Rational economic behavior of the owner, employee, consumer, family man, citizen. Rational economic behavior of owner employee consumer family man citizen Rational behavior of manufacturer plan

A) Owner - the one who has the rights to own, use and dispose of any property.

In economics, property is a real relationship between people that develops in the process of appropriation and economic use of property. The system of economic relations of property includes: relations of appropriation of factors and results of production, relations of economic use of property, relations of economic sale of property. In a market economy, property should bring maximum profit. If it does not bring profit, then this leads to an increase in hidden costs, reduces competitiveness and can lead to ruin. On the other hand, the owner is obliged to bear the “burden of property” - the costs associated with owning property: taxes, costs of maintaining the property in good condition, protecting the property, insurance, causing possible damage to the property, etc. Rational behavior of the owner - increasing profits and reducing the burden of ownership.

b) Worker - subject of labor law, an individual working under an employment contract for an employer.

The employee must know the rights and obligations in accordance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and the employment contract (see clause 5.9.). The employee must constantly monitor more favorable offers on the labor market, even in other regions; strive to improve qualifications (for example, with the help of government retraining courses); defend your rights in relations with your employer with the help of the trade union movement.

V) Consumer - one who purchases and uses goods, orders work and services for personal household needs not related to making a profit.

The consumer should strive to study all offers on the market before purchasing, study all aspects of the purchase agreement and know his rights.

Consumer income- the amount of money received over a certain period of time and intended for the purchase of goods and services for personal consumption.

G) Family man - a social role performed by a person as a family member (father, mother, wife, husband, etc.).

For the rational distribution of family funds, a family man must: keep records of all sources of family income, together with the entire family, determine priority areas of expenses and keep records of them, create their own savings and invest them correctly, taking into account profitability and risks.

d) Citizen - a person legally associated with a particular state.

A citizen must know about the taxes and fees that he is required to pay. Must know about the tax benefits, tax deductions, pensions and benefits entitled to him and demand them from the state.

Standard of living- level of consumption of material goods.

The quality of life- an indicator that includes, in addition to living standards, working conditions and safety, cultural level, physical development, etc.

Section 3. SOCIAL RELATIONS

3.1. Social stratification and mobility

3.2. Social groups

3.3. Youth as a social group

The concept of business differs from the concept of entrepreneurship precisely in that business refers to the completion of any single one-time commercial transactions in any field of activity.

Not every economic activity can be considered entrepreneurship, but that which is associated with risk, initiative, entrepreneurship, independence, responsibility, and active search.

. In entrepreneurship, subjects and objects are distinguished.

· business entities - individuals, various associations (joint-stock companies, rental collectives, cooperatives), the state;

· business objects - any type of economic activity, commercial intermediation, trade and purchasing, innovation, consulting activities, transactions with securities.

Business entities:

Entity- an organization, institution, firm acting as a single, independent bearer of rights and obligations

Signs of a legal entity:

· independence of its existence from the individuals included in its composition;

· availability of property;

· the right to acquire, use and dispose of property;

· the right to carry out economic transactions on one’s own behalf;

· independent property liability;

· the right to speak on one’s own behalf in court.

Types of legal entities:

· commercial – have as the main goal of their activity making a profit (communications and transport enterprises, industrial and agricultural enterprises, consumer service organizations);

· non-profit – do not set profit as their main goal (institutions financed from various budgets (hospitals, schools, institutes), consumer cooperatives, charitable foundations).

Legal entities have the right to engage in certain types of activities (banking, insurance) only on the basis of a special permit - a license.

Individual– a person participating in economic activity as its full-fledged subject. Acts on his own behalf, can engage in business from the moment of state registration as an individual entrepreneur. The rules that govern the activities of commercial organizations apply

. Types of entrepreneurship:

· production entrepreneurship – production of goods, services, information, spiritual values is carried out;

· commercial entrepreneurship – consists of operations and transactions for the resale of goods and services and is not related to the production of products;

· financial entrepreneurship is a type of commercial entrepreneurship. The object of purchase and sale here is money, currency, and securities;

· intermediary entrepreneurship - manifests itself in activities that connect the parties interested in a mutual transaction;

· insurance entrepreneurship is a special form of financial entrepreneurship, which consists in the fact that the entrepreneur receives an insurance premium, which is returned only upon the occurrence of an insured event.

