Spatial public goods. I -Theory

The paper is partitioned into four main sections. The first section describes the landscape, the spatial structure of the public good and the decision framework, both for the individuals involved and for the planner. The second section deals with the issue of decentralization, i.e. with the search for a minimum combination of public controls sufficient to maintain the particular kind of optimal form which is determined through the theory of justice espoused by the planner. This section includes an explicit comparison of individual and public decisions, a discussion of optimal inequalities induced by the geography of a place, and a detailed description of optimal decentralization policy. The third section compares private goods, public goods and spatial externalities* Finally, the fourth section deals with the problem of allocating land to public goods* All these, in turn, provide the basis for the applications and issues examined in the second paper of the series