Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/67877 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
Queen's Economics Department Working Paper No. 1018
Publisher: 
Queen's University, Department of Economics, Kingston (Ontario)
Abstract: 
An indivisible good is an ideal type with interesting properties and strong implications about public policy. It is a good - such as a heart transplant or a treatment for AIDS - that must be consumed in a fixed amount or not at all. The community's demand curve for an indivisible good is a rotation of the distribution of income. Monopolization of ordinary goods can be expected to reduce everybody's consumption; monopolization of indivisible goods knocks out low income consumers. Deadweight loss from monopolization has a distinct distributional aspect best captured in a utility-weighted measure. Indivisible goods are strong candidates for public provision and for the expropriation of patents.
Subjects: 
patents
socialization
monopoly
deadweight loss
income distribution
JEL: 
D11
D42
H42
L12
O31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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