When is efficiency separable from distribution in the provision of club goods?

Using the homogeneous of degree zero inverse congestion ("quality") function employed most frequently in the literature, we characterise completely the families of utility Functions which are then necessary and sufficient for break-even utilitarian welfare maximising provision of club goods with self-selection to be separable from distribution. Two types of separation-involving, alternatively (a) the price and quality; (b) the price, duality, facility size and total utilisation-are considered. When separation is possible, utility functions and optimal decisions take simple, intuitive forms. Our results extend the scope of separation results previously obtained only for pure public goods. Journal of Economic Literature Classification. Numbers: D62., H23, H40. (C) 2000 Academic Press.