How effective were the liberal reforms between 1900 and 1914.
How effective were the liberal reforms Between 1900 and 1914 the British liberal government introduced the largest series of reforms ever completed by a government till that date. Prior to these reforms it was not considered the duty of the government to provide any form of relief for the poor and when the reforms were passed they were viewed as radical and amazing. Many conservatives considered them unenforceable and many radicals considered them far too small. Yet how effective were these reforms? Prior to the reforms the only relief for children was either from charities or the workhouse, and many liberals claimed that the workhouses were worse than the conditions that many children had previously lived in. The first liberal reform for children was an act to allow schools to provide free school meals to those they felt needed them. This act meant that children would receive at least one meal a day and encourage them to attend school. The was voluntary though and many schools did not spend their budgets providing these meals. Only half of all schools set up these meal services. In 1907, the liberals introduced medical care to schools; this act meant that schools had to provide regular medical checks for children. These checks were extended to medical care in 1912. The liberals also banned the insuring of a child's life. Before the reforms old people had to rely on their
Can non-price competition be a substitute for price competition in oligopoly?
SUMMATIVE ASSIGNMENT Can non-price competition be a substitute for price competition in oligopoly? Consider this in the case of the European brewing industry. The European brewing industry has seen dramatic changes in the period post World War II. The industry started off as a monopolistic one during the late 1940s and 50s, where in 1947, 404 independent brewing companies owned 465 plants. The four-firm concentration ratio was 21%1. This began to change in next decade as the larger companies began to merge with (or buy out) the smaller ones and thus relatively quickly the context of the industry saw a change with five major firms dominating the industry during the 1970s, (by 1976 the four-firm ratio was 59%). These companies were; Bas, Whitbread, Grand Metropolitan, Allied and Courage. These brewers owned pubs all over the country and the likes of Whitbread owned over 4000. Brewers only allowed the sale of their product in their pubs and thus there was little competition with a small variety of beers. The brewing industry has been watched very closely and the Monopolist Commission (now called the Competition Commission) has reviewed the industry four times since the 1950s. As a result of one of these reports the government launched a new law that limited brewers to own only 2000 pubs and these pubs must have at least one guest ale being served. These caused a huge
The effect of Trade Unions on causing Labour Market Failure Today
Comment on The effect of trade unions on causing labour market failure today Labour Market Failure (LMF) occurs when the market forces of demand and supply do not results in an efficient allocation of labour resources. A major cause of LMF is the abuse of trade union. However as the market changes, this cause of LMF is losing significance. Trane Unions are organisations which act on behalf of workers to gain better rights and benefits through collective bargaining, they are attractive to workers as the bargaining power of a union is always more powerful than that of an individual. Trade union have, for many years been a major cause of LMF and to an extent, still are.since their inception, trade unions main aim has been to increase wage rate for workers. Whilst this is a great benefit for union memebers, it can cause signifigant market failure. The below diagram shows, that the new wage rate my cause market failure through unemployment. As the market forces of supply and demand settle on a wage rate of W1, the presense of a union increasing the rate to W2 will cause LMF by causing employment to drop from L1 to L3 This is despite their being L2 amount of labour supplied, the gap between potential labour force and the actual employment rate means there are unused resources. And thus the market is not efficient, meaning LMF. This effect is still present today. As the gov't
Using transport examples throughout, explain the impact of market structure on economic efficiency and the ability of firms to set prices and make profits
Using transport examples throughout, explain the impact of market structure on economic efficiency and the ability of firms to set prices and make profits Economic efficiency is the use of resources in such a way as to maximise the production of goods and services. The structure of a market, its profitability, prices and output can affect its economic efficiency. There are four main types of efficiency to consider; productive efficiency, allocative efficiency, dynamic efficiency and X-inefficiency. Productive efficiency is at its maximum when the level of production is at the minimum of the Average Cost curve. Productive efficiency is at its maximum when price is equal to marginal cost. Dynamic efficiency is through the generation of abnormal profits (AR>AC), that are invested for future development. X-inefficiency is when a firm is not operating at minimum cost, due to organisational slack. Using the market structure of perfect competition as an example, there are many small firms producing homogenous goods, thus it is fragmented as opposed to concentrated. In the transport industry the local coach travel market represents the model of perfect competition quite well. No one firm can set of affect the price level, and so the firms are referred to as 'price-takers'. If a firm decided to sell their good or service at a price higher than that of others, consumers would
Look at different types of market.