Forms of entrepreneurship

By type of company

· Individual or private enterprise is a business owned by one person. He has unlimited property liability and has little capital.

· Partnership, or partnership, is a business owned by two or more people. They make joint decisions and bear personal financial responsibility for the conduct of the business.

· Cooperative – similar to a partnership, but has a larger number of shareholders.

· Corporation – a set of persons united for joint entrepreneurial activities. The right to ownership of a corporation is divided into parts by shares, so the owners of corporations are called shareholders, and the corporation itself is called a joint stock company (JSC)

Functions of entrepreneurship

· resource – combining natural, investment, labor resources into a single whole;

· organizational – entrepreneurs use their abilities to obtain high income;

· creative – the use of innovation in activities.

. Consumer- this is someone who purchases and uses goods, orders work and services for personal household needs that are not related to making a profit.

The consumer is a company, organization and the state as a whole.

Consumer Goal- extracting maximum utility from the consumption of goods and services.

Limitations on the way to achieve the consumer's goal:

· family (consumer) budget – balance of family income and expenses;

· prices for goods and services;

· range of goods and services offered.

Rational consumer behavior- this is thoughtful behavior that involves comparing the results of actions with costs.

Consumer sovereignty– this is the right of the owner of any type of resources to independently make decisions related to the disposal of these resources and their use.

Consumer income- this is the amount of money received over a certain period of time and intended for the purchase of goods and services for personal consumption.

When drawing up a family budget, indicators of nominal (monetary) income are used.

The main sources of nominal (monetary) income of the consumer:

· wages;

· social payments from the state to individual citizens (benefits, pensions, scholarships);

· income from business and other activities;

· income from property (payment received for renting an apartment, interest on money capital, dividends on securities).

Real income is determined by the number of goods and services that can be purchased with the amount of nominal income. This is a general indicator of the standard of living of the country's population. It depends on the volume of final income (nominal income minus income tax) and the level of prices for goods and services and is calculated as the quotient of dividing the volume of final income by the consumer price index.

Consumer spending is divided into:

· mandatory expenses (minimum necessary) - expenses for food, clothing, transportation, utility bills, etc.;

· discretionary expenses (purchase of books, paintings, cars, etc.) – expenses if the consumer’s personal income does not exceed mandatory expenses

The higher the family income, the lower the share of expenses on food and the higher on durable goods, as well as the greater the share of savings.

The German statistician E. Engel (1821-1896) established a connection between the income of the population and the structure of consumption. According to “Engel’s Law”: the higher the family’s income, the lower the share of its expenses on food products. Accordingly, the demand for industrial consumer goods increases, and with a further increase in income levels, costs for high-quality goods and services increase significantly. Thus, the structure of consumption expenditures changes in direct proportion to the amount of income.

Based on the share of family expenses on food, one can judge the level of well-being of different groups of the population of one country and compare the well-being of citizens of different countries.

Standard of living- this is the level of consumption of material goods (the provision of the country's population with industrial goods, food, housing, etc.).

Quality of life – includes, in addition to the standard of living, working conditions and safety, cultural level, physical development, etc.

Social relations

Consumer- this is someone who purchases and uses goods, orders work and services for personal household needs that are not related to making a profit.

The consumer is a company, organization and the state as a whole.

Consumer Goal— extracting maximum utility from the consumption of goods and services.

Limitations on the way to achieve the consumer's goal:

family (consumer) budget - balance of family income and expenses;

prices for goods and services;

range of goods and services offered.

Rational consumer behavior- this is thoughtful behavior that involves comparing the results of actions with costs.

Consumer sovereignty is the right of the owner of any type of resource to independently make decisions related to the disposal of these resources and their use.

Consumer income- this is the amount of money received over a certain period of time and intended for the purchase of goods and services for personal consumption.

When drawing up a family budget, indicators of nominal (monetary) income are used.

The main sources of nominal (monetary) income of the consumer:

wage;

social payments from the state to individual citizens (benefits, pensions, scholarships);

income from business and other activities;

income from property (payment received for renting an apartment, interest on money capital, dividends on securities).

