Commentary on “Self‐Provision of Public Services: Its Evolution and Impact”

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2011.02534.x
• Published date: 01 March 2012
• Date: 01 March 2012
• Author: Yaacov Lifshitz

Self-Provision of Public Services: Its Evolution and Impact 291

Yaacov Lifshitz

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Usually, there is nothing illegal when parents

pay for private lessons to help their children

catch up with their classes, improve their art

skills, and so on. Similarly, there is nothing wrong

when one prefers a private medical treatment to tak-

ing advantage of less expensive public health care ser-

Commentary on “Self-Provision of Public Services: Its

Evolution and Impact”

vices, if one can af‌f ord it. Public services generally are

designed to meet the demands of the median voter,

who typically earns a median income. Richer people

might have a higher level of demand for the same

services, and they will realize their greater purchasing

power to complement public provision by acquiring

Yaacov Lifshitz is an independent

economic adviser, member of the board

of public and private companies, research

associate of the Begin-Sadat Center for

Strategic Studies, and lecturer at the

Ben-Gurion University. His research interests

include defense economics, economics of

terrorism, the Israeli economy, and social-

economic policy in Israel. In the past Lifshitz

has served as Director-General in the

Ministry of Finance, Chief Economic Adviser

in the Ministry of Defense, and Chairman of

the Board and CEO of several companies.

He is also author of The Economics of

Producing Defense (Kluwer, 2003).

E-mail: yaacovl@inter.net.il

Commentary