WHAT ARE ECONOMIC GOODS? MAIN FEATURES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Economic goods are those objects and services that are useful to those who own or access them. The economic character is given by the monetary value they have and their existence is limited or scarce.

Goods can be both tangible and intangible, and their final economic value is the result of a series of previous variables that include the cost of production and materialization of that good.

The analysis and conception of this type of goods in monetary terms is also given by the purpose of their uses and the value conception that the society that consumes them has.

Goods are all objects and services that are offered and demanded in a market context, whose values ​​also respond to external factors and with fluctuating effects.

There are different approaches to the classification of goods, some of the most effective ways are according to their utilitarian and economic potential or market, according to their way of consumption and their relationship with other goods, among others.

Economic goods and economy

The economy can be considered as the administration and exchange of necessary but scarce resources worldwide, which must be subjected to a monetary valuation that limits their access.

From this concept, it can be said that economic goods are all those elements that are transferred within the great world economic machinery.

All those that have qualities contrary to the so-called free goods are considered as economic goods.

Free goods are resources of unlimited quantities and access, which can also be considered necessary for man, but which are not subject to a social or institutional restriction for their access and consumption.

Current economic times have led several nations to carry out regulations on some types of economic goods.

Although price regulation in the economy may seem like a solution to certain problems, it only perverts the market, even further limiting access to certain goods and creating parallel acquisition channels.

The limitation of access to economic goods can respond mainly to structural and functional deficiencies in the productive and economic apparatus of a nation.

In the economy, the measures responsible for solving states of crisis will not always benefit the common citizen in the short term. This also applies when talking about economic assets.

The valuation of certain types of material economic goods has been transmuted in current global markets towards the innovative and reinventing character that such good may possess, instead of its functionality.

The acceleration of the global economy has generated an excessive production of goods, a consequence of the generation of consumerism behaviors that cancel or shorten all the consumption potential that a good can offer.

The 8 main types of economic goods

Every economic good can be classified by its physical characteristics, its qualities for use and consumption, as well as its impact and influence on the market in which it is presented as merchandise.

1- Movable property

Movable property is any tangible and physical object that can be traded, without space or time limitations.

These types of objects are given an economic value in advance, and from then on it is modified by the conditions, although this value never completely disappears.

All movable property has a market value, and its physical form can be marketed at any latitude on the planet, limited only by the legal regulations of the territory in which it is located.

2- Real estate

They are those goods that, due to their original qualities, present an impossibility of transfer and commercialization outside the environment in which they were conceived.

Houses, buildings and apartments are considered the most popular real estate, as they meet the demand of the place where they were built.

Real estate cannot be exported, given its conditions. The services necessary to maintain the operation of a property are also considered non-tradable goods.

The main difference with movable property is the limitation represented by the transfer and its commercialization in other spaces.

3- Consumer goods

Consumer goods are all those intended to satisfy a specific need, almost always immediately. They are generally categorized according to their specific function.

Another way to classify consumer goods is according to their durability when used or consumed.

Food is the greatest example of a non-durable consumer good: it meets a specific need, but its existence and abundance is diminished with consumption, to the point of leading the consumer to acquire more by paying its economic cost.

Clothing, on the other hand, can be considered a durable consumer good; its use is guaranteed since it covers a need, but its use limit is incalculable since it is subject to multiple variables.

There is a third category of durability for consumer goods, and this applies to those goods or objects known as perishable, which can expire and become unusable regardless of whether they were used the first time or not.

4- Complementary goods

They are generally material goods that require joint use to guarantee the satisfaction of a specific need.

They are usually goods whose operation and purpose is conditioned by the presence of another good. For example, the use of an electronic device needs access to electricity, just as a car needs gasoline to run.

A large part of these goods find their complement in others that are considered basic for the sustenance of societies today, such as water, electricity, gas, among others.

Other assets, however, must be acquired separately in order to be used together.

5- Substitute goods

They are all those goods that represent a replacement or substitution against another good that can meet similar qualities, but whose price in the market makes it much more difficult to acquire.

The name of substitute good arises from the consumer's appreciation. When it cannot acquire a certain good, it must resort to other options offered by the market that can satisfy its need.

This need may be satisfied with a different effectiveness, but it is much closer to the purchasing power of the consumer who purchases it.

6- Capital goods

They are the material and movable goods that are necessary to influence the production of other goods, in the business and industrial fields.

They are also known as producer goods. It is not the raw material for the production of other goods, but necessary elements whose absence would make it difficult to materialize more goods.

As an example, the case of a newspaper can work: its capital or production goods are all the equipment that the newspaper possesses as goods and that are necessary for the manufacture of its material product, also considered a consumer good.

There is a middle category called intermediate goods, which refers to the material goods that make up the structure of capital goods.

7- Private goods

It is one of the most common forms of manifestation and categorization of a good. Private goods are those that belong to a particular individual by regulations and legal statutes.

The exchange or commercialization of a private asset not only requires the consent of the owner, but also their will to stop being such.

A private good belongs to a single individual or a particular group of previously established individuals. Its use character is considered socially exclusive and limited.

From the existence of private goods, the conceptions and practical and legal applications of property rights and private property are born.

8- Public goods

They are all those objects and services, material or immaterial, that have a quality of access available to all individuals. By not having exclusivity, the use and consumption of these goods does not harm third parties.

These goods are usually considered inclusive and free to use. Its financing and materialization, as well as its subsequent maintenance, is usually linked to a higher hierarchy and power organ within a society.

This body has the ability to provide its citizens with accessible services, not limited to the purchasing power or money of individuals.

As intermediate categories between private and public goods, the so-called pay-as-you-go goods or public company goods also come into consideration, which fulfill an exclusive function under a conditioned context.

Common goods also stand out, whose accessibility is not strictly limited but neither does it present a control framework over their access and use capacities.

References

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