Программа по формированию навыков безопасного поведения на дорогах и улицах «Добрая дорога детства» 2
Скачать 0.8 Mb.
|
13 Foreign trade is an essential part of nation’s economy and governmental restrictions are sometimes necessary to protect national interests. Government actions may occur in response to the trade polices of other countries or in order to protect specific depressed industries. Since the beginning of foreign trade, nations have tried to maintain a favorable balance of trade – that is, to export more than they import. Products are bought and sold in the international market with national currencies. Trying to improve its balance of international payments, that is, to increase reserves of its own currency and reduce the amount held by foreigners, a country may attempt to limit imports. The aim of such policy is to control the amount of currency that leaves the country. One method of limiting imports is simply to close the channels of entry into a country. For this purposes quotas may be set for specific products. They serve as the quickest method of stopping or even reversing a negative trend in a country’s balance of payments and of protecting domestic industries from foreign competition. Another common way of restricting imports is to impose tariffs or taxes on imported goods. A tariff paid by the buyer of the imported product makes the price higher for that good in the importing country. The higher price reduces consumer demand, effectively restricting the import. The taxes collected on the importing goods also increase revenues for the nation’s government. In recent years the use of non-tariff barriers to trade has increased. It may be done by some administrative regulations that discriminate against foreign goods in favour of domestic ones. These regulations may include various measures such as adopting special domestic tax policies or strict standards on imported goods, ordering government officers to use domestically produced goods. However, these barriers are not necessarily imposed by a government, for example organized public campaigns “buy only American” or “don’t buy beef of mad cows” may be effective as well. 14 Production and Costs Whether they are film producers of multimillion-dollar epics or small firms that market a single product, suppliers face a difficult task. Producing an economic good or service requires a combination of land, labour, capital, and entrepreneurs. The theory of production deals with the relationship between the factors of production and the output of goods and services. The theory of production is generally based on the short run, a period of production that allows producers to change only the amount of the variable input called labour. This contrasts with the long run, a period of production long enough for producers to adjust the quantities of all their resources, including capital. The Law of Variable Proportions state that, in the short run, output will change as one input is varied while the others are held constant. The Law of Variable Proportions deals with the relationship between the input of productive resources and the output of productive resources and the output of final products. The law helps answer the question: How is the output of the final product affected as more units of one variable input or resource are added to fixed amount of other resources? Of course, it is possible to vary all the inputs at the same time. Economists do not like to do this, however, because when more than one factor of production is varied, it becomes harder to gauge the impact of a single variable on total output. When it comes to determining the optimal number of variable units to be used in production, changes in marginal product are of special interest. There are three stages of production – increasing returns, diminishing returns, and negative returns – that are based on the way marginal product changes as the variable input of labour is changed. In stage one, the first workers hired cannot work efficiently because there are too many resources per worker. As the number of workers increases, they make better use of their machinery and resources. This results in increasing returns (or increasing marginal products) for the first five workers hired. As long as each new worker hired contributes more to total output than the worker before, total output rises at an increasingly faster rate. This stage is known as the stage of increasing returns. In stage two, the total production keeps growing, by smaller and smaller amount. This stage illustrates the principle of diminishing returns, the stage where output increases at a diminishing rate as more units of variable input are added. The third stage of production begins when the eleventh worker is added. By this time, the firm has hired too many workers, and they are starting to get in each other's way. Marginal product becomes negative and total plant output decreases. Measures of Costs Because the cost of inputs influences efficient production decision, a business must analyze costs before making its decision. To simplify decision making, cost is divided into several different categories. The first category is fixed cost – the cost that a business incurs even if the plant is idle and output is zero. Total fixed cost, or overhead, remains the same whether a business produces nothing, very little, or a large amount. Fixed costs include salaries paid to executives, interest charges on bonds, rent payments- on leased properties, and local and state property taxes. Fixed costs also include deprecation, the gradual wear and tear