26 Examples of Common Resources

John Spacey, March 08, 2023

Common resources are resources that everyone can access. These are non-excludable meaning that it is difficult to stop people from using common resources. They are also potentially, but not always, depletable such that the resource can be used up. Common resources can suffer from the tragedy of the commons whereby everyone has incentive to use a resource but nobody has individual incentive to manage and sustain it. The following are examples of common resources.

Air	Aquifers
Beaches	Common land
Common pastures	Coral reefs
Ecosystems	Fish
Forests	Grasslands
Lakes	Minerals
Oceans	Parks
Public space	Rivers
Roads	Rocks
Soil	Space
Sunlight	Timber
Trees	Water
Wildlife	Wind

Governments play a role in protecting common resources from destruction. People have little individual incentive to protect these resources but protection greatly benefits all.

Common resources differ from public goods because the latter is defined as nondepletable whereby it can't be used up or destroyed with use. In practice, this is often just a pragmatic assumption whereby its assumed the resource will be used at some sustainable pace. For example, it is common to cite things such as education as public goods but educational services such as schools do have a capacity.

Overview: Common Resources
Type	Public Goods
Definition (1)	Resources that everyone can access.
Definition (2)	Resources that are non-excludable.
Related Concepts	Public Goods » Tragedy Of The Commons »