| 
						 A good is excludable if people (ordinarily, people who have not paid for it) can be prevented from using it.  
It is rival, or subtractable if one person's consumption of a good necessarily diminishes another person's consumption of it. 
					 | 
				
            
             
            
            
            
            
        
			
            
                
					
						 
|    | Excludable: |   
|    | Yes |  No |  
| Subtractable: Yes |  Private Goods |  Common-Pool Resources |  
| No | Club Goods |  Public Goods |  
 
					 | 
				
            
             
            
            
            
            
        
			
            
             
            
            
                
            
            
            
        
			
            
                
					
						
-  Private Goods: An economic good, or a tangible item that can be purchased and traded within a market. Private goods are excludable. They are also rival, or subtractable. You can't eat a hamburger that is being eaten by someone else.
 
For example: Most goods that are commonly traded, from hamburgers to furniture to 747 airplanes. 
 -  Club Goods: Goods that are excludable but non-rival, or non-subtractable. This means that while certain people can be excluded from the consumption of a good, one person's consumption of it does not diminish another person's. 
 
For example: Community services, including those provided by religious organizations; cable television; computer software.
 -  Common-Pool Resources 
 
For example: Fisheries, forests, oil fields, groundwater basins, and so on.
 -  Public Goods
 
For example: National defense, public parks, street lighting, lighthouses, and so on.
  
					 | 
				
            
             
            
            
            
            
        
			
            
                
					| 
						 These categories are not always immediately clear. Consider, for example, a road. If it's a toll road, it is excludable, since only those who pay the toll can travel by it. Therefore a congested toll road is a private good, since it is both excludable and subtractable, or rival, in consumption -- every additional car on the road reduces the space available to others (and increases their level of aggravation). An uncongested toll road, on the other hand, is excludable but non-subtractable, making it a club good. 
  
What about regular non-toll roads? Well, if it's a busy road at rush hour, it's non-excludable but certainly subtractable, making it a common-pool resource. However, if it's a lonely rural highway, or even a city street late at night, it's neither excludable nor subtractable -- the presence of another car on an uncongested road does not diminish the space left for other drivers. 
					 |