Global public goods—as any good
or service—are often valued differently across various countries and
sections of the population. Thus, while the effects of global public goods
are widely dispersed, they do not have the same impact on every country
and every person.
For instance, international
financial stability is a global public good that is valued most by
investors in industrial countries and by the shareholders and workers of
companies in developing countries that benefit from international capital
flows. Yet developing country farmers may not necessarily have financial
stability as their key priority. Because of these differences in
preferences, it is important that the incentives for cross-border
cooperation are "right," and therefore, cross-border cooperation
must make sense for all in order to be effective and self-sustaining.
