The Economic Theory Of Costs

Author : Matthew McCaffrey
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 269 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2017-09-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781317207634

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The Economic Theory of Costs by Matthew McCaffrey Pdf

The theory of costs is a cornerstone of economic thinking, and figures crucially in the study of human action and society. From the first day of a principles-level course to the most advanced academic literature, costs play a vital role in virtually all behaviors and economic outcomes. How we make choices, why we trade, and how we build institutions and social orders are all problems that can be explained in light of the costs we face. This volume explores, develops, and critiques the rich literature on costs, examining some of the many ways cost remains relevant in economic theory and practice. The book especially studies costs from the perspective of the Austrian or “causal-realist” approach to economics. The chapters integrate the history of economic thought with contemporary research, finding valuable crossroads between numerous traditions in economics. They examine the role of costs in theories of choice and opportunity costs; demand and income effects; production and distribution; risk and interest rates; uncertainty and production; monopsony; Post-Keynesianism; transaction costs; socialism and management; and social entrepreneurship. Together, these papers represent an update and restatement of a central element in the economic way of thinking. Each chapter reveals how the Austrian, causalrealist approach to costs can be used to solve an important problem or debate in economics. These chapters are not only useful for students learning these concepts for the first time: they are also valuable for researchers seeking to understand the unique Austrian perspective and those who want to apply it to new problems.

Author : Heinrich von Stackelberg
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 163 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2013-10-23
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9783642345371

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Foundations of a Pure Cost Theory by Heinrich von Stackelberg Pdf

Heinrich von Stackelberg's book, "Grundlagen einer reinen Kostentheorie", published in 1932 was at the forefront of a growing conceptual revolution in the theory of the firm, a theory which appears more relevant than ever in today’s economic climate. In this work, Stackelberg masterfully built a theoretical framework which he later developed in Market Structure and Equilibrium. Foundations of a Pure Cost Theory represents the first translation of the original German version into English. This substantial book offers readers a critical and technical understanding of the firm, how firms function and the environments in which they operate. Fundamental notions of cost production, market economy, optimum position and velocities of production are given prominence. Ultimately, this work, which remains largely unknown, can be seen as a milestone text in our understanding of the strategies adopted by firms as a whole. The book has been meticulously translated from the German into English, retaining the author’s examples in their historical context and capturing the spirit of the time with all its subtlety and significance.

Author : James M. Buchanan
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 120 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 1978
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780226078182

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Cost and Choice by James M. Buchanan Pdf

"As he usually does, Professor Buchanan has produced an interesting and provocative piece of work. [Cost and Choice] starts off as an essay in the history of cost theory; the central ideas of the book are traced to Davenport and Knight in the United States, and to a series of distinguished writers associated at various times with the London School of Economics. The author emerges from this discussion with what can be described as the ultimate in subjectivist cost doctrines. . . . Economists should learn the lessons offered to us in this little book—and learn them well. It can save them from serious errors."—William J. Baumol, Journal of Economic Literature

Author : Ronald William Shephard
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2016-04-19
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780691647524

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Theory of Cost and Production Functions by Ronald William Shephard Pdf

A sequel to his frequently cited Cost and Production Functions (1953), this book offers a unified, comprehensive treatment of these functions which underlie the economic theory of production. The approach is axiomatic for a definition of technology, by mappings of input vectors into subsets of output vectors that represent the unconstrained technical possibilities of production. To provide a completely general means of characterizing a technology, an alternative to the production function, called the Distance Function, is introduced. The duality between cost function and production function is developed by introducing a cost correspondence, showing that these two functions are given in terms of each other by dual minimum problems. The special class of production structures called Homothetic is given more general definition and extended to technologies with multiple outputs. Originally published in 1971. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Author : P. Rao
Publisher : Springer
Page : 197 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2002-12-03
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780230597686

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The Economics of Transaction Costs by P. Rao Pdf

In modern economies a substantial proportion of resources is increasingly allocated to transaction costs. An improvement in the definition of transaction costs to include both the information role and efficiency role requires an integration of the approaches of positive economics and normative economics. In The Economics of Transaction Costs P.K.Rao provides a comprehensive analytical treatment of the subject and suggests a few directions for formal economic models.

