economic laws - established on the basis of experience, practical activities, stable, significant patterns and relationships between economic phenomena, processes, relationships, characterizing their values ​​and indicators.

The law of the rise of needs is an objective law, according to which the world is undergoing a process of increasing types (names), varieties, changing the structure (in favor of quality) of consumer goods and services and their quality. The number of types of goods and services doubles in about 10 years, their volumes in physical terms and structure change differentially for each assortment group.

The law of the relationship between demand and price (the law of demand) characterizes the change in the price of a product when the demand for it changes (with a constant level of quality). With a decrease in the price of a product, the demand for it rises, and with an increase in price, on the contrary, it decreases, that is, the buyer either does not have the means to buy this product, or he buys a substitute product.

The law of demand describes the behavior of buyers when the price of a product changes. The behavior of sellers (manufacturers) of goods on the market describes the law of supply. The offer is that aspect market relations, which reflects the direct relationship between the market price of a product and its quantity offered by the seller, manufacturer or intermediary. The law of supply characterizes the change in the price of a good when its supply changes in the market. If prices rise, then more goods of this name will enter the market, the market stimulates an increase in the volume of supply, it is beneficial for sellers (manufacturers) to increase sales (production volume). Conversely, if the price of a given product on the market decreases (under the influence of market mechanisms, not sellers), then it becomes unprofitable for sellers to offer this product on such a market and its supply will decrease.

Mechanism of action the law of the relationship between supply and demand explained by the interaction of the supply curve and the demand curve. The supply curve shows how much of a good and at what price producers can sell in the market. The higher the price, the greater the number of firms has the ability to produce and sell goods. A higher price allows existing firms to expand production in a short period of time by attracting additional labor or the use of other factors, and in a long period of time - due to the extensive development of production itself. A higher price can also attract new firms to the market, which still have high production costs and whose products at low prices are unprofitable.

The demand curve shows how much of a product consumers are willing to buy at each price. The buyer usually prefers to buy more if the price is lower (at the same level of quality). The two curves intersect at the equilibrium point of supply and demand, i.e., when the price and quantity of goods are balanced on both curves. At this point, there is neither a shortage nor an oversupply, which means there is no pressure to change the price further. This law operates in conditions of perfect, or pure, competition.

Law of Increasing Additional Costs characterizes the structure of the country's wealth, the relationship between accumulation and consumption. On an aggregated basis, accumulations include acquired or created material and intangible assets, for consumption - a set of goods and services created for personal consumption by individuals. The level of wealth of the country as a whole is determined by the level of its integrated development and natural and climatic conditions. With incomplete use of resources, additional costs increase, with the same level of consumption, the share of accumulation decreases, the share of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. The efficiency of resource use in Russia is 2-3 times lower than in industrial developed countries, and GDP per capita - 4-6 times less.

law of diminishing returns manifests itself at the micro level: it shows that it takes more cost units to obtain each subsequent unit of efficiency than to obtain the previous unit of efficiency, when the law of scale has already exhausted itself. For example, when the strength of competition increases, the increment of each subsequent market share requires more costs than the increment of the market by the same share in the previous period. Or the achievement of each additional increase in the reliability of the machine requires funds many times more than was spent on achieving the previous same share of reliability.

The Law of Economic Interrelation of Costs in the Spheres of Production and Consumption reflects the ratio of costs in the areas of production (development, manufacture, storage) and consumption (delivery, use, restoration, disposal) of the object. Any strategic decisions should take these types of costs into account. A significant increase, for example, in the quality of an object entails an increase in production costs while reducing the share of operating costs in total costs. In this case optimal level quality will be achieved at the lowest total cost.

Law of scale effect It manifests itself in the fact that with an increase in the program for the production of products or the performance of any work (up to the optimal value), conditionally fixed (or indirect) costs, which include general factory and general workshop costs, decrease per unit of production, reducing its cost accordingly. At the same time, the quality of the products is improved. Studies show that the output program can be increased by increasing the market share by increasing the competitiveness of products, performing a set of works on the unification and aggregation of homogeneous products. Due to the scale factor, the cost of homogeneous products can be reduced by up to two times, and the quality of its manufacture can be increased by up to 40%.

Scheme of action experience effect law performance of work or the development of new products is similar to the scheme of the law of scale. It is obvious that if a person performs work for the first time, then he will spend several times more time than after fully mastering the methods, techniques and skills of performing this work.

The law of economy of time in the author's interpretation says that innovative activity should ensure a steady increase in efficiency similar objects, i.e., reducing the sum of the costs of past (reified), living and future labor for the life cycle of a given object per unit of its useful effect (return) compared to the previous model of the object or the best world model.

The category of "future labor" in economic theory was not and is not, as a result of which the law of saving time in the scientific and educational literature was considered (in Soviet times) and is now considered as saving the amount of past and living labor per unit of output. Such a narrow static approach to the main law of the efficiency of social production - the law of saving time - excludes from the scope of research the operating costs and the beneficial effect of the object, leads in the future to inefficient use of resources on a national economic scale.

Law of competition- the law, according to which the world is undergoing an objective process of constant improvement in the quality of products and services, reducing their unit price (price divided by the useful effect of the object). The law of competition that we have formulated is an objective process of “washing out” low-quality expensive products from the market. The law of competition can work for a long time only under the action of high-quality antimonopoly legislation.

Ministry of Education

Russian Federation

Academy of Budget and Treasury

Ministry of Finance Russian Federation

Faculty of Finance and Accounting

Kaluga branch

(extramural)

TEST

By discipline:

Economic theory

Students:Denisova Marina Vyacheslavovna

Groups: 1-FC 6

topic: "Economic laws and categories"

Speciality:"Finance and Credit"

___________________ ____________________

Date of receipt Work credit.

Works in the dean's office Signature of the teacher

Moscow, 2001.

Plan.

1. Introduction. Page 2

2. Economic laws. 3-8

a. general definition. 3-5

b. the law of value. 5-7

c. law of demand. 7-8

d. law monetary circulation. 8

e. conclusion. 8

3. Economic categories. 8-12

a. General definition. 8

b. Property as an economic category 8-11

c. Government credit as an economic category 11-12

4. References 13

“The ideas of economists ... are of much greater importance than is commonly thought. In fact, only they rule the world».

John Maynard Keynes.

1. Introduction.

A necessary condition in the study of economic theory is a certain constancy and correct order in the phenomena she studies. Science concerning every kind of phenomena is possible when it can be shown that these phenomena are subject to certain kinds of laws, i.e. they constantly accompany each other or follow one after another in a certain order accessible to observation and study. Each person obeys his mind, will, interests in his economic activity. Based on such observations, statesmen have repeatedly tried to change the direction economic activity by influencing the human will.

But this is contradicted by certain observations, which differ from the previous ones only in that economic actions are taken on a broader scale.

The components of modern economic theory are: the theory of optimal functioning national economy and its elements; the theory of economic efficiency, including rationalistic theories of consumption, production, distribution and exchange. It is a science that studies the evolution of the system of rational management, sources and factors of growth of national wealth and the well-being of individual groups of society.

Economic theory studies stable, essential, recurring connections, since it is them that an economic subject should take into account in his activities. This -- economic laws.

2. Economic laws.

As the well-known English economist A. Marshall argued, economic laws are an expression of social trends, "a generalization that states that under certain conditions, members of a social group can be expected to act in a certain way."