on capital goods over time and through use. Another kind of cost is variable cost, a cost that changes when the business rate of operation or output changes. Variable costs generally are associated with labor and raw materials. The total cost of production is the sum of the fixed and variable costs. Another category of cost is marginal cost – the extra cost incurred when a business producers one additional unit of a product. Because fixed costs do not change from one level of production to another, marginal cost is the per-unit increase in variable costs that stems from using additional factors of production. The cost and combination, or mix, of inputs affects the way businesses produce. The following examples illustrate the importance of costs to business firms. Consider the case of a self-serve gas station with many pumps and a single attendant who works in an enclosed booth. This operation is likely to have large fixed costs, such as the cost of the lot, the pumps and tanks, and the taxes and licensing fees paid to state and local governments. The variable costs, on the other hand, are relatively small. As a result, the owner may operate the station 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a relatively low cost. As a result, the extra wages, the electricity, and other costs are minor and may be covered by the profits of the extra sales. Measures of Revenue Businesses use two key measures of revenue to find the amount of output that will produce the greatest profits. The first is total revenue, and the second is marginal revenue. The total revenue is the number of units sold multiplied by the average price per unit. The marginal revenue is determined by dividing the change in total revenue by the marginal product. Keep in mind that whenever an additional worker is added, the marginal revenue computation remains the same. If a business employs, for example, five workers, it produces 90 units of output and generates $ 1,350 of total revenue. If a sixth worker is added, output increases by 20 units, and total revenues increase to $ 1,600. To have increased total revenue by $ 300, each of the 20 additional units of output must have added $ 15. If each unit of output sells for $ 15, the marginal or extra revenue earned by the sale of one more unit is $ 15 for every level of output. Marginal revenue can remain constant but businesses often find that marginal revenues start high and then decrease as more units are produced and sold. Marginal Analysis Economists use marginal analysis, a type of cost-benefit decision making that compares the extra benefits to the extra costs of an action. Marginal analysis is helpful in a number of situations, including break-even analysis and profit maximization. In each case the costs and benefits of decisions that are made in small, incremental steps. The break-even point is the total output or total product the business needs to sell in order to cover its total costs. A business wants to do more than break even, however. It wants to make as much profits as it can. But, how many workers and what level of output are needed to generate the maximum profits? The owner of the business can decide by comparing marginal costs and marginal revenues. In general, as long as the marginal cost is less than the marginal revenue, the business will keep hiring workers. When marginal cost is less than marginal revenue, more variable inputs should be hired to expand output. The profit-maximizing quantity of output is reached when marginal cost and marginal revenue are equal. Evolution of Modern Marketing Marketing, in economics, is that part of the process of production and exchange that is concerned with the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer. In popular usage it is defined as the distribution and sale of goods, distribution being understood in a broader sense than the technical economic one. Marketing includes the activities of all those engaged in the transfer of goods from producer to consumer – not only those who buy and sell directly, wholesale and retail, but also those who develop, warehouse, transport, insure, finance, or promote the product, or otherwise have a hand in the process of transfer. In a modern capitalist economy, where nearly all production is intended for a market, such activities are just as important as the manufacture of the goods. It is estimated in the United States that approximately 50 % of the retail price paid for a commodity is made up of the cost of marketing. In a subsistence-level economy there is little need for exchange of goodsbecause the division of labor is at a rudimentary level: most people. produce the same or similar goods. Interregional exchange between disparate geographic areas depends on adequate means of transportation. Thus, before the development of caravan travel and navigation, the exchange of the products of one region for those of another was limited. The village market or fair, the itinerant merchant or peddler, and the shop where customers could have such goods as shoes and furniture made to order were features of marketing in rural Europe. The general store superseded the public market in England and was an institution of the American country town. In the United States in the 19th century the typical marketing setup was one in which wholesalers assembled the products of various manufacturers or producers and sold them to jobbers and retailers. The independent store, operated by its owner, was the chief retail marketing agency. In the 20th century that system met stiff competition from chain stores, which were