Dr. Pass - Economics

cost effectivenessthe achievement of maximum provision of a good or service from given quantities of resource inputs. Cost effectiveness is often established as an objective when organizations have a given level of expenditure available to them and are seeking to provide the maximum amount of service in a situation where service outputs cannot be valued in money terms (e.g. the UK National Health Service). Where it is possible to estimate the money value of outputs as well as inputs, then COST-BENEFIT techniques can be applied. See VALUE FOR MONEY AUDIT.

cost functiona function that depicts the general relationship between the COST of FACTOR INPUTS and the cost of OUTPUT in a firm. In order to determine the cost of producing a particular output it is necessary to know not only the required quantities of the various inputs but also their prices. The cost function can be derived from the PRODUCTION FUNCTION by adding the information about factor prices. It would take the general form:

Qc = f ( p 1 I 1, p 2, I 2, … , pn In )

where Qc is the cost of producing a particular output, Q , and p 1 , p 2, etc., are the prices of the various factors used, while I 1, I 2, etc., are the quantities of factors 1, 2, etc., required. The factor prices p 1, p 2, etc., which a firm must pay in order to attract units of these factors will depend upon the interaction of the forces of demand and supply in factor markets. See EFFICIENCY, ISOCOST LINE, ISOQUANT CURVE.

cost leadership competitive strategysee COMPETITIVE STRATEGY.

cost minimizationproduction of a given OUTPUT at minimum cost by combining FACTOR INPUTS with due regard to their relative prices. See COST FUNCTION, ISOQUANT CURVE.

cost of capitalthe payments made by a firm for the use of long-term capital employed in its business. The average cost of capital to a firm that uses several sources of long-term funds (e.g. LOANS, SHARE CAPITAL (equity)) to finance its investments will depend upon the individual cost of each separate source of capital (for example, INTEREST on loans) weighted in accordance with the proportions of each source used. See CAPITAL GEARING, DISCOUNT RATE.

cost of goods sold or cost of salesthe relevant cost that is compared with sales revenue in order to determine GROSS PROFIT in the PROFIT-AND-LOSS ACCOUNT. Where a trading company has STOCKS of finished goods, the cost of goods sold is not the same as purchases of finished goods. Rather, purchases of goods must be added to stocks at the start of the trading period to determine the goods available for sale, then the stocks left at the end of the trading period must be deducted from this to determine the cost of the goods that have been sold during the period. See STOCK EVALUATION.

cost of livingthe general level of prices of goods and services measured in terms of a PRICE INDEX. To protect people’s living standards from being eroded by price increases (INFLATION), wage contracts and old-age pensions, etc., sometimes contain cost-of-living adjustment provisions that automatically operate to increase wages, pensions, etc., in proportion to price increases. See INDEXATION.

cost-plus pricinga pricing method that sets the PRICE of a product by adding a profit mark-up to AVERAGE COST or unit total cost. This method is similar to that of FULL-COST PRICING insofar as the price of a product is determined by adding a percentage profit mark-up to the product’s unit total cost. Indeed, the terms are often used interchangeably. Cost-plus pricing, however, is used more specifically to refer to an agreed price between a purchaser and the seller, where the price is based on actual costs incurred plus a fixed percentage of actual cost or a fixed amount of profit per unit. Such pricing methods are often used for large capital projects or high technology contracts where the length of time of construction or changing technical specifications leads to a high degree of uncertainty about the final price.

Cost-plus pricing is frequently criticized for failing to give the supplier an incentive to keep costs down.

cost pricea PRICE for a product that just covers its production and distribution COSTS with no PROFIT MARGIN added.

cost-push inflationa general increase in PRICES caused by increases in FACTOR INPUT costs. Factor input costs may rise because raw materials and energy costs increase as a result of world-wide shortages or the operation of CARTELS (oil, for example) and where a country’s EXCHANGE RATE falls (see DEPRECIATION 1), or because WAGE RATES in the economy increase at a faster rate than output per man (PRODUCTIVITY). In the latter case, institutional factors, such as the use of COMPARABILITY and WAGE DIFFERENTIAL arguments in COLLECTIVE BARGAINING and persistence of RESTRICTIVE LABOUR PRACTICES, can serve to push up wages and limit the scope for productivity improvements. Faced with increased input costs, producers try to ‘pass on’ increased costs by charging higher prices. In order to maintain profit margins, producers would need to pass on the full increased costs in the form of higher prices, but whether they are able to depends upon PRICE ELASTICITY OF DEMAND for their products. Important elements in cost-push inflation in the UK and elsewhere have been periodic ‘explosions’ in commodity prices (the increases in the price of oil in 1973, 1979 and 1989 being cases in point), but more particularly ‘excessive’ increases in wages/earnings. Wages/earnings account for around 77% of total factor incomes (see FUNCTIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME) and are a critical ingredient of AGGREGATE DEMAND in the economy. Any tendency for money wages/earnings to outstrip underlying PRODUCTIVITY growth (i.e. the ability of the economy to ‘pay for/absorb’ higher wages by corresponding increases in output) is potentially inflationary. In the past PRICES AND INCOMES POLICIES have been used to limit pay awards. At the present time, policy is mainly directed towards creating a low inflation economy (see MONETARY POLICY, MONETARY POLICY COMMITTEE), thereby reducing the imperative for workers, through their TRADE UNIONS, to demand excessive wage/earnings increases to compensate themselves for falls in their real living standards.

The Monetary Policy Committee, in monitoring inflation, currently operates a ‘tolerance threshold’ for wage/earnings growth of no more than 4½% as being compatible with low inflation (this figure assumes productivity growth of around 2¾–3%). See INFLATION, INFLATIONARY SPIRAL, COLLECTIVE BARGAINING.

council taxsee LOCAL TAX.

countercyclical policysee DEMAND MANAGEMENT.

countertradethe direct or indirect exchange of goods for other goods in INTERNATIONAL TRADE. Countertrade is generally resorted to when particular FOREIGN CURRENCIES are in short supply or when countries apply FOREIGN EXCHANGE CONTROLS. There are various forms of countertrade, including:

(a) BARTER: the direct exchange of product for product;

(b) compensation deal: where the seller from the exporting country receives part payment in his own currency and the remainder in goods supplied by the buyer;

(c) buyback: where the seller of plant and equipment from the exporting country agrees to accept some of the goods produced by that plant and equipment in the importing country as part payment;

(d) counterpurchase: where the seller from the exporting country receives part payment for the goods in his own currency and the remainder in the local currency of the buyer, the latter then being used to purchase other products in the buyer’s country. See EXPORTING.