Author : Jing Chen
Publisher : Springer
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2015-11-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781493934669

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The Unity of Science and Economics by Jing Chen Pdf

This book presents a new economic theory developed from physical and biological principles. It explains how technology, social systems and economic values are intimately related to resources. Many people have recognized that mainstream (neoclassical) economic theories are not consistent with physical laws and often not consistent with empirical patterns, but most feel that economic activities are too complex to be described by a simple and coherent mathematical theory. While social systems are indeed complex, all life systems, including social systems, satisfy two principles. First, all systems need to extract resources from the external environment to compensate for their consumption. Second, for a system to be viable, the amount of resource extraction has to be no less than the level of consumption. From these two principles, we derive a quantitative theory of major factors in economic activities, such as fixed cost, variable cost, discount rate, uncertainty and duration. The mathematical theory enables us to systematically measure the effectiveness of different policies and institutional structures at varying levels of resource abundance and cost.The theory presented in this book shows that there do not exist universally optimal policies or institutional structures. Instead, the impacts of different policies or social structures have to be measured within the context of existing levels of resource abundance. As the physical costs of extracting resources rise steadily, many policy assumptions adopted in mainstream economic theories, and workable in times of cheap and abundant energy supplies and other resources, need to be reconsidered. In this rapidly changing world, the theory presented here provides a solid foundation for examining the long-term impacts of today's policy decisions.

Author : Günter Fandel
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 415 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9783642768125

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Theory of Production and Cost by Günter Fandel Pdf

Production theory and the theory of cost both belong to the central areas of business administration, for all considerations concerning the economic organization of industrial manufacturing processes start from these. Two developments in the past 30 years have had a considerable influence on the structure and the concentration on points of emphasis in this book. I am referring to findings from KOOPMANS' activity analysis and to the formulation by GUTENBERG of a production function concept that focuses on industrial production processes. Activity analysis has made it possible to develop, from a uniform approach, different types of production functions which describe the concrete principles of production in the productive sector of a business enterprise; this has created a common basis for all production concepts in business administration. The Gutenberg Production Function with its different kinds of adjustment to a changing output has opened up a flexibility to theoretical and practical considerations that gave rise to a large number of additional studies in this area. Considerations in cost theory were in particular need of considerable extensions in the direction of cost minimal combined adjustment processes. By means of the organization of its contents, this book will take both approaches into due account. In that way, it is vastly different from other books dealing with the same subject. As a matter of course, traditional analytical methods and ways of thinking also constitute a large part of the book.

Author : Daniel Marburger
Publisher : Business Expert Press
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2013-08-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781606495131

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Economic Decision Making Using Cost Data by Daniel Marburger Pdf

A firm maximizes profits if each decision adds more to the firm’s revenue than to its costs. Although the concept sounds rather simple, it is difficult to do in practice. To ease this difficulty, the authors are giving you the inside knowledge to “economic theory.” This book will help you understand economic theory and much more to accurately infer changes in revenues that may be associated with a decision. And since economic theory suggests that the costs reported by accountants rarely reflect the true cost associated with the decision, this book will help you understand how to assess the changes in revenues and costs. Demand and price sensitivity analysis allow you to infer revenue changes, and this book helps you reconcile the economic theory of cost with common accounting practices so the differences can be reconciled and better decisions can be made.

Author : Jean Drèze,Nicholas Herbert Stern
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 1985
Category : Cost effectiveness
ISBN : OCLC:32309952

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The Theory of Cost-benefit Analysis by Jean Drèze,Nicholas Herbert Stern Pdf

Author : Alan Blinder,Elie R.D. Canetti,David E. Lebow,Jeremy B. Rudd
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
Page : 412 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 1998-01-08
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781610440684

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Asking About Prices by Alan Blinder,Elie R.D. Canetti,David E. Lebow,Jeremy B. Rudd Pdf

