Free rider problem

In the class, what we were doing is finding out the societys willingness to pay and who pays at a
given quantity. If you remember the graph I draw on the board, we had three WTP curves for
Daniel, Leslie, and Maggie. In the section , all three has WTP and make the societys WTP as A.
In the section , Maggie and Leslie have WTP and make the societys WTP as B. In the section
, only Maggie is willing to pay.
Now, lets identify free riders. In the section : if Maggie already paid for the good and Daniel
and Leslie know that Maggie paid for it, Daniel and Leslie have incentive not to pay for the good
because they know they are going to benefit from the good anyways. If they decide to not pay
for the good, they become free riders. Because they decide not to pay for the good and only
Maggie paid for the good, the quantity provided given a cost will be lower. This is why free rider
problem creates under provision of the good. At P1, if we dont have free riders, we are going to
have Q2. If we have free riders, we are going to have Q1, which is less than Q2.

P1

C
Leslie
Daniel
Q1 Q2

Maggie
Q