THE PRIVATE PRODUCTION OF PUBLIC-GOODS, ONCE AGAIN

Anthony de Jasay attempts to demonstrate that public goods can be supp lied privately without loss of efficiency, since there may be enough p eople willing to finance public-goods production voluntarily, even at the risk of subsidizing free riders, rather than risk that public good s will not be produced at all. Jasay's argument rests on the implausib le assumption that the goods in question are completely indivisible. T his assumption forces persons interested in having a given public good either to finance it or do without it entirely; they do not have the option of financing smaller quantities or poorer qualities of the good .