Consider a group of students who share a bathroom and there are no janitorial se

Question

Consider a group of students who share a bathroom and there are no janitorial services provided. Some of the students prefer a clean bathroom; others have a high tolerance for messiness. a) Explain why, using economics, there is a good chance that the bathroom will end up a mess. b) Are there circumstances in which the mess is Pareto optimal? Are there circumstances where the mess is a market failure? c) Consider several ways to reduce the mess: i) The students work out a cleaning schedule among themselves. Each student is honor-bound to comply, but nobody keeps track. i) Students work out a cleaning schedule among themselves. Each student who cleans knows who the previous cleaner was and grades that student on her performance. ili) The building manager institutes a fee for all building residents to pay for a custodian Which is likely to be easiest to get started? What outcome do you expect for each of these options? Which is most likely to lead to peaceful relations among the students?

Explanation / Answer

a) The most important point to note here is that the bathroom is a public good. Further, with no janitorial services provided, the cleaning is exclusively to students. The economics concept that applies here is the personal benefit and personal cost associated with any action. For students, who have a high tolerance for messiness, there is no personal benefit to clean the bathroom. On the other hand, students who have low tolerance for mess will not clean the mess created by others. The net result will be that the bathroom will remain in mess using the underastanding of cost-benefit analysis.

b) The mess can be classified as a Pereto optimal if there is no deal between the low mess tolerance and high mess tolerance students on cleaning the mess, who does the cleaning and how much cleaning is to be done by each. The mess can be classified as a market failure when nobody has a clue on who creates the mess. Hence, there is no possibility of any deal on maintaining a clean bathroom.

c) The easiest to get started is that -

ii) Students work-out a cleaning schedule among themselves. Each student who cleans knows who the previous cleaner was and grades that student on her performance.

For option (i) there is no tracking on who was the last cleaner. There is a probability that students with high tolerance for mess end up not cleaning as there is no tracking system here. Therefore, in option (i) there can be a case for renewed mess.

For option (ii) there is a clear tracking system on who has cleaned last and there is a rating system as well. This is likely to be the best solution as it's fastest to impliment and with tracking of cleaning performance, the students with high tolerance for mess will also ensure that they clean the mess.

For option (iii) There is an additional cost involved. However, it is a responsibility of the custodian to ensure that the bathroom remains clean. Therefore, group responsibility shifts to individual responsibility. This will work as the custodian has a benefit (salary/wage) associated with his work.

Option (iii) is likely to result in most peaceful relationship among students.

While option (ii) has a traking system, the grading by other students can potentially result in disputes among students. Further, option (i), with no tracking is the worst.

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