Economies of Scale The term economies of scale refers to a situation where the cost of producing one unit of a good or service decreases as the volume of production increases. Economies of scale arise when the cost per unit falls as output increases. Economies of scale are the main advantage of increasing the scale of production. Alfred Marshall made a differentiating concepts of internal and external economies of scale. That is that when costs of input factors of production go down, it is a positive externality for all the firms in the market place, outside the control of any of the firms. Internal Economies of Scale Internal economies of scale relate to the lower unit costs a single firm can obtain by growing in size itself. This means that the internal economies are exclusively available to the expanding firm. Internal economies of scale may be classified under the following Continue reading
International Economics
What is Market Failure? Meaning, Causes and Recovery Strategies
Market failure can be defined as the situation in which the allocation of goods and services by free market is not efficient. It occurs as market fails to fulfill its obligation the most common failures involve cases of inadequate competition, inadequate information, resources immobility, public goods and imperfect competition. These failures occur on both the demand and supply sides of the market. Government failure occurs when the government intervenes in the market to improve the market failure actually makes the situation worse. When market failure exist there is a reason for possible government intervention to improve the outcome, but it`s not clear that government action will improve the result since the politics of implementing the solution often lead to further problems. Government can intervene to the market through subsidies, bailouts, wage and price controls, taxes and regulations. Attempts to correct market failure may also lead to an inefficient allocation of Continue reading
Eurocurrency Market
Prior to 1980 Eurocurrency markets are the only international financial market of any significance. They are offshore markets where financial institutions conduct transactions which are denominated in currencies of countries other than the country in which the institutions currencies of countries other than the country in which the institutions are located. The Eurocurrency market is outside the legal preview of the country in whose currency the finance are raised in the market. Eurocurrencies are bank deposits denominated in currencies other than the currency of the country in which the bank is located. The bank deposits and loans are denominated in Eurocurrencies, particularly dollars. Eurodollars are dollar denominated time deposits held by financial intuitions located outside the US., including such deposits by branches of U.S.,including such deposits held by branches of U.S.,banks. Thus a dollar with a bank in London or Paris is a Eurodollar deposit. Similarly, a Deutsche mark deposit Continue reading
Econometric Forecasting Models
Econometric model building holds considerable promise as a method of forecasting demand. The best starting point towards an understanding of the basis of econometric forecasting is regression analysis. But the difficulty with regression analysis is that it is used to forecast a single dependent variable based on the value and the relations between one or more independent variables and each of these independent variables is assumed to be exogenous or outside the influence of the dependent variable. This may be true in many situations. But unfortunately, in most broad economic situations an assumption that each of the variable, is independent is unrealistic. For example, let us assume that demand is a function of Gross National Product (GNP), price and advertising. In regression terms we would assume that all three independent variables are exogenous to the system and hence are not influenced by the level of demand itself or by one Continue reading
Meaning of Profit in Economics
Profit means different things to different people. The word ‘profit’ has different meanings to business, accountants, tax collectors workers and economists. In a general sense, profit is regarded as income of the equity shareholders. Similarly wages getting accumulated of a labor, rent accruing to the owners of any land or building and interest getting due to the investors capital of a business, are a kind of profit for labors, land owners and investors. To an accountant, profit means the excess of revenue over all paid out costs including both manufacturing and overhead expenses. It is much similar to net profit. In economics, profit is called pure profit, which may be defined as a residual left after all contractual costs have been met, including the transfer costs of management insurable risks, depreciation and payment to shareholders, sufficient to maintain investment at its current level. Profit is usually perceived as earnings and Continue reading
Flat Tax System
An alternative to the global tax system or comprehensive taxation system is the so called flat tax system. Herewith a flat proportional taxation for all net income types, capital, labor and other income is installed. This taxation system does not consider the taxpayers ability to pay taxes but sets a flat level for all income types. Some east European countries (Russia and Slovakia) have installed this taxation system. Russia replaced its progressive taxation system with a single flat tax rate of 13%. Under a pure flat tax without deductions, companies could simply, every period, make a single payment to the government covering the flat tax liabilities of their employees and the taxes owed on their business income. For example, suppose that in a given year, XYZ Company earns a profit of 3 million, pays 2 million in salaries, and spends an added 1 million on other expenses the IRS deems Continue reading