Readers Question: This is hypothetical, but I wondered what would happen if we developed robots resembling humans who could perform any task a human could perform, but more effectively and essentially for free? More specifically, how would this development affect employment and real per capita GDP, and what would the pros and cons be? What …
By different measures, US corporate profit has increased significantly in the past two decades. It stands at 10.5% of GDP. What is behind the large rises in profit? Source St Louis Fed CP (not this is for nominal profit) In 2021, US corporate profit after tax stands at 2,700 billion (or $2.7 trillion) This is …
A high wage economy is characterised by high average incomes, rising real wages and fair distribution of income so the lowest income deciles are well paid. In summary, high wage economies tend to be characterised by high economic growth, rising labour productivity, high levels of education and training and good labour protections. (e.g. trade unions …
Covid raises many problems for society and offers quite a few examples of market failure. These include: Externalities. A young person catching Covid may face few personal costs, but there is an external cost because they may transmit to more vulnerable people. Information asymmetries. There is a lot of misinformation about Covid and vaccines. This …
Definition of oligopoly An oligopoly is an industry dominated by a few large firms. For example, an industry with a five-firm concentration ratio of greater than 50% is considered an oligopoly. Examples of oligopolies Car industry – economies of scale have caused mergers so big multinationals dominate the market. The biggest car firms include Toyota, …
Freemium is a business model where a firm gives away its product for free with the aim of later converting some users to the paid version. Freemium is different to a trial offer because the user can continue to use the free version for a prolonged period. Freemium is like an indefinite free trial.Dropbox is …
Readers Questions To what extent is inequality an essential ingredient of capitalism A strict definition of capitalism is a society where capital is privately owned, and workers are paid wages by private firms. Essentially it is a society with minimal government intervention and resources are distributed according to the outcome of free markets. A looser …
What are the advantages and disadvantages of monopolies? Monopolies are firms who dominate the market. Either a pure monopoly with 100% market share or a firm with monopoly power (more than 25%) A monopoly tends to set higher prices than a competitive market leading to lower consumer surplus. However, on the other hand, monopolies can …