organized for the mass distribution of goods and enjoyed the advantages of large-scale operation. Today large chain stores dominate the field of retail trade. The concurrent advent of the motor truck and paved highway, making possible the prompt delivery of a variety of goods in large quantities, still further modified marketing arrangement, and the proliferation of the automobile has expanded the geographic area in which a consumer can make retail purchases. At all points of the modern marketing system people have formed associations and eliminated various middlemen in order to achieve more efficient marketing. Manufacturers often maintain their own wholesale departments and deal directly with retailers. Independent stores may operate their own wholesale agencies to supply them with goods. Wholesale houses operate outlets for their wares, and farmers sell their products through their own wholesale cooperatives. Recent years have seen the development of wholesale clubs, which sell retail items to consumers who purchase memberships that give them the privilege of shopping at wholesale prices. Commodity exchanges, such as those of grain and cotton, enable businesses to buy and sell commodities for both immediate and future delivery. Methods of merchandising have also been changed to attract customers. The one-price system, probably introduced (in 1841) by A. T. Stewart in New York, saves sales clerks from haggling and promotes faith in the integrity of the merchant. Advertising has created an international market for many items, especially trademarked and labeled goods. In 1999 more than $ 308 billion was spent on advertising in the United States alone. The number of customers, especially for durable goods, has been greatly increased by the practice of extending credit, particularly in the form of installment buying and selling. Customers also buy through mail-order catalogs (much expanded from the original catalog sales business of the late 1800s), by placing orders to specialized "home-shopping" television channels, and through on-line transactions ("e-commerce") on the Internet. There are many possible ways to satisfy the needs of target customers. A product can have many different features and quality levels. Service levels can be adjusted. The package can be of various sizes, colors, or materials. The brand name and warranty can be changed. Various advertising media – newspapers, magazines, radio, television, billboards – may be used. A company's own sales force or other sales specialists can be used. Different prices can be charged. Price discount can be given, and so on. Marketing should begin with potential customer needs – not with the production process. Marketing should try to anticipate these needs. And then marketing, rather than production, should determine what goods and services are to be developed – including decisions about product design and packaging; prices or fees; credit and collection policies; use of middlemen; transporting and storing poHcies; advertising and sales policies; and, after the sale, installation, warranty, and perhaps even disposal policies. This does not mean that marketing should try to take over production, accounting, and financial activities. Rather, it means that marketing – by interpreting customers' needs – should provide direction for these activities and try to coordinate them. After all, the purpose of a business or nonprofit organization is to satisfy customer or client needs. It is not to supply goods and services that are convenient to produce and might sell or be accepted free. True and Fair Is not Hard and Fast For accounts to reflect reality, they need to be more volatile and less precise. The procession of companies admitting to having lied in their reported accounts has undermined faith in corporate numbers and put the accounting profession under pressure to change its ways. In the 1990s, accountants clearly failed to keep up with the tricks that were devised to help companies inflate their profits. The first priority for those who set accounting rules has been to try to choke off the most obvious loopholes. Looking further into the future, however, some see the crisis in accounting as an opportunity to change the shape and content of accounts more fundamentally. The growing use of market values for assets and liabilities (instead of the accidental "historic cost" at which they were obtained) is going to make shareholders' equity and profits swing around far more than in the past. Under such circumstances, profits may come to be stated as a range of figures, each of them arrived at by using different accounting assumptions. This may sound worryingly uncertain, but it might be better than trying to rely on a brittle illusion of accounting exactitude, which is liable to collapse during times of economic strain. For the moment though, the efforts of regulators and standard-setters are focused on five main areas: Pro-forma accounts. These are the first sets of results produced by companies in America: they are unaudited and do not follow America's GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). In the years of the stock market bubble they were shamelessly abused. Companies regularly reported huge profits in their pro-forma earnings statements, only to register even larger losses in their official filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Since the end of March this year, companies have been compelled to show how they reconcile their pro-forma figures with the numbers subsequently produced according to GAAP rules, of which there are hundreds. |