In the literature we find the following definition of economic law:

An economic law is an essential, necessary, stable relationship in economic phenomena and processes that determines their development.

In accordance with this definition, one can treat economic law as a special objective phenomenon and study its essence, content, structure (form) and conditions of action and manifestation.

The essence of economic law lies in expressing the essential connection of the mode of production, that is, the concretization of the essence of the law is directly related to the disclosure of the essence of this connection, which is predominantly a causal, causal relationship, one side of which determines the other.

According to its content, economic law is dialectical in nature. The elements of the content of the law are:

1. sides of a causal relationship;

2. the process of interaction between these parties;

3. forms of interaction between them;

4. the result of this interaction.

The complication of economic life and the interweaving of economic ties, the increase in influencing factors lead to the fact that traditional economic laws are modified and neutralized, manifesting themselves as trends in the development of a given period or a specific historical era.

The society has a system of economic laws. They are interconnected. There are the following economic laws:

1. universal laws- operating at all stages of development of human society, in all socio-economic formations:

i. Laws of rising needs;

ii. Laws of social division of labor;

iii. Laws of increasing labor productivity, etc.

2. General Economic Laws - act in the presence of general socio-economic conditions (commodity-money relations):

i. Laws of value;

ii. Laws of supply and demand;

iii. Laws of money circulation and. others

Law of value:

The law of value presupposes the formation of individual costs of labor and resources for each individual commodity producer and, accordingly, the formation of individual value and individual price, however, the market does not recognize these individual values ​​and, accordingly, prices, but social, market values ​​and prices, which are based on public necessary labor costs.

The law of value has an objective character, however, this objectivity cannot be understood in the sense that no external factors are able to influence market prices. Specific forms and levels of market prices are influenced by a variety of factors, and not just the influence of social necessary costs labor.

The law of value is the law of prices , because external form manifestations of value are prices. Price is the content of market relations between market participants, price- the form of this content. The law of value and intra-industry competition form the sectoral levels of market prices. Individual prices may not coincide with the sectoral price level, so commodity producers in the same industry receive different amounts of profit per unit of capital. The law of value and intersectoral competition form intersectoral market production prices. Commodity producers of various industries receive different amounts of profit per unit of capital, which leads to the overflow of capital and the formation of production prices, which determine the receipt of equal profit for equal capitals.

The sum of the prices of production on the scale of society is equal to the sum of the values, the redistribution of value as a result of the overflow of capital reflects the accounting for the costs of capital, however general level production prices and their change are ultimately determined by the level and change of market value, the level and change of socially necessary labor inputs.

Summarize. The essence of the law of value lies in the fact that in commodity production the basis of the proportions of exchanged commodities is determined by the market value, the value of which, in turn, is predetermined by socially necessary expenditures of labor.

Functions of the law of value. The law of value performs the following functions:

First function- accounting for social labor through the formation of socially necessary labor costs.

Second functionconsists in the fact that the law ensures the distribution of labor between the various spheres of production. Through the mechanism of fluctuations of market prices around the cost, there is an overflow and movement of factors of production from one sector of the national economy to another, the ratio between the release of various goods is regulated.

Third function- stimulating. The law of cost stimulates the reduction of production costs. If individual labor costs exceed the socially necessary ones, then in order not to go bankrupt, the commodity producer is obliged to reduce the value of these costs. Entrepreneurs strive to produce products with less individual labor costs, which at given prices provides a number of economic advantages - faster sales of goods, more income and profits. And, as you know, profit is an objective incentive for the development of productive forces based on the acceleration of scientific and technical progress.

Fourth function - distributive, when with the help of prices the distribution and redistribution of the social product between regions and enterprises is carried out.

Fifth functionThe law of value lies in the fact that on its basis there is a differentiation of commodity producers. The individual labor costs of commodity producers are not the same. When selling goods, commodity producers whose goods are below the socially necessary ones will find themselves in an advantageous position - they will receive additional income. And vice versa, those of them whose individual costs are higher than socially necessary and they are not able to compensate for their labor costs, suffer losses, are often subject to bankruptcy, and go bankrupt.

So the law of value is:

1. It stimulates those producers whose individual labor costs are below the socially necessary ones.

2. It causes the differentiation of commodity producers depending on the ratio of their individual labor costs to the socially necessary ones.

3. Encourages cost reduction.

4. Regulates the distribution of labor according to the spheres of production.

5. It manifests itself as the law of prices - prices are based on value. Its functions are carried out both when price is equal to value, and when they diverge.

6. It creates the basis of a cost or market mechanism for regulating the proportions of production.

The action of the law of value cannot be absolute, because its role in the market economy system has limited nature. This law quite convincingly explains the economic motives of the behavior of the commodity producer, the seller. But, remaining within the framework of this law alone, it is difficult, and in some cases impossible, to explain the economic behavior of another market entity - the buyer, the consumer. Indeed, when selling his commodity, the commodity producer would like to sell it at a price that would fully reimburse all his costs and bring the maximum profit. Consequently, the entire logic of its behavior is predetermined by the requirements of the law of value. The consumer of the goods finds himself in a different position: the buyer is little or not at all interested in the producer's costs for this product, his economic interest is that the price be low and the quality of the goods high. But, the most important thing is that the buyer appreciates or does not appreciate the consumer qualities of the product, its usefulness, whether it is necessary or unnecessary for itself. The behavior of this

market subject cannot be explained by the requirements of the law of value. It requires knowledge of another law of the market - the law of supply and demand.

The law of demand.

So what is such an important law - the law of demand?

In fact, it sounds like this: the higher the prices, the lower the demand, and vice versa, the lower the prices, the higher the demand. Thus, the main factor that affects demand is price.

Demand is also influenced by non-price factors:

1. Income

2. The presence of this product on the market (deficit).

3. The psychology of shopping and consumer tastes.

4. Expectation effects: rising or falling prices

5. Availability of substitute goods (substitutes) on the market.

6. The presence on the market of complementary goods (complementary).

All non-price factors are considered in the economy not in dynamics, but in statics, i.e. permanent. This means that none of these factors can have such a decisive influence on demand as price. Therefore, the term "ceteris paribus" is used.

However, demand is “opposed” by such a concept as “supply”.

"Offer" is a general term that characterizes the behavior of actual and potential sellers of goods.

Product supply volume - this is the amount of goods that sellers are willing to sell for a certain period (for example, a day or a year). The volume of supply depends on the price of the goods and other factors, primarily on the prices of the resources used in production and the production technologies available to sellers.

The terms "demand" and "supply" are characterized bythe theory of supply and demand. The essence of this theory boils down to the following - the value or price of a commodity is determined not by the labor spent on its production, but solely by supply and demand. According to this theory, if demand exceeds supply, then the cost of goods will increase, and when supply increases while demand remains unchanged, the cost of goods will decrease. Supporters of the theory of supply and demand were: the French economist J. B. Say and the English economist G. D. Macleod. The mathematical expression of the theory of supply and demand is found in L. Walras. This theory was also adhered to by representatives of the Austrian school - K. Meiger, E. Böhm-Bawerk, F. Wieser. The English economist A. Marshall tried to combine the theory of supply and demand with the theory of marginal utility and the theory of production costs. The American economist P. Samuelson called this combination an optimistic neoclassical synthesis.

The law of money circulation.

