Public Goods and the Problem of Economic Calculus

Most papers regarding public goods have a certain predisposition to “classic aspects” like their characteristics of non-rivalry and non-excludability. In this paper we try to emphasize that in the area of public goods one of the major problems is, in fact, the one of economic calculus. The reality is that public finances exist in a limited quantity so the public authority is forced to choose between ways to spend them. According to the definition of public goods the expenditures should be for the production of essential assets that are neglected by private investors. The problem is how to choose between public possibilities of spending the money after the application of the first criteria.