International Economics

Consumer’s Surplus – Definition, Significance and Criticisms

The concept of consumer’s surplus is one of the most important idea in economic theory especially in demand and welfare economics. This law was first developed by French engineer A.J Dupuit in 1844 to measure the social benefits of public commodities like canals, bridges, national highways, etc. This concept was further refined and popularized by Dr. Alfred Marshall in 1890.

The essence of the concept of consumer’s surplus is that people generally get more satisfaction or utility from the consumption of commodities than the actual price they pay for them. It has been found that people are willing to pay more price for the commodity than they actually pay for them.… Read the rest

Abey Francis

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) – Meaning, Types, Benefits and Risks

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), investment vehicles of Governments are increasingly seen in action through acquisition of either natural resources like oil and gas fields or equity holdings in MNCs. While the reasons for establishing a SWF may vary from commercial to strategic ones, SWFs’ influence on the countries and corporate is substantial. Since they mostly stay invested for a long-term they do not pose threat of pulling out in the short term and creating huge volatility in the financial markets. Since their investment corpus run to billions, by staying invested for a long time, they have a stabilizing effect on the capital market even during crashes and short term fluctuations.… Read the rest

Abey Francis

Full Capital Account Convertibility (FCAC)

Capital Account convertibility in its entirety would mean that any individual, be it Indian or Foreigner will be allowed to bring in any amount of foreign currency into the country. Full capital account convertibility also known as Floating rupee means the removal of all controls on the cross-border movement of capital, out of India to anywhere else or vice versa.

Capital account convertibility or CAC refers to the freedom to convert local financial assets into foreign financial assets or vice versa at market-determined rates of interest. If CAC is introduced along with current account convertibility it would mean full convertibility.

Complete convertibility would mean no restrictions and no questions.… Read the rest

Abey Francis

The Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH)

Market Efficiency

The concept of market efficiency was first developed in the finance literature and its full form was first explained by Engene Fama. But now-a-days this concept is being used in other areas also.  Market efficiency implies that prices reflect all available information, but it does  not imply certain knowledge.   Many pieces of information that are available and reflected in prices are fairly uncertain.   Efficiency of markets does not eliminate that uncertainty and therefore does not imply perfect forecasting ability.  By definition then there should not exist any unexplained opportunities for profit.

“An ‘efficient’ market is defined as a market where there are large numbers of rational, profit-maximizers actively competing, with each trying to predict future market values of individual securities, and where important current information is almost freely available to all participants.

… Read the rest
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Pricing to Market Concept

One important aspect of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) doctrine is its espousal of law of one price, i.e. assuming one-way transport costs and tariffs.   A HMT watch will be priced the same whether it is sold either in Mumbai or New York.   But in the literature of international finance two stylized facts are prominently mentioned.   First, real exchange rate movements are seen to be very persistent at the aggregate level of the economy.   Second, individual prices of traded commodities tend to be sticky in terms of local currency at the micro level.   Engel (1993) has compared the relative prices of different commodities within the same country versus relative price of the same commodity across different countries and he has reached the conclusion that the former measure is less variable in all but a few cases such as primary commodities and energy.  … Read the rest

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Detailed Information about Bretton Woods Exchange Rate System and The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)

Bretton Woods Exchange Rate System (1944)

In 1944, as World War II drew toward a close, the Allied Powers met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in order to create a new post-war international monetary system. The Bretton Woods Agreement, implemented in 1946, whereby each member government pledged to maintain a fixed, or pegged, exchange rate for its currency vis-à-vis the dollar or gold. These fixed exchange rates were supposed to reduce the riskiness of international transactions, thus promoting growth in world trade. The Bretton Woods Agreement established a US dollar-based international monetary system and provide for two new institutions, The IMF and the World Bank.… Read the rest

Abey Francis
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