Consumer spending are divided into:

mandatory expenses (minimum necessary) - expenses for food, clothing, transportation, utility bills, etc.;

discretionary expenses (purchase of books, paintings, cars, etc.) - expenses if the consumer’s personal income does not exceed mandatory expenses

The higher the family income, the lower the share of expenses on food and the higher on durable goods, as well as the greater the share of savings.

The German statistician E. Engel (1821-1896) established a connection between the income of the population and the structure of consumption. According to Engel's Law:

The higher the family's income, the lower the share of its expenses on food products. Accordingly, the demand for industrial consumer goods increases, and with a further increase in income levels, costs for high-quality goods and services increase significantly. Thus, the structure of consumption expenditures changes in direct proportion to the amount of income.

Standard of living— this is the level of consumption of material goods (the provision of the country’s population with industrial goods, food, housing, etc.).

The quality of life - includes, in addition to the standard of living, working conditions and safety, cultural level, physical development and more.

Is competition good or bad? What makes people use loans and overpay interest to the bank? How can we ensure that our expenses do not exceed our income? All these questions are answered by the section of economics that studies the rational behavior of producers and consumers in the modern world.

Economic science of people

From the point of view of this science, all types of human behavior are divided into four types - production, distribution, consumption and exchange. The economic system itself is based on production, the purpose of which is to produce profit through the exchange of goods for money. The other side of this coin is consumption. It is determined by a certain law called “rational consumer behavior,” which means thoughtful and dictated by reasonable reasons.

Actions of the consumer and producer as two interdependent aspects in the economy

Production and consumption are interconnected processes that regulate each other. The rational behavior of a consumer, employee, owner, family man, citizen comes from making decisions that are consistent with the income of each economic entity. The consumer not only chooses certain market offers, but also influences producers with his choice (or lack thereof). In some areas of the economy, competition is so strong that marketers have introduced the concept of “consumer dictate.” After all, in a competitive race, only those entrepreneurs survive who were able to well understand the typical features of rational behavior of the consumer - their client.

Consumer as a driving factor

So, a consumer is someone who is a subject of consumption: buys, uses a product or service. In fact, this is any representative of humanity, but also legal entities, associations, etc. The purpose of consumption is to extract maximum profit from the use of a product. The limiters in this case are prices, budget, assortment, etc. Due to their actions, both the consumer and the manufacturer are forced to develop certain strategies of behavior or rational choice.

The usefulness of rational consumer behavior for the economy also depends on the type of economic activity of the country. If this is a command-administrative type, then the regulation of consumer choice is very high - for example, he cannot freely choose housing, a car, or medical services. If we are talking about a market economy, then the consumer has complete sovereignty and makes decisions independently, managing his financial resources.

To each according to his needs

How broad our purchasing needs are can be understood by remembering which of our needs we provide by choosing certain goods: physiological, cultural, social, communicative, security or self-realization needs. Everyone has their own products and their own business niches that produce them. Knowledge of economics and marketing helps you make wise choices when consuming something.

The bulk of the population of our planet are people with limited financial capabilities in one way or another. Therefore, each of us had to think about the questions: “How to spend our finances correctly? What needs to be purchased first, and what should be put off for now? How to reduce expenses? How to choose the best quality product or service at an affordable price?” The theory of rational consumer behavior provides answers to all these questions. Next, we will look at the components of this section of economics in more detail.

Stages of rational behavior

The first stage is understanding the need to purchase something. The second stage is searching for information about the product you need. Then there is an assessment and analysis of this information, all possible purchase options. And finally - making a decision.

In this regard, there are several types of financial expenses with rational consumer behavior: mandatory (minimum, most necessary) expenses - on food, clothing, travel, utility bills, etc. - and discretionary: on hobbies, high-level consumption goods, travel, etc. Another type is the savings of the subject in question.

