Involuntary unemployment is a situation where workers are willing to work at the market wage or just below but are prevented by factors beyond their control. These factors could include deficiency of aggregate demand, labour market inflexibilities, implicit wage bargaining and efficiency wage theory. In Keynesian theory, involuntary unemployment is associated with insufficient aggregate demand …
Voluntary unemployment is defined as a situation where the unemployed choose not to accept a job at the going wage rate. Reasons for voluntary unemployment Generous unemployment benefits, which make accepting a job less attractive. High marginal tax rates, which reduce effective take home pay. Unemployed hoping to find a job more suited to skills/qualifications. …
Definition of government failure: This occurs when government intervention in the economy causes an inefficient allocation of resources and a decline in economic welfare. Often government failure arises from an attempt to solve market failure but creates a different set of problems. Reasons for government failure Lack of incentives: In the public sector, there is …
In behavioural economics, studies have suggested individuals value the concept of reciprocity. If people are kind to us, we have a greater tendency to respond in kind – behaving more altruistically than self-interest theory suggests. Reciprocity can also work in a negative sense, with agents willing to ‘punish’ those who abuse the ‘rules of the …
A Pareto improvement occurs when an economic action leads to a net welfare gain, without anyone being made worse off. See also: Pareto efficiency. Pareto improvement and a production possibility curve Moving from point D to A or B – leads to a Pareto improvement because we can produce both more services and goods. However, …
Specialisation occurs when workers are assigned specific tasks within a production process. Workers will require less training to be an efficient worker. Therefore this will lead to an increase in labour productivity and firms will be able to benefit from economies of scale (lower average costs with increased output) and increased efficiency. Examples of specialisation …
In economics we often see a delay between an economic action and a consequence. This is known as a time lag. An impact of time lags is that the effect of policy may be more difficult to quantify because it takes a period of time to actually occur. Example of time lags Change in interest …
Definition consumption externality This occurs when consuming a good cause either a positive or negative externality to a third party. Positive consumption externality When consuming a good gives a benefit to others. Examples include: Going to university. Your education gives benefit to rest of society (You can teach others) Taking medicine which prevents spread of …