Question

The lionfish is an invasive species from the Indo-Pacific, now also found in the East Coast of the United States and in the Caribbean. An exceptional predator that reproduces year round, the lionfish has wreaked havoc on the natural ecosystem with a population more than 10 times higher than in its native environment. With a population so high, it is unlikely the extermination practices of any one person, or even any one organization could eliminate them, though eliminating them would benefit everyone. Therefore, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) launched a campaign highlighting how tasty lionfish are and presenting instructions on how to cook them. The NOAA's approach to solving this problem is best described as using the economics of:______
A) public goods to solve nonexcludable goods.
B) private goods to solve the tragedy of the commons.
C) private goods to solve a public goods free riding problem.
D) commons resources to solve forced riding.

Answer 1

Answer:

C) private goods to solve a public goods free riding problem.

Explanation:

A free ride problem is an economics problem when certain entities benefit from resources and public goods for which they do not pay. In this case, it is an evident task of NOAA to solve the problem (huge number of lionfish). But, since their incentivizing individuals (private goods) to slowly solve this problem without the organization's efforts, they are solving their own problem. That is exactly using private goods to solve a public goods free-riding problem.