On the Provision of Public Goods: The New OSU Outdoor Recreation Complex

Public goods like parks, police and fire protection and roads, are under-provided by free markets thanks in large part to the free-rider problem.  If you can exclude non-payers from using them, people will opt to forego payment and yet use the good that others have paid for.  Witness Oregon Public Radio which, as I mentioned before, has only 10% of its listeners making voluntary contributions. This is why government is generally involved in the provision of such goods.  But even so it can be hard - witness the difficulty in getting local governments to pony up for the Sellwood Bridge - as there are always some who value the good more and others who value it less and wonder why they are being asked to share in the burden.

Which makes it remarkable that the students of Oregon State University voted to assess an extra fee on themselves in order to pay for the new outdoor recreation complex which I saw on my drive in this morning has been named "Student Legacy Field."  The fields are right in the center of campus and within easy reach of all of the dormitory buildings. I suspect part of the ability of the students to get the fee past has to do with the fact that current students are assessing a fee on future generations of students, but nevertheless I think it is a tremendously good investment.

Where once there was grass fields - beautiful yes, but totally unusable for a big chunk of the school year - there are now turf fields dedicated to student and intramural use that will help keep students active and fit year round.  I would be delighted as a student and this would be a big selling point as a prospective student.  It does this professors heart good to see soccer players out at 8am in the rain running around and getting exercise.

Throw in some volleyball courts, a renovated MacAlexander Fieldhouse and new tennis courts and you have a public good that is going to have huge social welfare benefits for the entire OSU community.

Well done students.

Enrollments in Economics Courses Surge

An NPR story yesterday about how students are flocking to economics classes. I don't know if it is happening here at Oregon State, but it might not matter because we are struggling here in the economics department to even cover the bare bones curriculum we currently offer - an artifact of the university's long and recently renewed underinvestment in core arts and sciences in favor of more applied areas. This is a good strategy for chasing grant money but horrible for undergrads. OSU gets lots of recognition for things like forestry and oceanography, but there is a reason it is the worst ranked school in the Pac 10 - it does not have strength in the areas that are fundamental to undergraduate education.

OSU gets another mention, this time in the New York Times, about a surge in undergraduate applications (up 12 percent and transfer apps up 31 percent). I am sure the temptation is to admit a large freshman and transfer class. But with budgets being slashed one wonders how they are going to find classes to take. Even if we find people to teach the classes we don't have the classroom space to do it in. My spring term International Economics course immediately filled up and I don't have any desks left to add more students. What a shame, has their ever been a better time to understand international economics?

Ah well, the reality is that the economic downturn is comprehensive and we are all going to have to deal with it as best we can. And if anyone out there wants to study economics at OSU, you will find a group of dedicated scholars and educators excited to have you join us. We will make it work, don't worry - if there is one thing economists are good at, it is dealing with scarcity. We are currently undergoing a comprehensive restructuring of the economics major to make it more flexible and to offer more options, so stay tuned, but for a look at what we currently offer, go here.