ABSTRACT
The development of civilization and cultural evolution cause changes in the views regarding the concept of public goods. What was once considered a private good (e.g. education) or was not noticed at all (e.g. a clean environment), has today become a public good, universally recognized as belonging to every human being.
The chapter discusses the historical evolution of the concept of public goods and shows their current state – how they are perceived in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (REV4.0). The chapter is theoretical in nature, as it presents a comprehensive literature review of the concept of public goods, from its early beginnings to publications in 2021, and analyzes historical changes in terms of their definition, classification and typologies. The chapter also examines the latest concepts through the perspective of game theory or swarm intelligence.
Undertaken analyses clearly show that REV4.0 has influenced the broadening of the concept of public goods, including big data, communication, information flows and global social networks.