Essay - Section B 2 a) A utility is a good that maximises consumer consumption; therefore a utility industry is an industry that maximises consumer consumption by using that good or service provided. This is likely to be a homogenous good, which is provided by a company like BT or POWERGEN, as both these industries are referred to in the question. The telecommunications industry has always been a monopoly, as other companies cannot enter the market, for example, other companies are at an immediate disadvantage because they do not have a telephone line in everyone's house. This is because this is a very expensive initial cost and companies are not usually likely to have the resources to be able to afford something like that. This was an important factor; this is why BT was controlled by the government before privatisation (Thatcher, 1970s), to control the monopoly. This meant that BT had a natural cost advantage over competitors; this also meant that BT was the only firm in its industry (monopoly), which made the company more influential in terms of trading. It would benefit more from trading, because BT could benefit massively from economics of scale, and also other efficient economies. This brings me to my next point, contestable markets. A contestable market is a monopoly (or as defined by the UK fair trading commission, a company with over 25% of the market
PEST analysis
PEST analysis Forces outside the organisation are rarely stable, as many change dramatically and rapidly. PEST analysis will help me recognise these external influences that will affect my organisation in future. Many of these influences could be harmful to my business, but make me aware of new opportunities. By constantly scanning the marketing environment it is possible to identify new opportunities that can be built upon by changing the market mix. The PEST analysis will help me be aware of the political, economical, social and technological factors that will have an affect on my business. Political Privatisation Privatisation of a company will affect the government. Private business organisations are not owned by the government, but by private owners. My business will be a private limited company, owned by me. This is because businesses similar to mine are not owned by government, but are privatised. Therefore all competitors will be private, as there will be no government owned businesses, which will result in a more competitive market. This issue is a political issue, as the government promotes private companies, because they are another institution of employment. So instead of everyone replying on government owned companies for employment, they are now a wider range of employment institutions through private owned companies. The more private owned companies there
Is the Government to Blame for Higher Petrol Prices?
CONTENTS PAGE PAGE NO Introduction 2 Economic Theories 3 - 6 Data Collected 7 Presentation of Findings 8 - 13 Evaluation and Conclusion 14 - 15 Bibliography 16 INTRODUCTION In September 2005 the UK experienced unprecedentedly high petrol prices at filling stations throughout the country. In rural Wales the psychologically important £1/litre was breached for the very first time. What I wish to investigate is what is causing prices to be so high at the pumps at this particular time and why petrol prices are rising faster than the rate of inflation. In 2000 there were widespread protests to the level of government taxation placed upon petrol as it was felt to be excessive and unfair, similar smaller protests occurred this year also. Government Taxation is a major determinant on the price of petrol however there are other factors which determine the price of petrol. The price of petrol is made up of 4 components. The Fuel Duty imposed upon it, the Value Added Tax imposed upon it, the amount the product cost and the retailer/deliverer's overheads. As we all know the two taxes are determined by the government, the product's price is determined by the price of oil and the retailer's/deliverer's overheads by the costs of production associated with selling the oil. I will therefore need to investigate the rate of taxation used
Theory of Competition all depends on weather or not the company has more output than input. In other words if the companies revenue will leave some profits.
Theory of Competition all depends on weather or not the company has more output than input. In other words if the companies revenue will leave some profits. Perfect competition Perfect competition is heaven for consumers but hell for firms. In perfect competition all products are the same and they all have access to the same information about techniques of production and developments in the industry. This means that a firm can only compete on price and that buyers have supreme power. Since products are homogenous, which means a product has no brands and no difference between individual goods, this means buyers can easily compare products, and the only dimension is price. Should a firm increase its price even by 1%, it will therefore lose all its customers. Customers will leave because they have perfect information and will therefore know that there are cheaper suppliers of the product. Should a sudden increase in demand allow firms to raise prices and make excess profit, other firms will be attracted to the industry. Since entry to an industry is unrestricted and since perfect competition has no barriers firms will enter until demand is fully satisfied again. Prices will drop again, wiping out any profit. Labour also moves freely between industries. If a firm or even a whole industry drops its wages, all their labour will leave for firms or industries where better
To what extent do you consider monopolies to be in the public interest?
To what extent do you consider monopolies to be in the public interest? A monopoly refers to a market in which there is a single seller of a good or service for which there are no close substitutes. The demand curve for the firm is the same as the demand curve for the market. Monopolies will profit maximise in the short and long run, however they may choose other pricing strategies to maintain market share or profit levels in the long run. In comparison to a perfectly competitive market, a monopoly makes abnormal profits in the long run due to the high inelasticity of the its demand curve and low average costs. A perfectly competitive market on the other hand makes normal profits in the long as abnormal profits are competed away by new firms entering the market; thus meaning that perfectly competitive markets have high levels of output with lower prices for consumers. The deadweight welfare loss symbolised by the green triangle shows the loss of welfare to both consumers and producers. The red rectangle shows the abnormal profit for the monopolist, meaning that monopolies can charge consumers high prices for goods as there aren't any viable substitutes in the market. Consumers are quite insensitive to the price because they can either have the product or not and they cannot shop around elsewhere, therefore the monopolist has great control over the consumer and price.
What criteria should be applied in judging whether monopolies are acting in public interest? (25)
What criteria should be applied in judging whether monopolies are acting in public interest? (25) In judging whether monopolies are acting in public interests, we are essentially examining their relative merits and demerits to the society. A monopoly is a single producer in the market that produces a unique product with no close substitutes. The monopoly is so large that the firm is considered to be the industry in producing the good. The monopoly also has high barriers to entry to potential competitors. The barriers to entry can be natural barriers like the monopoly control of supply of inputs or the high initial setup costs or artificial, man-made barriers like copyright laws, market franchise etc. Public interests refer to the general welfare of the society which consists of both the firms and the consumers. The households and the producers make up the public and the welfare of these groups of people is usually termed as public interest. Let us first consider how the monopoly acts against public interest of the society at large. The basic economic problem of scarce resources and unlimited human wants forces us to make choices and try to achieve an optimal allocation of resources (i.e. an utmost efficiency in the allocation of resources). However, the monopolies often fail to achieve a efficiency in the allocation of resources. Figure 1 Refer to figure 1. The
