Demand side policies are those that manipulate the level of aggregate demand (AD) to achieve one or more economic objective. The policies can be fiscal policies (changes in government spending and/or taxation), or they might be monetary policies (which are largely changes in the short-term rate of interest). The four major macroeconomic objectives are a sustainable level of economic growth; low inflation; low unemployment; and a medium term balance on current account. Recently the government have used loose fiscal policy and the MPC have reduced the rate of interest. These are designed to increase the level of AD and increase in national income.
Before we explore how a reduction in the interest rates leads to an increase in consumption we must first define what it exactly means to consume. Mainstream economists such as Tim Harford define consumption as the spending by house holds on consumer products and services. As the interest rate decreases it leads to consequential reactions on behalf of consumers, one of these actions is an increase in the level of goods consumed. This is a result of it being cheaper to borrow money from banks and other financial institutions, this meaning purchases which have been prolonged or “put off” by consumers can now be readily purchased. This is an effect of a lower opportunity cost as the overall cost associated with borrowing has decreased and the marginal benefit of saving has increased, meaning consumers will receive more of a benefit if they purchase goods on credit based agreements opposed to saving, leading to an increase in the amount of credit transactions.
There are two types of Fiscal policy put in place to alter the level of aggregate demand; Expansionary fiscal policy and Contractionary fiscal policy. When an economy is in a recession, expansionary fiscal policy is in order. Typically this type of fiscal policy results in increased government spending and/ or lower taxes. A recession results in a recessionary gap meaning that aggregate demand is at a level lower than it would be in a full employment situation. In order to close this gap, a government will typically increase their spending which will directly increase the aggregate demand curve (since government spending creates demand for goods and services).
If there is spare capacity (negative output gap), then demand side policies can play a role in increasing economic growth. For example if we decrease interest rates, we will increase the demand in the economy as people have more money as their mortgage costs are decreased. It is the same idea with lowering taxes - this will boost demand, as people have more money to spend as less is taken away from them by the government. Aggregate demand is made up of consumption (consumer spending, Investments Government spending and Exports (minus) imports (Net exports). If anything affects these factors will result in affecting the demand.
In theory, governments need not to intervene, as it is argued that freely floating exchange rates will automatically move to restore equilibrium on the current balance of the balance of payments. For example, if the current balance of the balance of payments in the UK was in a deficit, meaning that the value of imports exceeds the value of exports in that particular period, the demand for sterling pound will fall and the value of sterling demand for foreign currencies will rise. The external value of the pound would fall, making UK exports more price competitive and UK imports less competitive in the international market. Export sales therefore rise and import purchases fall, correcting the current balance deficit. The opposite occurs for a balance of payments surplus.
At last, achieve aggregate demand and aggregate supply to be an ideal balance. Monetary policy is divided into two types: expansionary and tightening. Aggressive monetary policy is to stimulate aggregate demand by increasing the speed of the money supply growth. In this policy, it is easier to obtain the credit, and the interest rates will reduce. Therefore, when the aggregate demand compared with the economic production capacity is quite low, expansionary monetary policy should be taken into use appropriately.
The basic answer is that share repurchases are great when the share price is undervalued, and not-so-great when the share price is overvalued. To put it into a more useful context, if you would otherwise reinvest your dividends or invest new capital into the company at current stock prices, then share repurchases are useful to you because the company basically does it for you. The alternative is that the company could pay you a higher dividend, but you’d be taxed on that dividend and reinvest it into the company anyway. On the other hand, if you would not reinvest dividends or invest new capital into the company at current prices, then share repurchases are not in alignment with your current outlook, and it would be better for you to receive a higher dividend. Something else to be considered is that when a company uses money for share repurchases when it could be paying a higher dividend instead, the company’s management is limiting your control and increasing theirs.
There are a number of factors effecting price elasticity of demand, the overriding determinant being the availability of substitute goods to the consumer, the more that are made available, the higher the elasticity is likely to be as buyers can easily switch from one product to another. Necessity of the good or product is another factor, the more necessary the product is to the consumer the lower elasticity as they will attempt to purchase no matter how much the price fluctuates. Brand loyalty, consumer income, along with peak and off peak pricing are also contributory factors of PED. The price elasticity of demand tells us what happens to total revenue when price changes. When demand is inelastic, a rise in price leads to a rise in total revenue and when demand is elastic total revenue rises when price falls.
If there is any excess demand, there is a shortage, which will increase the price of the product. According to McConnell, Brue, & Flynn (2009), the five determinants of demand include: consumers’ tastes, number of buyers in the market, consumers’ income, prices of related goods, and consumer expectations. Any change to the determinants of demand, shift the curve left for a decrease, and right for an increase. Law of Supply and the determinants of supply The Law of Supply states that there is a positive relation between price and quantity supplied (McConnell, Brue, & Flynn, 2009). This essentially means that if the price increases, the quantity supplied will also increase, and conversely if the price goes decreases, the quantity supplied will decrease.
An increasing marginal cost curve will intersect a U-shaped average cost curve at its minimum, after which point the average cost curve begins to slope upward. This is indicative of diseconomies of scale. For further increases in production beyond this minimum, marginal cost is above average costs, so average costs are increasing as quantity increases. As for the short run average cost curve, initially it is worth producing more, as you are making use of the fixed resource(e.g., reezit machine). however, as the law of diminishing return sets in, it is more costly to produce the extra unit of output.In the short term, there is at least one fixed unit of input that cannot be changed, and because of that, the law of diminishing return applies, saying that as you add successive units of labour into a fixed input, the marginal return diminishes over time.