The law of money circulation expresses an objective relationship between quantity paper money in circulation and the price level. The law states that the purchasing power of money is durable if its quantity corresponds to the needs of the market for a certain amount of money. This mass is directly proportional to the sum of prices for goods and paid services and inversely proportional to the velocity of money circulation.

There are also many other economic laws, for example: the law of falling efficiency of additional costs of production factors, the law of accumulation, etc. etc.

Conclusion.

So, economic laws act as the dominant trend of social economic development society. They manifest themselves not in each individual phenomenon or process, but in their entirety over rather long periods of time. They are not demonic overlords who turn people into obedient servants, they determine the general logic of economic development. People are not powerless before these economic laws, they are not deprived of their interests and active initiative in their implementation. Laws are not dependent on the will and consciousness of people, but not on their activities. These are the laws of the production and economic activity of people, social actions, and they take place only in human society. Having learned the economic laws and carrying out their production and economic activities in line with them, people achieve high results in their activities, while activities that run counter to them bring difficulties.Accounting for economic laws is an indispensable condition for successful economic activity.

3. Economic categories.

Economic category - this is a logical concept that reflects in an abstract form the most significant aspects of economic phenomena, processes, mechanisms. Abstractions that reflect reality have their own life cycle. They may leave scientific circulation, may return, depending on how relevant they are, i.e. how intensively the processes of reality proceed, which they reflect.

Since economic phenomena, processes and mechanisms are interconnected in space and time, the categories that reflect them are also interconnected, which manifests itself as interaction, opposition, complementarity and neutrality. in economic science and reflect economic categories. The economic category is a scientifically collective concept, abstractly, generalized characterizing the essence of many homogeneous, similar economic phenomena.

The tool of scientific knowledge of production and economic phenomena and processes is an abstraction that reflects real economic relations in the scientific consciousness ...

Let's look at a few examples:

Property as an economic category.

Ownbelongs to the number of such concepts around which for many centuries the best minds of mankind interbreed. However, the matter is not limited to the struggle in theoretical terms. Social upheavals, from which the whole world sometimes shudders, have one of their main causes, in the final analysis, attempts to change the existing property relations, to establish a new system of these relations. In some cases these attempts have been successful, in others they have failed. It happened that the society really moved to a new, higher level of its development. But it happened that, as a result of the breakdown of property relations, society was thrown far back and fell into a quagmire from which it did not know how to get out.

In our country during the twentieth century there was a breakdown of property relations twice. The first began in October 1917 and ended with an unprecedented catastrophe, the consequences of which will be assessed from geometrically opposite positions for more than one generation. The second is happening today. Its main goal is to return property relations to their true content, to put together a sufficiently wide layer of private owners who would become the social support of the current regime. So what is property?

In the simplest way, property can be defined as the attitude of one person (collective) to the thing belonging to him (them), as to his own. Ownership rests on the distinction between "mine" and "yours." Any type and any form of property, no matter how high in a particular case and the level of socialization or, what is the same, the level of collectivization of property, can exist only on condition that someone treats the conditions and products of production as their own. , and someone to strangers. Without it, there is no property at all. From this point of view, any form of ownership is private, no matter what ideological tinsel, pursuing quite prosaic goals, it may be covered up.

From the elementary definition of property, which is given, it follows that property is the relation of a person to a thing. This, however, is not the content of ownership. Since property is unthinkable without other persons who are not the owners of the given thing to treat it as someone else's, property means the relationship between people about things. On one pole of this relationship stands the owner, who treats the thing as in his own, on the other - non-owners, i.e. all third parties who are obliged to treat it as a stranger. This means that third parties are obliged to refrain from any encroachment on someone else's thing, and, consequently, on the will of the owner, which is embodied in this thing. It follows from the definition of property that it has a material substratum in the form. A volitional content is also inherent in property, since it is the sovereign will of the owner that determines the existence of the thing belonging to him.

Own is a public attitude. Without the relation of other persons to the thing belonging to the owner as to someone else's, there would be no relation to it by the owner himself as to his own. The content of property as a social relation is revealed through those connections and relations that the owner necessarily enters into with other people in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods.

So, property is a social relation, which has a material substratum and volitional content. Property is a property relation, and in a number of property relations it occupies a dominant place. This, however, is not enough to characterize the property. It is necessary to show in what specific forms the volitional acts of the owner in relation to the thing belonging to him can be expressed. Of course, we are not talking about lining up a list of such acts. This is impossible, because, in principle, the owner can do everything in relation to his thing that is not prohibited by law or does not contradict the social nature of property. The will of the owner in relation to the thing belonging to him is expressed in the possession, use and disposal of it.

Ultimately, the specific acts of the owner in relation to the thing are reduced to them.

Ownershipmeans the economic domination of the owner over the thing. Ownership expresses the statistics of property relations, the attachment of things to individuals and collectives.

Usemeans extracting from a thing useful properties through its productive and personal consumption.

Dispositionmeans the commission of acts in relation to a thing that determine its fate, up to the destruction of the thing. This is the alienation of a thing, and its leasing, and a pledge of a thing, and much more. The dynamics of property relations is already expressed in use and disposal.

In view of what has been said, let us concretize the definition of property given earlier. Ownership is the attitude of a person to a thing belonging to him as to his own, which is expressed in the possession, use and disposal of it, as well as in the elimination of the interference of all third parties in the sphere of economic domination over which the power of the owner extends.

In socio-economic literature, including legal literature, there is a widespread definition of property as the appropriation by an individual or a group of means and products of production within and through a certain social form or as the social form itself through which the appropriation is made. The definition of property using the category of appropriation goes back to the works of K. Marx, in which the categories of property and appropriation are indeed linked with each other. This connection can be traced with particular relief in the introduction “To the Critique of political economy". Such an approach to the definition of ownership is, in principle, possible. However, it should be taken into account that the concept of appropriation needs to be specified, and therefore can hardly be used to reveal the content of property without defining it. In addition, researchers, including K. Marx, put different content into the concept of appropriation. From this point of view, possession, use and disposal, as more specific economic categories, have undoubted advantages over the extremely abstract category of appropriation. The efficiency of these categories in the definition of ownership is immeasurably higher than the appropriation categories.

Property has been presented as an economic category to human society throughout its history, with the exception, perhaps, of those initial stages when a person has not yet emerged from nature and satisfied his needs with the help of such more simple ways appropriation, as possession and use. Of course, over the course of the centuries-long history of mankind, property has undergone significant changes, mainly due to the development of productive forces, sometimes quite stormy, as, for example, it took place during the industrial revolution or is taking place now in the era of the scientific and technological revolution.

It is customary to distinguish between primitive communal, slave-owning, feudal-serf and capitalist types of property. Until recently, the socialist type of property was also singled out as a special one, for which, apparently, there were no sufficient grounds. In none of the countries of the world that were once part of the socialist commonwealth, socialism was actually built. The direct producers in these countries were still subjected to exploitation; the reunification of the means of production with the workers in production did not really take place. The type of property that, under the conditions of a totalitarian regime (sometimes undisguised, but in some cases veiled) was established in these countries, bizarrely combined the characteristic features inherent in the types of property, both of previous eras and those of the present.

The recognition of property as a special and at the same time historically changeable economic category, with all the differences in approaches to it, is dominant both in political and economic and in legal science.

