Good (economics)
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A good in economics is anything that increases utility. This contrasts with a bad that decreases utility. Another way to think of it is that a good is something that you want more of, and a bad is something that you want less of. For example, leisure is a good, but work is a bad from the standpoint of the worker, though the money that is paid for work is a good. A good is often thought of as only a physical product, such as in the accounting definition as an "accounting good". In economics, a good does not need to be a physical object. For example, a service such as getting a haircut would be a good as long as the recipient wanted it. The broader definition economists use is valuable in thinking of many of the decisions people make among a number of available choices.
Private and public goods
One of the most common ways of looking at goods in economy, illustrated in the table below, is the classic division based on:
- is there a competition involved in obtaining a given good
- whether it is possible to exclude a person from consumption of a given good
| Classic division of goods in economy</font> | Exclusion from consumption | ||
| YES | NO | ||
| Competition in consumption | YES |
private good: food, clothing, toys, furniture, cars |
common good: natural environment |
| NO |
club good: private schools, cinemas, clubs, |
public good: national security (army and police forces) |
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Other good types
There are a number of different ways of looking at the concept of goods in economics including:
- Collective good (also known as social good)
- Complement good vs substitute good
- Durable good
- Free good and scarce good
- Giffen good
- Inferior good and normal good
- Luxury good
- Veblen good
- Search good
- Experience good - including Post-experience goods.
- Merit good
- Intermediate goods - also called producer goods.
- Final goods - including consumer goods.
- Superior goods