'Show Rubric'.]

• Is education a public good? Does education have external benefits? If so, what are some of those public benefits? In your opinion are the external benefits large or small? Why? What should government do to promote the efficient provision of products that have external benefits? If you think that government should put more resources into education, what might be some of the opportunity costs of that decision? How would an economist determine the right amount of government support for education?

Answer 1

Public goods are goods which are non -excludable and non-rival.It is non -excludable when someone can be stopped from using it and it is non rival when an individual's consumption of the good does not prevent another person from consuming it. Education is a public good as well as a private good .Education upto grade 12 is a public good as it is non excludable and non rival.However college education is a private good because an individual can be stopped from going to college and at the same time an individual taking a place in a college will preclude another individual from taking that place.

An external benefit is a benefit received by a third party who is not involved in the deal.Public schooling creates external benefit and the economy grows at a pace which is fast.This is because it is productive and benefits everyone in the society .Eg technological progress.

Technological progress leads advancement of the society and this is possible through education.

.According to me the external benefits are largely based on the growth of USA and the world for the last 20 years.

The government should be sure that the external benefits are received by all citizens,also those people who could not attain higher education should get it. This can be done by income distribution program or by investing in regions where schooling is low.

If the government gives more resources to public education , it should not give funds in other areas.So the opportunity cost of increased find in education is decreased fund in other areas.

All cost and benefits should be found including external costs because marginal social benefit should be equal to marginal social cost to obtain socially optimal level of output..