State credit as an economic

In the conditions of developed commodity-money relations, the state can attract free financial resources of economic structures and funds of the population to cover its expenses.

The main way to get them is a state loan. It expresses the relationship between the state and numerous individuals and legal entities regarding the formation of an additional money fund, along with the budget, in the hands of the state. When implementing credit operations inside the country, the state is usually the borrower of funds, and the population, enterprises and organizations are creditors. However, the state may also be in the role of a creditor. Such a phenomenon occurs not only in the sphere of interstate relations, but also in the internal financial life through the use of treasury loans.

Peculiarity state loan consists in the repayment, urgency and payment of the funds provided on loan.

Borrowed cash come at the disposal of public authorities, turning into their additional financial resources. They are directed, as a rule, to cover the budget deficit. Source of repayment government loans and payment of interest on them are budget funds. However, having improved relations through the state credit, the government does not refuse the possibility of mobilizing additional financial fund and under a balanced budget. This is a completely justified step, since the state credit fund can finance additional programs economic and socio-cultural immediately without waiting for the receipt of ordinary income.

Assessing financial value state credit, we should not forget that the funds mobilized with its help by the state are anticipatory, i.e. taxes taken in advance. Need for repayment public debt requires the search for additional resource revenues to the budget, and they can be obtained (except for new loans) only with the help of taxes. In addition, the repayment of debt obligations and the payment of interest on them divert part of the budget revenues from productive use, reduces the possibility of increasing the production and intellectual potential of society ...

Economic categories are true because there are relations of which they are a reflection. Various economic schools consider categories with different points vision, focusing on individual aspects and functions.

Bibliography:

1. “On the system of categories and laws political economy” Ed. ON THE. Tsagolov. Moscow University Press. M.1973.

2. "Economics" Samuelson P. Publishing house "Simntek" M.1992.

3. "American Management at the Threshold of the 21st Century" by D. Grayson, C. O'Dell. Publishing house "economy" 1991.

4. "Economic theory" textbook Edited by I.P. Nikolaeva. Moscow 2000Submit an application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.

Basic economic laws

§ Law of supply and demand

§ The law of general macroeconomic equilibrium

§ Law of private economic equilibrium

§ The law of the productive power of labor

§ Law of Competition

§ Law of value

§ Laws of monetary circulation

§ Laws of economic growth

§ Law of Increasing Opportunity Costs

§ Law of diminishing returns

§ Law of production efficiency

§ Law of proportionality

§ Law of accumulation

§ Law of the rise of economic needs

§ The law of the tendency of the falling rate of profit

Law of demand- the value (volume) of demand decreases as the price of goods increases.

Law of supply- with other factors unchanged, the value (volume) of supply increases as the price of the product increases.

Price - the basis of quantitative ratios in equivalent exchange.

Price- the amount of money in exchange for which the seller is ready to transfer (sell) a unit of goods.

3. Economic Needs. The pyramid of human needs. The Law of Increasing Needs. The concept of "good".

Economic needs are internal motives that encourage economic (production) activity. They are divided into primary (vital) and secondary (everything else). Examples of primary needs include the needs for food, clothing, shelter, and so on. Secondary needs include leisure needs (sports, art, entertainment, etc.). Of course, this division is arbitrary, but in general, primary needs include needs that cannot be replaced by one another, while secondary needs can. The means of satisfying needs are good (goods). Some of them are available in unlimited quantities (atmospheric air), others are quantitatively limited (things, services). It is limited (economic) goods that studies economic theory.

Pyramid of Needs- the common name for the hierarchical model of human needs, which is a simplified presentation of the ideas of the American psychologist A. Maslow.

universal economic law of increasing needs reflects the internally necessary, essential and permanent relationship between production and consumption, needs and existing opportunities their satisfaction. According to this law, the continuous development of needs is the driving force behind the economic and spiritual progress of mankind, which, in turn, stimulates the emergence of more and more new needs.

Good- everything that can satisfy the daily life needs of people, bring benefits to people, give pleasure. In the economic and social sense, a good means everything that, having a value, can also have a market price, therefore, in a broad sense, all property benefits are meant.

Economic resources and factors of production. Limited resources and limitless needs.

Which of the possible goods and services should be produced in a given economic system and in a certain period of time?

With what combination of production resources, using what technology, selected from options goods and services?

For whom?

Who will buy the selected goods and services, pay for them, while benefiting? How should the gross income of society from the production of these goods and services be distributed?

In its development, human society has used and is using various economic systems, among which there are traditional, market, command (or centralized) and mixed economies.

Traditional economy based on traditions passed down from generation to generation. These traditions determine what goods and services are produced, for whom, and how. The list of benefits, production technology and distribution are based on the customs of a given country. Economic roles members of society are determined by heredity and caste. This type of economy persists today in a number of ways. called underdeveloped countries, in which technical progress penetrates with great difficulty, because it, as a rule, undermines the customs and traditions established in these systems.

A market economy is characterized by private ownership of resources and the use of a system of markets and prices to coordinate economic activity and its management. What, how and for whom to produce is determined by the market, prices, profits and losses of economic entities.

The manufacturer strives to produce the products that satisfy the needs of the buyer and bring him the greatest profit. The consumer himself decides what product to buy and how much money to pay for it.

The question "for whom?" decided in favor of consumers with the highest income.

In such an economic system, the government intervenes in the economy. Its role is reduced to the protection of private property, the establishment of laws that facilitate the functioning of free markets.

A command or centralized economy is the opposite of market economy. It is based on state property for all material resources. All economic decisions are made government bodies that carry out centralized (directive) planning. For each enterprise, the production plan prescribes what, in what volume to produce; certain resources, equipment, labor, materials, etc. are allocated, which determines the solution of the question of how to produce; not only suppliers are indicated, but also buyers, that is, for whom to produce. The allocation of resources to the enterprise is carried out on the basis of long-term priorities, whereby the production of goods is constantly separated from the needs of members of society.

A mixed economy involves a combination of the regulatory role of the state and the economic freedom of producers. Entrepreneurs and workers move from industry to industry by their own decision, not by government directives. The state carries out antimonopoly, social, fiscal (tax) and other economic policies which contributes to some extent economic growth country and improve the living standards of the population.

Main economic actors: households, firms, state. Economic circle. The role of market economy subjects. The role of the state in the circulation. Economic goals of economic entities.

Subjects of the market economy households, firms, government. A household is an economic unit that consists of one or more decision makers, owners, and aspiring to satisfy their needs as much as possible. All consumers, workers, owners of large and small capital, means of production and land act as households. A firm is an economic unit that uses resources to produce goods and services for profit, owns or operates one or more businesses. The state is understood to mean all government institutions that have legal and political power to achieve public goals.

Economic circle. Functioning of any economic system associated with the movement of economic goods. economic circuit in a market economy is a circular movement of real economic benefits, accompanied by a counter flow cash income and expenses. Economic goods do not move by themselves, but act as a means of communication between economic agents. Economic agents - subjects economic relations involved in the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of economic goods. Main economic agents in a market economy are households (consumers) And firms (manufacturers). Since we are considering market mechanism, we do not include in the analysis (yet) the activities of such an economic agent as state.

The subjects of the market economy form:

Legal and individuals

Owner of land and others natural resources

Household as a subject of a market economy

The state as a subject of market relations

The firm as a subject of market relations

Non-profit, non-profit organizations

Entrepreneur as a subject of market economy.

