Part Five V › Division III III › Section 532 532

The Consumer and the Market: Pricing and the Mechanisms for Distributing Goods

Subject Outline

AScarcity, utility, and value: their roles in pricing, their relationship to the consumer
BThe satisfaction of material wants: the behaviour of consumers
- 1National consumption levels in the private sector: trends in expenditures for goods and services
- 2Factors influencing consumers' tastes and spending
- 3The protection of consumer interests
CMarkets as an economic institution in a mixed economy
- 1Markets classified by reference to competition and monopoly
  - aPurely competitive markets as distinguished from markets of imperfect competition: monopoly, oligopoly, and monopolistic competition
  - bInfluences affecting the behaviour of sellers under various competitive conditions
  - cThe concept of workable competition
  - dGovernment regulation of monopolistic practices
- 2Major types of markets
  - aMarkets for primary commodities
  - bMarkets for manufactured goods
  - cMarkets for money and capital: the market for short-term loans, the securities market
  - dThe market for labour and services [see 533.C.1.]
- 3The counterpart of the market under full-scale economic planning: markets under socialism
- 4The historical development of markets: the market in economic theory, the relationship of the market to social welfare and politics
- 5Markets in international trade [see 533.F.]
- 6The function of the market in the establishment of equilibrium between supply and effective demand
DThe price system in capitalist economies
- 1The price system as a means of organizing economic activity: the determination of what is to be produced, how goods are to be produced, and who gets the product
- 2Limitations on and failures of the price system: areas in which the price system does not function
  - aControl of prices by business: price-fixing [see C.1.a., above]
  - bGovernment-established price controls and subsidies: regulations concerning public utilities and bank interest rates [see 534.B.4.b., and 534.B.6.b.]
  - cEconomic relationships not susceptible to control by prices: "externalities," such as air pollution and highway congestion [see also 737.C.1.]
  - dImperfect knowledge on the part of buyers as to alternative uses of their buying power [see B.2., above]