Types of reasonable behavior of consumers of goods and services from the side of the economy

Types of rational consumer behavior are divided into:

behavior dictated by personal interest;
behavior pursuing situational goals (immediately at the moment of choice);
complete rationality, which assumes that a person studies information on a product or service for a long time and maximizes the benefits received;
limited rationality, when collecting or analyzing information is difficult due to certain reasons (physical, social and other factors);
formal (weak) rationality, especially if it is limited by factors beyond human control.

Interaction effects

The plan of each individual subject provides for activity within the framework of his preferences. There are certain effects of consumer interaction:

Snob effect. A situation is created when a purchase is made to emphasize one’s social status.

The effect of joining the majority. Expressing a desire not to be worse than people who are “successful.” Characterized by irrational demand. A purchase is made only because it was made by another person whom the buyer values and respects. Speculative demand also appears when there is a shortage of goods.

The effect of perceived quality. Products that have the same characteristics in different stores are sold at different prices.

Veblen effect. A situation in which things are demonstratively and pointedly purchased that have a very high price and are not available to most people.

Consumer behavioral analysis at a glance

An example of rational consumer behavior looks like this. Let's say you are thinking about purchasing a washing machine. First of all, you strive to evaluate all possible market offers. You study advertisements, assortment, prices, unique trade offers (discounts, promotions, the possibility of free installation or delivery), reviews. As a result, you choose the store that offers the optimal (but not the lowest) price, while providing the maximum warranty period, free delivery, installation and post-warranty service. Another option: if you are extremely limited in funds, then do not pay attention to warranty offers, but choose a machine at the lowest price.

The situational rational economic behavior of the consumer is illustrated by the following example. Let's say your phone is broken and you are expecting an important call. You don’t have time to study the market; one information is important to you - how quickly you can fix your gadget. Therefore, you choose the nearest repair service, whose technician promises to fix your phone today. The price of such a service in this case fades into the background.

Rational behavior of the manufacturer

A manufacturer is a person or organization that produces and sells goods or provides services with the aim of generating income from the rational behavior of the consumer. The costs of acquiring production resources are called costs. Profit is formed by the difference between income and costs. Its maximum value is the manufacturer's goal. To increase profits, he seeks to reduce production costs. This is facilitated by savings on raw materials, equipment of production with new equipment, reduction in energy costs, etc. Each manufacturer answers three main questions for himself: what, how and for whom he produces his product or provides a service.

To determine what exactly to produce, an analysis of the demand market, rational consumer behavior in the desired sector of the economy, production and advertising costs, etc. is carried out. The volume of production and its methods are determined. For example, you can harvest crops manually by hiring and paying a large number of workers, or you can use agricultural machinery by purchasing or renting it. The manufacturer also needs to decide for which segment of the population it produces its product. Thus, targeting the broad masses implies a larger volume of goods at a lower price than when targeting segments of society with above-average incomes.

What does the manufacturer want?

In general, the rational behavior of a manufacturer is the answer to the question: “How to get the greatest profit from a limited amount of resources?” A particular version of this question arises when one or another entrepreneur comes to the need to expand - how, with the resources available to him, can he achieve an increase in the volume of output?

For example, this problem can be solved by expanding production volumes through quantitative changes (increasing capacity, the number of natural resources and workers used), or by improving the productivity (performance) of resources. In countries with developed economies, they prefer to use the second way to solve the problem. It means an increase in labor productivity (the amount of goods produced in one unit of time by one worker). Against the backdrop of depleting mineral reserves and rising prices for products made from them, this path looks optimal.

How and due to what does labor productivity increase? Firstly, specialization in any type of activity helps. By performing the same small operation, the worker acquires better skills and his productivity increases. Secondly, the use of modern technologies makes it possible to increase the volume of production of certain goods over the same period of time. Thirdly, this factor is influenced by the professional training and quality education of employees. The quality of a product is closely related to the level of professionalism of those who work on it.

One study by a Brooklyn Institute researcher found that 28 percent of the increase in U.S. national income from 1929 to 1982 came from technological progress, 19 percent from capital injections, and 14 percent from increased worker education and training.

What conclusions can be drawn?

So, the behavior of consumers and producers is determined by reasonable reasons that ensure the most successful economic strategy. A characteristic feature of rational consumer behavior is the comparison and analysis of market offers and the ability to make financial savings. And for the manufacturer, the most important thing is to find a balance between the costs of providing the market with its product or service and its price, taking into account the competitiveness of its niche and the current demand for its offer.