The role of the state in the circulation:

8. Economic content of property relations.

Property is a complex social phenomenon, which is studied from different angles by several social sciences (philosophy, economics, jurisprudence...
Property is a complex social phenomenon, which is studied from different angles by several social sciences (philosophy, economics, jurisprudence, etc.). Each of these sciences gives its own definition of the concept of "property".
In economic science, property is understood as real relations between people that develop in the process of appropriation and economic use of property. The system of economic relations of ownership includes the following elements:
a) the relationship of appropriation of factors and production results;
b) relations of economic use of property;
c) relations of economic realization of property.
Appropriation is an economic bond between people that establishes their relationship to things as if they were their own. Four elements are distinguished in assignment relations: the object of assignment, the subject of assignment, the assignment relations themselves, and the form of assignment.
The object of assignment is that which is to be assigned. The object of appropriation can be the results of labor, i.e. material goods and services, real estate, labor, money, securities etc. Special meaning economics attaches to the appropriation of material factors of production, since it is the one who owns them that also owns the results of production.
The subject of appropriation is the one who appropriates the property. The subjects of appropriation can be individual citizens, families, groups, collectives, organizations and the state.
Actually, appropriation relations represent the possibility of complete alienation of property by one subject from other subjects (methods of alienation may be different).

The theory of property rights.

In modern economic theory, a whole direction has been developed economic analysis called neo-institutionalism. One of the most famous theories in this area is the economic theory of property rights.

Two well-known American economists stood at the origins of the theory of property rights - R. Coase, Nobel Prize winner in 1991, honorary professor at the University of Chicago and A. Alchian, professor at Los Angeles University.

Firstly, in their research they do not operate with the concept of "property", which is familiar to us, but use the term "property right". It is not the resource itself that is property, but the right to use the resource is what constitutes property.

Full right consists of the following eight elements:

1. Right of reference, i.e. right of exclusive physical control over the good.

2. The right to use, i.e. the right to use the beneficial properties of goods for oneself.

3. The right to manage, i.e. the right to decide who and how will ensure the use of benefits.

4. Right to income, i.e. the right to enjoy the results of the use of goods.

5. The right of the sovereign, i.e. the right to alienate, consume, change or destroy a good.

6. The right to safety, i.e. the right to be protected from expropriation of goods and from harm from the external environment.

7. The right to transfer wealth to the inheritance.

8. The right to indefinite possession of the good.

In addition, there are two elements:

1. Liability in the form of a penalty, i.e. the possibility of recovering a good in payment of a debt.

Property rights are understood as socially sanctioned (state laws, administrative orders, traditions, customs, etc.) behavioral relations between people that arise in connection with the existence of goods and relate to their use. These relationships represent the norms of behavior about the benefits that any person must observe in their interactions with other people or bear the cost of not observing them. In other words, property rights are nothing but certain "rules of the game" accepted in society. Property rights are the rights to control the use of certain resources and share the resulting costs and benefits. It is property rights that determine exactly how the processes of supply and demand are carried out in society.

Second distinguishing feature theory of property rights lies in the fact that the phenomenon of property is derived in it from the fact of limited resources. Therefore, the institution of ownership is the only possible institution for resolving the problems of "disproportion between the need and the amount of goods available for disposal" (Menger K. Foundations of political economy. M., 1992).

This discrepancy has led to the fact that the main way to form property relations is to limit the number (number) of owners. Thus, ownership relations are a system of restricting access to resources (ie, free access to them) meaning that they are nobody's, that they do not belong to anyone, or something the same - to everyone. Such resources do not constitute an object of ownership. When they are used, economic (market) relations do not arise between people.

Three main legal regimes are known in the economic activity of people: private property, state property, and mixed (based on these two) legal regimes.

The right of private property means that an individual person or entity has all or some of the above eight property rights. For example, you may have the first or fourth of the rights listed above, but not the rest of the rights. The combination of these rights, given that they are held by different physical and legal entities can be quite varied. Therefore, we can talk about the diversity of forms of private property.

The right of state ownership means that the entire set of rights or its various components is owned exclusively by the state, and the more all eight rights to the overwhelming mass of limited resources are realized by the state, the more the economic system claims to be a hierarchy.

11. Economic system - an ordered set of socio-economic and organizational relations between producers and consumers of goods and services.

Various criteria can underlie the selection of economic systems:

The economic state of society at a certain stage of development (Russia in the era of Peter I, Nazi Germany);

Stages of socio-economic development (socio-economic formations in Marxism);

Economic systems characterized by three groups of elements: spirit (the main motives of economic activity), structure and substance in the German historical school;

Types of organization associated with ways of coordinating the actions of economic entities in ordoliberalism;

Socio-economic system based on two features: the form of ownership of economic resources and the way in which economic activity is coordinated.

In modern scientific and educational literature, the classification according to the last of the selected criteria has become most widespread. Based on this, there are traditional, command, market and mixed economies.

Traditional economy based on the dominance of traditions and customs in economic activity. Technical, scientific and social development in such countries is very limited, because. it comes into conflict with the economic structure, religious and cultural values. This economic model was characteristic of the ancient and medieval society, but is preserved in modern underdeveloped states.

command economy due to the fact that most enterprises are state-owned. They carry out their activities on the basis of state directives, all decisions on the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods and services in society are made by the state. This includes the USSR, Albania, etc.

Market economy determined by private ownership of resources, the use of a system of markets and prices to coordinate and manage economic activity. In a free market economy, the state does not play any role in the distribution of resources, all decisions are made by market entities on their own, at their own peril and risk. This is usually referred to as Hong Kong.

In today's real life there are no examples of a purely command or purely market economy, completely free from the state. Most countries strive to organically and flexibly combine market efficiency with state regulation of the economy. Such an association forms a mixed economy.

mixed economy represents such an economic system where both the state and the private sector play an important role in the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of all resources and material goods in the country. At the same time, the regulatory role of the market is complemented by the mechanism state regulation, and private property coexists with public-state. The mixed economy arose in the interwar period and to this day represents the most effective form of management. Five main tasks can be identified mixed economy:

q ensuring employment;

q full utilization of production capacities;

q stabilization of prices;

q parallel growth of wages and labor productivity;

q equilibrium of the balance of payments.

Currently, Russia has an eclectic economic system, consisting of elements of an administrative-command system, a market economy of free competition and a modern market system. In the former Soviet Asian republics, elements are added to this conglomerate traditional system. Therefore, it is quite arbitrary to call the property relations and organizational forms existing in our country an economic system (even if it is eclectic). Absent important feature system - its relative stability. After all, in domestic economic life everything is in motion, has a transitional character. This transition, apparently, stretches over decades, and from this point of view, the transition economy can also be called a system.

12. The essence of the market - in its main economic functions expressing the main purpose of this category and reflecting its essence (Fig. 4.2).

Integrating function- consists in connecting the sphere of production (producers), the sphere of consumption (consumers), as well as intermediary traders, including them in the general process of active exchange of products of labor and services. Without a market, production cannot serve consumption, and consumers cannot satisfy their needs. The market contributes to the deepening of the social division of labor and the growth of integration processes in the economy. This function is relevant now for Russia and can serve as an important argument in favor of concluding an economic agreement between the republics and regions to create conditions for the functioning of a unified Russian market.

