A local college is deciding whether to conduct a campus beautification initiative that would involve various projects, such as planting trees and remodeling buildings, to make the campus more aesthetically pleasing. For the students of the college, the visual appearance of the campus isand . Thus, the visual appearance would be classified as a public good.

Suppose the college administrators estimate that the beautification initiative will cost $7,200. To decide whether the initiative should be undertaken, administrators conduct a survey of the college's 300 students, asking each of them their willingness to pay for the beautification project. The average willingness to pay, as revealed by the survey, is $18.