19. Rational economic behavior of the owner, employee, consumer, family man, citizen . Bogbaz11, §11; Bogbaz, §4, 50.

19 . 1. Consumption and consumptiontel .

19 . 2. Consumer goal .

19.3. Rational consumer behavior .

19.4 . Consumer income and expenses .

19 . 5. Relationship between consumer income and expenses .

19 . 6. Placement of savings .

19 . 7. Standard of living .

19.8. Rational behavior of the manufacturer.

19.1 . Economic behavior – the image, method, nature of the economic actions of citizens, workers, managers, production teams in certain emerging conditions of economic activity.

Consumer - this is the one who purchases and uses goods, orders work and services for personal household needs,Not related to profit making .

The consumer is each of us, the company, the organization and the state as a whole.

Consumption - use, use. The use of products, things, goods, goods and services in order to satisfy needs.

Types of consumption : 1) production (consumption, use of resources in the production process); 2) non-productive (final consumption of goods by people, the population to meet vital needs).

Types of needs : 1) primary (physiological, existential) and secondary (social, prestigious, spiritual); 2) saturable (having a clear limit) and unsatiable (the desire to satisfy which does not have a clearly defined limit [need for knowledge]).

Needs (motives) include not only what is beneficial and essential for life, but also real requests for items that may be harmful to health, but are consumed due to established habits and pleasure received.

19.2 . Consumer Goal – extracting maximum utility from the consumption of goods and services.

Limitations on the way to achieve the consumer's goal : 1) consumer, family budget (balance of family cash income and expenses); 2) prices for goods and services; 3) the range of goods and services offered.

Thorstein Veblen(1856-1929) [The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)] rejected the idea of man as a utility maximizer or, as he himself wrote, as a “lightning-quick calculator of pleasures and pains, or a little ball rolling under the influence of stimuli, who throw him hither and thither, while he himself remains unperturbed.” In reality, human economic behavior is more complex, sometimes even irrational. A person is influenced by various psychological stereotypes - the instinct of imitation, the instinct of self-preservation, the tendency to compete, idle curiosity, etc. In this case, a special role is played by what Veblen called “envious comparison” (someone lives better, someone has more). From here the scientist derived a commitment to “prestigious”, conspicuous consumption and capital accumulation.

Conspicuous consumption – consumption of goods and services in order to obtain the effect of demonstrating their use.

Veblen saw a way out of this situation in the transfer of power from the “leisure class” (i.e., the big bourgeoisie) to the “technocrats,” i.e. rationally thinking engineering and technical personnel who will transform capitalism into a smarter, more sensitiveurgent needs people system.

19.3 . Rational consumer behavior - This is thoughtful behavior that involves comparing the results of an action with its costs.

In countries with command economies, consumer actions are regulated. In a market economy, the consumer has freedom of economic behavior.

Consumer sovereignty – the right of the owner of any type of resources to independently make decisions related to the disposal of these resources and their use.

Stages of rational consumer behavior : 1) awareness of the need to purchase; 2) searching for information about a product or service; 3) assessment of possible purchase options; 4) decision making.

19.4 . Consumer income and expenses .

19.4.1 . Consumer income .

Consumer income - this is the amount of money received over a certain period of time and intended for the purchase of goods and services for personal consumption.

Nominal income - income calculated in purely monetary terms, without taking into account the purchasing power of money, price levels, and inflation.

Main sources of nominal (monetary) income of the consumer :

1) salary;

2) social payments from the state (benefits, pensions, scholarships);

3) income from business and other activities;

4) income from property (rental payment for an apartment, interest on money capital, dividends on securities).

Real income – the number of goods and services that can be purchased with the amount of nominal income.

Real income depends on the volume of final income (nominal income - income tax) and the level of prices for goods and services.

Real income = volume of final income / consumer price index.

19.4.2. Consumer expenses .

Types of consumer spending :

1) mandatory, minimum necessary expenses (food, clothing, transportation, utilities);

2) arbitrary (tourism, books, paintings, cars).