Regulating function implies the impact of the market on all spheres of the economy, ensures the coordination of production and consumption in the assortment structure, the balance of supply and demand in terms of price, volume and structure, proportionality in production and exchange between regions, spheres of the national economy. The market provides answers to the questions: what to produce?, for whom to produce?, how to produce? There is a regulatory "invisible hand" on the market, about which A.

Stimulating function consists in encouraging producers to create new products, necessary goods at the lowest cost and obtain sufficient profit; stimulation of scientific and technological progress and, on its basis, the intensification of production and the efficiency of the functioning of the entire economy. The fulfillment of the stimulating function by the market is very important for the development of the economy.

Pricing (or equivalent) function- this is the establishment of value equivalents for the exchange of products. At the same time, the market compares the individual labor costs for the production of goods with the social standard, i.e. compares costs and results, reveals the value of a product by determining not only the amount of labor expended, but also with what benefit.

Controlling function The market performs the role of the main controller of the final results of production. The market reveals to what extent the needs of buyers correspond not only to the quantity, but also to the quality of goods and services.

Intermediary function provides a meeting of economically isolated producers and consumers in order to exchange the results of labor. Without a market, it is impossible to determine how mutually beneficial this or that economic and technological connection between the participants in social production is. The consumer has the opportunity to choose the best seller-supplier, and the seller - the most suitable buyer.

Information function gives market participants through constantly changing prices, interest rates on credit objective information about the demand and supply of goods and services in the market.

Economy function implies a reduction in distribution costs in the sphere of consumption (costs of buyers for the purchase of goods) and proportionality of demand of the population with wages.

Interest realization function market entities ensures the interconnection of these interests according to the principle formulated by A. Smith: “Give me what I need, and you will get what you need ...”1 the lowest cost. The combination of these interests presupposes the exchange of usefulness to each other and the equivalence of a market transaction.

From the essence of the market and its functions, its role in the process of social reproduction logically follows. The concepts of "function" and "role" of the market are closely related. Function and role are, as it were, stages in the cognition of one and the same objective process. The function directly expresses the essence of the phenomenon and determines the role of the category that implements it.

The role of the market in social production comes down to this:

1) give a signal to production, what, in what volume and what structure should be produced, with the help of “reverse” primary links;

2) balance supply and demand, ensure a balanced economy;

3) to differentiate commodity producers in accordance with the efficiency of their work and focus on covering market demand;

4) the "sanitary" role of the market is reduced to the washing out of uncompetitive enterprises and the curtailment of obsolete industries.

Market- this is not only a general economic category inherent to one degree or another in all stages of the development of civilization, but it is also a complex socio-philosophical concept that is not limited only to the economic sphere, but includes historical, national, cultural, religious, psychological features of the development of peoples.

13. Demand for any product or service is the desire and ability of the consumer to buy a certain amount of a product or service at a certain price in a certain period of time.

Distinguish:

individual demand is the demand of a particular subject;

Market demand is the demand of all buyers for a given product.

Volume of demand is the quantity of a good or service that consumers are willing to buy at a given price in a given period of time. certain period time.

A change in quantity demanded is a movement along the demand curve. Occurs when the price of a good or service changes, other things being equal.

Law of demand: ceteris paribus, as a rule, the lower the price of a product, the more the consumer is ready to buy it, and vice versa, the higher the price of the product, the less the consumer is ready to buy it.

Factors affecting demand:

consumers' income

tastes and preferences of consumers;

prices for interchangeable and complementary goods;

Stocks of goods at consumers (expectation of consumers);

· product information;

time spent on consumption.

INDIVIDUAL DEMAND- the demand of a particular consumer; is the amount of goods corresponding to each given price that a particular consumer would like to buy in the market.

market demand- a set of individual demands.

Non-price demand factors include changes:

consumer income. For most goods, the following relationship is characteristic: an increase in income leads to an increase in demand for goods, and a decrease in its decrease. At the same time, an increase in income causes a shift in the demand curve to the right upwards, and a decrease in it causes a downward shift to the left. Goods that are characterized by this dependence are called normal. Goods for which there is an inverse relationship between the change in income and the magnitude of demand are called goods of the lowest category;

tastes and preferences of consumers, which leads to a change in demand and the removal or approximation of the demand curve to the origin;

Prices for interchangeable and complementary goods. If the price of one of the interchangeable goods increases, the demand for the other will increase, since a rational consumer will replace a more expensive product with one whose price has remained the same. This situation will be observed with an increase in prices for certain types meat, cereals, vegetables and other goods. In the case of complementary goods, an increase in the price of one good, such as gasoline, will cause a fall in demand for another, such as motor oil (the demand curve for motor oil will shift to the left);

consumer expectations. Thus, the expectation of further price increases, higher incomes, customs duties on imported goods will increase current demand and lead to a shift in the demand curve to the right.

Among the price factors of aggregate demand should be attributed primarily to the effect of the interest rate, the effect material assets, or real cash balances, and the effect of import purchases.

Interest rate effect: As the price level rises, so do interest rates, and rising interest rates are accompanied by a reduction in consumer spending and investment.

Effect of material values ​​(wealth effect): with rising prices, the purchasing power of such financial assets, like fixed-term accounts, bonds are declining, real incomes of the population are falling, which means that the purchasing power of families is declining. If prices fall, purchasing power will rise and costs will rise.

The effect of import purchases is expressed in the ratio of national prices and prices on the international market. If prices in the national market rise, buyers will buy more imported goods, and sales of domestic goods will decrease in the international market. Thus, the effect of import purchases leads to a decrease in aggregate demand for domestic goods and services. The decline in commodity prices enhances the export opportunities of the economy and increases the share of exports in the total demand of the population.

Non-price demand factors include changes in consumer, investment, government spending, and spending on net exports.

The size of aggregate demand is affected by consumer debt. If a person has purchased a large item on credit, for a certain time he will limit himself to other purchases in order to pay off the loan as soon as possible. However, it is worth repaying the debt, as the demand for purchases will quickly increase.

There is a direct relationship between size income tax and aggregate demand. The tax reduces family incomes, therefore its increase reduces aggregate demand, and its decrease expands the latter.

Aggregate demand is also affected by changes in investment. If enterprises acquire additional funds in order to expand production, the aggregate demand curve will go to the right, and if the trend is reversed, it will go to the left. Here, interest rates, expected returns on investments, corporate taxes, technology, excess capacity can come into play and influence.

When we talk about the interest rate, we do not mean its movement up or down (this was taken into account in price factors), but the impact on it of a change money supply in the country. An increase in the money supply lowers the rate of interest and increases investment, while a decrease in the supply of money increases the rate of interest and limits investment. Expected returns increase the demand for investment goods, and corporate taxes reduce the demand for investable goods. New technologies stimulate investment processes and expand aggregate demand; the presence of excess capacity, on the contrary, constrains the demand for new investment goods.

Aggregate demand is affected by government spending. With unchanged tax collection And interest rates state procurements national product expand, thereby increasing the consumption of commodity values.

14. Offer- the desire and ability of producers (sellers) to provide goods for sale on the market at every possible price in every this moment time. The ability to provide goods is associated with the use of limited resources, so this ability is not so great as to satisfy all the needs of all people, because the total needs, as you know, are unlimited.

