财税英语讲稿.doc

　　Lesson one Public goods 　　Samuelson defines a public good as one which all enjoy in common in the sense thateach individual’s consumption of such a good leads to no subtraction from any otherindividual’s consumption of that good. This definition emphasizes that public goodsdiffer noticeably from private goods, which can be parceled out among differentindividuals. That means a good is private if a person who doesn’t pay can be excludedfrom its use. To make it simple, public goods and services are those which cannotsimply be provided through the market. 　　They have related qualities. First, public goods and services inevitably have to besupplied to a group of people rather than on an individual basis. Secondly, publicgoods and services, unlike private goods and services, cannot withhold fromindividuals who refuse to pay for them. Here, it is necessary to point out that althoughpublic goods have to be supplied to a group of people, it does not follow that all goodssupplied jointly to many people are public goods and services. For example, theservice of a movie theater can be jointly enjoyed by many people at about the samecost as by one, but the service is marketable because admission can be denied to thosewho refuse to pay. 　　The range of public goods 　　There is no clear-cut scope for public goods and services. However, a broad definitionof public goods and services may include the following items: the common defense,law and order, environmental control, monetary stability, regulatory measures, etc. 　　Basically, there are two categories of public goods. The first category refers to purepublic goods. Pure public goods concept confines the scope to the peace and securityof a community, national defense, the law, air pollution control, fire protection, streetlighting, weather forecast, and public television. In addition to these, there is still onemore category which is the quasi-public or impure public goods and services. 　　The definition of public goods implies its i