Why do consumer prices and wages adjust so slowly to changes in market conditions? The rigidity or stickiness of price setting in business is central to Keynesian economic theory and a key to understanding how monetary policy works, yet economists have made little headway in determining why it occurs. Asking About Prices offers a groundbreaking empirical approach to a puzzle for which theories abound but facts are scarce. Leading economist Alan Blinder, along with co-authors Elie Canetti, David Lebow, and Jeremy B. Rudd, interviewed a national, multi-industry sample of 200 CEOs, company heads, and other corporate price setters to test the validity of twelve prominent theories of price stickiness. Using everyday language and pertinent scenarios, the carefully designed survey asked decisionmakers how prominently these theoretical concerns entered into their own attitudes and thought processes. Do businesses tend to view the costs of changing prices as prohibitive? Do they worry that lower prices will be equated with poorer quality goods? Are firms more likely to try alternate strategies to changing prices, such as warehousing excess inventory or improving their quality of service? To what extent are prices held in place by contractual agreements, or by invisible handshakes? Asking About Prices offers a gold mine of previously unavailable information. It affirms the widespread presence of price stickiness in American industry, and offers the only available guide to such business details as what fraction of goods are sold by fixed price contract, how often transactions involve repeat customers, and how and when firms review their prices. Some results are surprising: contrary to popular wisdom, prices do not increase more easily than they decrease, and firms do not appear to practice anticipatory pricing, even when they can foresee cost increases. Asking About Prices also offers a chapter-by-chapter review of the survey findings for each of the twelve theories of price stickiness. The authors determine which theories are most popular with actual price setters, how practices vary within different business sectors, across firms of different sizes, and so on. They also direct economists' attention toward a rationale for price stickiness that does not stem from conventional theory, namely a strong reluctance by firms to antagonize or inconvenience their customers. By illuminating how company executives actually think about price setting, Asking About Prices provides an elegant model of a valuable new approach to conducting economic research.

Author : Jack Wiseman
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : STANFORD:36105038606112

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Cost, Choice, and Political Economy by Jack Wiseman Pdf

This book presents in one volume Professor Wiseman's seminal work on the theory of costs and the economist's treatment of the role of government. The major themes concern the subjectivity of costs and the unknowability of the future. From an initial scepticism about pricing rules, the arguments develop into a comprehensive critique of mainstream economic theory and, more positively, an exposition of the fundamentals of a new political economy grounded in choice-as-opportunity-cost.

Author : Francis Ysidro Edgeworth
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 56 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 1915
Category : War, Cost of
ISBN : UCAL:$B71968

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The Cost of War and Ways of Reducing it Suggested by Economic Theory by Francis Ysidro Edgeworth Pdf

Author : Franklin M. Fisher,Karl Shell
Publisher : Academic Press
Page : 134 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2014-05-10
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781483271156

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The Economic Theory of Price Indices by Franklin M. Fisher,Karl Shell Pdf

The Economic Theory of Price Indices: Two Essays on the Effects of Taste, Quality, and Technological Change is concerned with the effects of consumer taste, product quality, and technological change on price indices. Special attention is paid on technological change in the simple two-sector production model of Rybczynski and Uzawa. The effects of the general case of changing factor supplies and factor-augmenting change on the real national output deflator are also examined. Comprised of two essays, this book begins with an analysis of the pure theory of the true cost-of-living index, which may be considered as an idealization of indices like the consumer price index and others of that type. The essay explores how the true cost-of-living index is affected by changes in consumer taste, quality changes in purchased goods, and the introduction of new goods into the market place. The second essay deals with the pure theory of the national output deflator and provides a foundation for the measurement of real national output (or product). It shows that the usual inequalities relating Paasche and Laspeyres to the true index are reversed (from what they are in cost-of-living theory) for the case of production. It also assesses the implications of changing production possibilities caused by technological change or a change in factor supplies. This monograph will be a useful resource for mathematicians, economists, and others interested in economic theory and mathematical economics.

Author : Michael Dietrich
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2008-01-28
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781134909834

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Transaction Cost Economics and Beyond by Michael Dietrich Pdf

In recent years transaction cost economics have come to dominate the discussion of the nature and organization of firms. In Transaction Costs Economics and Beyond Michael Dietrich offers a critical exploration of transaction costs. He argues that whilst they have much to offer, they are still an inadequate basis for a general theory of the firm. Drawing on theories of organizational behaviour as well as economics, he concludes by offering a theory of the firm that allows for both hierarchical and creative decision making.

Author : Patricia M. Hillebrandt
Publisher : Springer
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 1974-06-18
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781349019274

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Economic Theory and the Construction Industry by Patricia M. Hillebrandt Pdf