The volume of supply depends on the volume of production, but these two quantities do not always coincide. The size of the supply is not identical to the volume of manufactured products, since usually a part of the manufactured products is consumed within the enterprise (domestic consumption) and is not provided to the market. On the other hand, there are various losses during the transportation and storage of goods (for example, natural loss).

The quantity of goods that the company wants to produce is influenced by many factors, the main of which are the following: the price of the goods itself; the price of resources used in the production of this good; technology level; company goals; the amount of taxes and subsidies; manufacturers' expectations. Thus, the supply is a function of many variables, but we are primarily interested in the nature of the relationship between the supply and the price of the goods, while other factors that can affect the supply remain unchanged.

There is a positive (direct) relationship between the price and the quantity of the goods offered: ceteris paribus, with an increase in the price, the supply also increases, and vice versa, a decrease in the price is accompanied, other things being equal, by a decrease in the volume of supply. This specific relationship is called the law of supply.

The operation of the law of supply can be illustrated using a supply graph.

A supply curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity of that good that producers want to offer in the market. The supply curve is ascending due to the law of supply.

Just as in the case of demand, a distinction is made between individual and market supply. An individual supply is the offer of an individual producer. Market offer - a set of individual offers of a given product. The market supply is found purely arithmetically, as the sum of the offers of a given product by different producers at each possible price. The market supply schedule is determined by horizontally summing the individual supply schedules.

Non-price supply factors.

The supply curve is constructed on the assumption that all factors, except for the market price, remain unchanged. It has already been indicated above that, in addition to price, many other factors influence the volume of supply. They are called non-price. Under the influence of a change in one of them, the quantity supplied changes at each price. In this case, we say that there is a change in the proposal. This is manifested in the shifting of the supply curve to the right or to the left.

When supply expands, the S0 curve shifts to the right and occupies position S1; if supply narrows, the supply curve shifts to the left to position S2.

Among the main factors that can change supply and shift the S curve to the right or left are the following (these factors are called non-price determinants of supply):

1. Prices of resources used in the production of goods. The more an entrepreneur has to pay for labor, land, raw materials, energy, etc., the lower his profit and the less his desire to offer this product for sale. This means that with an increase in prices for the factors of production used, the supply of goods decreases, and a decrease in prices for resources, on the contrary, stimulates an increase in the quantity of the goods offered at each price, and the supply increases.

2. Level of technology. Any technological improvement, as a rule, leads to a reduction in resource costs (lower production costs) and is therefore accompanied by an expansion in the supply of goods.

3. Goals of the firm. The main goal of any firm is profit maximization. However, often firms may pursue other goals, which affects the supply. For example, a firm's desire to produce a product without pollution environment can lead to a decrease in the quantity offered at each possible price.

4. Taxes and subsidies. Taxes affect the expenses of entrepreneurs. An increase in taxes means an increase in production costs for the firm, and this, as a rule, causes a reduction in supply; reducing the tax burden usually has the opposite effect. Subsidies lead to a reduction in production costs, so an increase in subsidies to business, of course, stimulates

economic law

economic laws- stable, significant causal, recurring relationships between economic phenomena and processes. In other words, economic laws are essentially a manifestation of stable relations between people that develop in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption, which at the same time manifest themselves as interests. [(This - the necessary conditions to meet the needs (society) with the redistribution of resources)]

Basic economic laws

Functions of economic laws

Economic laws perform certain functions, in a decisive way related to social development. At the same time, the functions of each of the laws are specific, as are the stable, essential and strong links between economic phenomena expressed by them.

At the same time, the whole set of economic laws introduces economic life society, developing within the framework of each given economic system, in a certain objectively conditioned channel, which is its main function.

Features of economic laws

Unlike the laws of nature, economic laws are the laws of the activity of people themselves. People actively influence economic laws, one might say, they form them to a certain extent. At the same time, economic laws are objective. Since people themselves cannot choose the productive forces and conditions of material life, they are subject to those economic laws that are functioning in society at a given historical moment. So, if an entrepreneur under capitalism does not strive to maximize profits, then he will go bankrupt: the laws of the market economy and free competition force the manufacturer to create goods in accordance with the demand of the population.

Economic laws are historical in nature. Within the framework of specific historical formations, special systems economic laws. Thus, the laws of the primitive communal mode of production differ from the economic laws of slavery. The economic laws of feudalism and capitalism have a specific character.

Economic laws for centuries in the conditions of various social formations functioned spontaneously, like the laws of nature. Social cataclysms, as well as nature, shocked humanity, led to colossal social and economic losses. This was especially evident in crises of overproduction. After the last economic crisis of 1929-1933, which engulfed the whole world, humanity to a certain extent learned to regulate economic processes on the basis of knowledge of economic laws. This manifested itself in a change in character economic crises, in neutralizing their negative consequences for the population and for production.

Economic laws differ in their content and duration. Along with the specific laws that operate throughout any one socio-economic formation, there are general economic laws that are inherent in all or a number of socio-economic formations. For example, the general laws of a market economy, the law of saving time, the law of increasing labor productivity, the law of the correspondence of production relations to the level of productive forces.

Links

• Laws of history. Secular cycles and millennial trends. Demography, economy, wars

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See what "Economic law" is in other dictionaries:

The law of functioning and movement of the economy of the socio-economic formation. It expresses a special, historically determined character and way of connecting direct producers with the means of production within the framework of one or another ... ...

The law of motion of the socialist economy, the content of which is to ensure the well-being and comprehensive development of all members of society through the most complete satisfaction of their constantly growing material and cultural ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

The concept that the average wage is determined by the amount of costs that ensure the existence and reproduction of the labor force. This law was formulated by F. Lassalle. This law is based on the concept of production costs... Financial vocabulary

international economic law- - EN international economic law The recognized rules guiding the commercial relations of at least two sovereign states or private parties involved in cross border transactions,… ... Technical Translator's Handbook

The law of motion of the capitalist economy, the content of which is determined by the basic production relation of capitalism between wage labor and capital as a process of production and appropriation of surplus value (See Surplus ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

The concept according to which the average wage is determined by the amount of costs that ensure the existence and reproduction of the labor force. This law was formulated by F. Lassalle. This law is based on the concept of production costs... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Economics and Law

- (Goodhart's Law) An economic law, according to which any attempt by the government to control an economic variable can distort that variable so as to render government control ineffective. Formulated... ... Glossary of business terms

An economic law according to which the behavior of consumers is related to the amount of income they receive, and as incomes rise, the population's consumption of goods increases disproportionately. Food costs are increasing to a lesser extent than ... ... Wikipedia

An economic law that determines the amount of money needed to circulate. Raizberg B.A., Lozovsky L.Sh., Starodubtseva E.B. Modern economic dictionary. 2nd ed., rev. M .: INFRA M. 479 s .. 1999 ... Economic dictionary

The law of diminishing returns is an economic law stating that, beyond certain values ​​of the factors of production (land, labor, capital), an increase in one of these factors does not provide an equivalent increase in income, that is, income grows ... ... Wikipedia

Books

• Intensive Economics, A. R. Ordukhanov. In the book, based on the works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, materials of the XXVII Congress of the CPSU, April (1985) and subsequent Plenums of the Central Committee of the CPSU, meetings in the Central Committee of the CPSU on the issues of accelerating ...
• The political economy of the modern mode of production. Book 1. Macroeconomics. Static approach, Akimov N.I.. 230 pages. The monograph is devoted to the fundamentals modern economy. The economic law of the development of society, the initial relation is investigated. The focus is on considering…

By this is understood the rivalry of enterprises producing the same products in order to attract consumers to their own brand. Competition is one of the most important concepts of the market economy, substantiating the laws of the capitalist mode of production. The purpose of competition is to provide conditions for maximizing profits and achieving economic efficiency of production.

