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Rotten Kids, Purity, and Perfection

Journal of Political Economy 1999 107(5), 1034-1040
Bergstrom has shown that becker's “Rotten Kid theorem” holds in a world of two commodities if their utilities are transferable. The present paper identifies a further circumstance in which the theorem is valid. We show that it also holds in the absence of transferable utility if the externalities are assumed to take the form of a single pure public good.