19.5 . What relationships exist between income and expenses? ?

In many households, the income received is divided into two parts: 1) used forpurchasing goods and paying for services necessary to meet people's personal needs; 2) the second part formssaving.

1) the more income a consumer receives, the more amount he is able to spend on consumption;

2) the more income the consumer receives, the greater the amount of savings;

3) the higher the family income, the lower the share of expenses on food and the higher on durable goods, as well as the greater the share of savings;

Engel's law (1821-1896): the higher the family’s income, the lower the share of its expenses on food products and the higher the expenses on luxury goods, fine items, and savings.

IN THE USA the share of food expenses is 10-15%, and a significant number of Russian families spend from 40 to 48% of their expenses on food.

19.6 . Placement of savings .

Ways to place savings : 1) savings account in a savings bank; 2) acquisition of securities; 3) acquisition of real estate; 4) life, health, property insurance.

When choosing options for placing savings, the consumer needs to compare themfrom the point of view of 1) reliability, 2) interest on income, 3) liquidity (the ability to easily convert savings into cash).

19.7 . Standard of living.

19.7.1. Standard of livingis the level of well-being of the population, the degree to which people’s basic life needs are met.

To characterize the standard of living, various indicators are used: 1) per capita consumption, 2) real income of the population, 3) housing provision, 4) indicators of the development of education, health care, and social security.

19.7.2. UN experts believe that the standard of living is characterized by a special indicator -human development index (and human development index), calculated based onthreevalues: 1) GDP per capita, 2) average life expectancy and 3) level of education.

The Human Development Index was proposed in 1990 by a group of researchers from the United Nations Development Program to provide an integral assessment of human progress.

By dividing a country's gross domestic product (GDP) by the number of citizens, we get a measure calledGDPper capita . Using this indicator, one can compare the degree of economic development and living standards of different countries. It is GDP per capita that is one of the main indicators of a nation’s standard of living. When production grows faster, then there are more goods and services per person in a country, and the standard of living rises. If the population grows faster than production, the average standard of living decreases.

19.7.3. Human Development Index (HDI) is an index for comparative assessment of the economic potential of different countries. When calculating the HDI, three types of indicators are taken into account: 1) average life expectancy at birth, 2) the literacy rate of the country's adult population, 3) the total share of students. The index was developed in 1990 by a Pakistani economistMahbub ohm aleHackohm Since 1993, it has been used by the UN in its annual Human Development Report.

The standard of living can be considered both for the country as a whole and for individual social groups of the population, taking into account regional characteristics.

19.7.4. The quality of life.

Quality of life = standard of living + working conditions and safety + cultural level + physical development, etc.

19.8 . Rational behavior of the manufacturer.

19.8.1 . Manufacturer's goals.

Manufacturers– these are people, firms, enterprises. those. all those who manufacture and sell us goods and provide services.

Manufacturer's goal in a market economy - obtaining the greatest possible profit at the lowest cost.

The rational organization of economic activity requires the manufacturer to solve a number of questions: how, with limited resources, to achieve the goals of its production? How to combine production resources so that costs are minimal? How to increase the volume of output with existing resources?

19.8.2. Resource efficiency .

An indicator or measure of how effectively available resources are used isperformance .

Productivity ≠ labor productivity .

Performance – 1) this is the volume of goods and services created per unit of cost; 2) the amount of benefits that can be obtained from the use of a unit of a certain type of resource during a fixed period. Costs can be any resources involved in the production process - land, fuel, equipment costs, etc.

Ways to increase productivity and production volume : 1) expansion of the volume of use of economic resources (extensive path); 2) increasing the efficiency of their use (intensive path).

Extensive the path lies in a quantitative change in resources (increase in production capacity, the amount of natural resources used, the number of employed workers), intensive– in improving the quality characteristics of resources, improving their productivity or productivity.

Most countries today focus on the second method of expanding production capabilities.

Labor productivity (performance = labor productivity, which is measured by the amount of products produced per unit of time).
Factors (methods) of increasing labor productivity (= increasing the volume of output) :
1) division of labor, or specialization;
2) use of new equipment or technology;
3) level of education and professional training of employees;
4) effectiveness of management decisions.

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