Deficit spending occurs when a shortage of financial resources in the federal budget arises. In the modern economic environment, the economies of many countries are associated with chronic budget deficits, i.e. exceeding budget spending over national incomes. Many economists correlate budget deficits with adverse impacts on economic development – the stimulation of inflation processes, the creation of barriers to economic growth, and negative social outcomes. However, a budget deficit is not necessarily an extremely negative phenomenon, and it is argued that budget deficits can provoke the revival of national economic activity. Money creation is considered a traditional method of budget balancing. The emissive method of covering budget deficits implies the increase in monetary volumes, i.e., the government issues extra money, which is used to cover excess expenditures. The major advantage of this method is the growth of money supply that is interrelated with the increase in the aggregate demand and Continue reading
Economics Basics
Alternative Objectives of Business Firms
The traditional theory does not distinguish between owners and managers’ interests. The recent theories of firm, which are also called managerial and behavioral theories of firm, assume owners and managers to be separate entities in large corporations with different goals and motivation. In this section, some important alternative objectives of business firms, especially of large business corporations are also discussed. 1. Baumol’s Hypothesis of Sales Revenue Maximization According to Baumol, “maximization of sales revenue is an alternative to profit maximization objective“. The reason behind this objective is to clearly distinct ownership and management in large business firms. This distinction helps the managers to set their goals other than profit maximization goal. Under this situation, managers maximize their own utility function. According to Baumol, the most reasonable factor in managers utility functions is maximization of the sales revenue. The factors, which help in explaining these goals by the managers, are following: Salary and other earnings of managers are more closely related to seals revenue than to Continue reading
Preventing Panic-Buying During Crisis Times
Panic-buying is a relatively common behavioral response to a crisis that people can exhibit in situations that they perceive to be dangerous and unpredictable. This behavior was previously observed in the wake of major natural disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Several factors can account for an increase in stockpiling and panic-buying behaviors. Access to excessive amounts of information during a crisis can result in a cognitive overload, which, in turn, leads to irrational behavioral patterns. Information overload can result in health anxiety, which prompts self-isolation and the tendency to make illogical purchases. The fear of the unknown causes coping behavior in the form of panic-buying and stockpiling. Therefore, it leads to the conclusion that panic-buying can emerge as a form of stress response in certain individuals. Peer pressure can contribute to irrational decisions in time of crisis as well. Panic-buying is defined as herd behavior, in which an individual Continue reading
Gaps between Theory of the Firm and Managerial Economics
The theory of the firm is a body of theory, which contains certain assumptions, theorems and conclusions. Theory of the firm states that firms (corporations) exist and make decisions in order to maximize profits. These theorems deal with the way in which businessmen make decisions about pricing, and production under prescribed market conditions. It is concerned with the study of the optimization process. For optimality to exist profit must be maximized and this can occur only when marginal cost equals marginal revenue. Thus, the optimum position of the firm is that which maximizes net revenue. Managerial economics, on the other hand, aims at developing a managerial theory of the firm and for the purpose it takes the help of economic theory of the firm. However, there are certain difficulties in using economic theory as an aid to the study of decision-making at the level of the firm. This is because Continue reading
Benefits of Cost Volume Profit Analysis
Every organization needs to calculate future revenues in order to help the managers carry out their operations effectively. Cost volume is the approach used for this purpose. Cost Volume Profit analysis or CVP analysis helps in identifying the operating activity levels with a purpose to avoid any kind of losses and achieve profits. Moreover, it also helps the companies to plan their future operations and see whether their organizational performance is going on the right track or not. While conducting a business, the companies also have to face various risks and in order to counter those risks, CVP analysis is an effective tool. Cost volume profit analysis can also help the organizations in calculating the breakeven point which is the point at which the profits become equal to zero. This can be done by finding the break even volume and then using it to make graphical representations. The break even Continue reading
Cashless Economy – The Road Towards a Cashless World
A cashless economy is a system where payments are made by electronic means rather than using cash or check to pay for goods or services. In an economy that is “cashless”, a person would pay with plastic methods like credit cards, debit cards, or smart cards. This type of transaction electronically moves money from one account to another rather than using the traditional forms of exchanging printed currency or checks. Woodfords Model of Cashless Economy There has been much debate over Woodford’s model of a cashless economy by many experts in the field of economics. Most experts believe that although some of the ideas brought forth make sense, the model is still incomplete because, in real-world economics, central banks can affect nominal interest rates. In Woodford’s model, he assumes that this does not relate to the real-world economy. Woodford’s argument is that banks have committed themselves to straightforward objectives to Continue reading