At different historical stages of the development of society, the law of competition took various forms. IN Russian society a particular manifestation of the law of competition was the law of socialist competition, characteristic of Soviet period. However, it would be a mistake to ideologize the law of socialist competition, believing that it is a purely Soviet property. The problem of competition as an effective form of self-expression of the individual was considered by the utopian socialists T. Mor (1478-1535), T. Campanella (1568-1639), C. Fourier (1772-1837), C. Saint-Simon (1760-1825). ). The spread of the law of socialist competition in Russia took place at the beginning of the 20th century. Lenin in his work "The Immediate Tasks of Soviet Power" (1918) formulated basic principles of this law: the living force of example, publicity; a new organization of labor, the contract as the basis for the development of socialist emulation. At the same time, Lenin considered the development of competition in economic sphere an indispensable condition for the development of socialist society, entrusting it with the function of the economic mechanism for the development of a new society. As history has shown, the law of socialist competition could not fully fulfill its regulatory functions, since it proceeded from the influence of power on individuals dependent on it. The law on socialist competition contains a contradiction between “the desire of the individual to prove himself in labor activity and the desire to help the labor collective. The resolution of this contradiction was revived on a personal level. According to many experts, the replacement of the law of competition with the law of socialist competition significantly weakened the possibility of interaction between the laws of division and change of labor, since the law of the division of labor turned out to be devoid of natural incentives for development, and the effect of the law of change of labor was narrowed and reduced mainly to combining professions on production (production) lines. , development of related professions, sectoral types of retraining.

The scope of the law on competition is all social production, while the source of self-development is the social contradiction between the desire of each person to realize himself as much as possible in the struggle for survival and the resistance of the social environment. The intensity of competition in the markets of goods and services in a market economy is constantly increasing, and the types of competition, more precisely, competitive struggle, are becoming more complex, becoming more diverse and becoming more indirect. The results of competition depend on the subjects of competition, as well as specific financial and economic conditions for the development of society.

When analyzing social relations in the sphere of economics and finance, it is useful to take into account the types of competition: perfect (or “pure”), monopolistic, oligopolistic (competition between a few), pure monopoly. The closest interaction between the laws of division and change of labor is ensured by perfect competition, which implies the absence of price control, elastic demand, and the absence of restrictions on free enterprise and business development. There is also such a type of competition as competition in quantities - competition in an oligopolistic market, when enterprises vary not prices, but production volumes (quantities). This type of competition was first considered by Antoine Cournot in 1838.

In connection with increased competition in the labor and goods markets and, at the same time, the high level of poverty of the Russian population, the introduction of monetization social benefits there is growing interest in the sociological analysis of the "hare problem" - the problem of minimizing the losses of society associated with the desire of the population to consume as many public goods as possible, distributed free of charge. However, due to imperfect competition in the Russian market of goods and services, the desire of producers to get rich quickly, it is unprofitable for the latter to increase “public goods”, which can be distributed free of charge among the poor and impoverished segments of the population.

So, from the standpoint of the sociological approach, competition is social process economic development of producers of goods and services, accompanied by a clash of interests of the subjects of competition (social organizations, institutions, individuals), leading to a conflict of interests and behavior of competing parties and having a direct or indirect impact on the state of the market, as well as on the economic behavior of producers and consumers.

Important social indicators of the competition process are:

• competitiveness, manifested in the interaction of competing parties - subjects of economic activity;
• integrity of competition associated with the norms of ethics and culture of competing entities.

The law of the division of labor

The law of the division of labor determines the dynamics of the division of labor into various types depending on the criteria - mental and physical labor; industrial and agricultural; managerial and executive, etc. This law is the basis for the division of society into social groups employed in the respective types of work. The French sociologist Emile Durkheim in his work “On the division of social labor” (1893) noted: “Although the division of labor has not existed since yesterday, but only at the end of the last century, societies began to realize this law, which until that time had controlled them almost without their knowledge. ". In modern conditions of the development of a market economy, the role of science as a component of production is growing, and the division of labor is increasingly dependent on the development of the education system.

In the context of the development of the modern concept of the "knowledge economy", sociologists consider the status of various types of labor, their combination, the emergence of new professions and types of work, the expansion of the tertiary education sector, which, within the framework of Russian system education correspond to secondary and higher vocational education, as well as postgraduate education (postgraduate and doctoral studies). Postgraduate education should play a decisive role in the formation of intellectual potential and the development of new types of intellectual labor.

On the day of sociological analysis, an important problem is the social consequences of the division of social labor, in particular the process of the formation of the Russian middle class, the integration of representatives of different socio-professional strata of qualified specialists into its structure.

The law of change of labor

The law of change of labor is directly related to the law of division of labor and is " universal law social production. This law arose during the Industrial Revolution of the 11th-19th centuries, when the dependence of the type of labor on technological progress and its implementation in all types of production increased.

This law reflects the mobility of the employee's functions, the need to change the type of activity. The enterprise, based on the needs of production and the interests of the employer, can repeatedly change personnel, achieving the formation of a high-quality workforce. Thus, the law manifests itself in the transition from one type of activity to another and presupposes that the individual has the ability to make such a transition. Change of work develops the abilities and professional skills of the employee. At the same time, mastering a number of specialties not only expands the range of labor activity of a person (employee), but increases its competitiveness in the labor market. Ultimately, the law of the change of labor contains the requirement to replace workers with limited labor and professional skills, workers with a high level of suitability for the rapidly changing demands of technological production. The tools for achieving such mobile qualities of a worker are vocational education, a system of advanced training and retraining. The effect of this law is fully manifested in the labor market, in qualitative characteristic labor force and connects the labor market with the market of educational services.

In the conditions of the Russian market economy, three forms of functioning of the law of change of labor can be distinguished:

• change in the type of labor activity within the framework of the existing profession;
• change in the type of work;
• a combination of the main type of labor activity with its other types.

The change in the structure of the Russian labor market and employment, in turn, changed the nature of demand. With a general sharp drop in the early 1990s. labor mobility in the manufacturing sector, a reduction in the employment of engineering and technical workers, the demand of the labor market for specialists in the financial and economic profile, lawyers, managers, and trade workers has increased.

The world labor market in the context of globalization creates the need for ever-increasing migration labor resources, adaptation of workers to the demands of national labor markets, the needs of employers and consumers. These processes give rise to a new phenomenon - flexibilization - increase the flexibility of employers in the use of labor force. Flexibilization as one of the manifestations of the law of labor change reflects the ability of an organization to adapt its production to the demand in the markets for goods and services, taking into account their quality and quantity, and also to provide the necessary quality of labor for the needs of production. The social aspects of flexibilization and the social consequences of its development are of direct interest as a subject of sociological analysis.

Law of supply and demand

Laws of supply and demand - fundamental economic laws of a market economy. They reflect the action of two market forces - supply and demand. The result of their interaction is "an agreement of the parties on the sale and purchase of goods and / or services in a certain quantity and at a certain price."