Everything Totally Explained


Ask & we'll explain, totally!
Distribution (economics)
Totally Explained


  NEW! All the latest news in the worlds of computer gaming, entertainment, the environment,  
finance, health, politics, science, stocks & shares, technology and much, much, more.  


View this entry using RSS

Everything about Distribution Economics totally explained

Distribution in economics refers to the way total output or income is distributed among individuals or among the factors of production (labor, land, and capital) (Samuelson and Nordhaus, 2001, p. 762). In general theory and the national income and product accounts, each unit of output corresponds to a unit of income. One use of national accounts is for classifying factor incomes and measuring their respective shares, as in . But, where focus is on income of persons or households, adjustments to the national accounts or other data sources are frequently used. Here, interest is often on the fraction of income going to the top (or bottom) x percent of households, the next y percent, and so forth (say in quintiles), and on the factors that might affect them (globalization, tax policy, technology, etc.).

Descriptive, theoretical, scientific, and welfare uses

Income distribution can describe a prospectively observable element of an economy. It has been used as an input for testing theories explaining the distribution of income, for example human capital theory and the theory of economic discrimination (Becker, 1993, 1971).
   In welfare economics, a level of feasible output possibilities is commonly distinguished from the distribution of income for those output possibilities. But in the formal theory of social welfare, rules for selection from feasible distributions of income and output are a way of representing normative economics at a high level of generality.

Neoclassical distribution theory

In neoclassical economics, the supply and demand of each factor of production interact in factor markets to determine equilibrium output, income, and the income distribution. Factor demand in turn incorporates the marginal-productivity relationship of that factor in the output market. Analysis applies to not only capital and land but the distribution of income in labor markets (Hicks, 1963). In a perfectly competitive economy, market equilibrium results in allocative efficiency as to the mix of output produced and distributive efficiency in the least-cost mix of factors of production. In 1908, the efficiency properties of perfect competition were shown by Enrico Barone to be required as well for efficient resource use in collectivist planning.
   The neoclassical growth model provides an account of how distribution of income between capital and labor are determined in competitive markets at the macroeconomic level over time with technological change and changes in the size of the capital stock and labor force. More recent developments of the distinction between human capital and physical capital and between social capital and personal capital have deepened analysis of distribution.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Distribution Economics'.


External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

    <a href="http://distribution__economics.totallyexplained.com">Distribution (economics) Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
   As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.



Copyright © 2007-8 totallyexplained.com | Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License | Site Map
This article contains text from the Wikipedia article Distribution (economics) (History) and is released under the GFDL | RSS Version