Cartels are usually established with the purpose of either exploiting the joint market power of suppliers to extract MONOPOLY profits or as a means of preventing cut-throat competition from forcing firms to operate at a loss, often resorted to in times of depressed demand (a so-called ‘crisis cartel’). In the former case, a central administration agency could determine the price and output of the industry, and the output quotas of each of the separate member firms, in such a way as to restrict total industry output and maximize the joint profits of the group. Price and output will thus tend to approximate those of a profit-maximizing monopolist. See Fig. 21.
A number of factors are crucial to the successful operation of a cartel, in particular the participation of all significant suppliers of the product and their full compliance with the policies of the cartel. Non-participation of some key suppliers and ‘cheating’ by cartel members, together with the ability of buyers to switch to substitute products, may well serve to undermine a cartel’s ability to control prices. In many countries, including the UK, the USA and the European Union, cartels concerned with price fixing, market sharing and restrictions on production and capacity are prohibited by law. See COMPETITION POLICY (UK), COMPETITION POLICY (EU), ORGANIZATION OF PETROLEUM-EXPORTING COUNTRIES (OPEC).
Fig. 21 Cartel. D is the industry demand curve, showing the aggregate quality that the combined group may sell over a range of possible prices and MR is the industry marginal revenue curve. The industry marginal cost curve ΣMC is constructed from the marginal cost curves of the individual firms making up the cartel. For any given level of industry output, the cartel is required to calculate the allocation of the output among member firms on the basis of their individual marginal costs to obtain the lowest possible aggregate cost of producing their output. To maximize industry profit, the cartel will set price OP and produce output OQ. Quotas of QA and QB are given to firms A and B respectively where a horizontal line drawn from the intersection of MR and ΣMC (the line of aggregate marginal costs) intersects MCA and MCB. Profit contributed by each firm is computed by multiplying the number of units produced by the difference between industry price and the firm’s average cost at that level of output. The aggregate profit is then divided among the member firms in some agreed manner, not necessarily, it is to be noted, in the same proportion as actually contributed by each of the individual firms. Disputes over the sharing of aggregate profit frequently lead to the break-up of cartels.
cash see CURRENCY.
cash and carry a form of wholesaling that requires customers (predominantly RETAILERS) to pay cash for products bought and to collect these products themselves from a warehouse. See DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL.
cash card see COMMERCIAL BANK.
cash discount see DISCOUNT.
cash drain a constraint on the expansion of the MONEY SUPPLY through BANK DEPOSIT CREATION, caused by individuals retaining larger amounts of cash than usual. This means that not all of the increase in cash calculated by using the reciprocal of the RESERVE ASSET RATIO is passed on from the public back into the banking system. For example, a new deposit of £100 is made into the banking system. Assuming a 10% reserve asset ratio, the average fraction of money held in cash form is one-tenth and the reciprocal 10. Thus ultimately a £1,000 increase in money supply is theoretically possible. If the public’s demand for cash grows, however, then the increase in the money supply will not be 10 times the initial deposit, but something less.
cash flow the money coming into a business from sales and other receipts and going out of the business in the form of cash payments to suppliers, workers, etc.
cash limits a means of controlling public sector spending by setting maximum expenditure totals for government departments or nationalized industries, deliberately making no allowance for inflation. See GOVERNMENT (PUBLIC) EXPENDITURE.
cash ratio see CASH RESERVE RATIO.
cash reserve ratio the proportion of a COMMERCIAL BANK’S total assets that it keeps in the form of highly liquid assets to meet day-to-day currency withdrawals by its customers and other financial commitments. The cash reserve ratio comprises TILL MONEY (notes and coins held by the bank) and its operational BALANCES WITH THE BANK OF ENGLAND. The cash reserve ratio is a narrowly defined RESERVE ASSET RATIO that can be used by the monetary authorities to control the MONETARY BASE of the economy. See BANK DEPOSIT CREATION, MONETARY BASE CONTROL, MONETARY POLICY.
CAT see COMPETITION APPEALS TRIBUNAL.
caveat emptor a Latin phrase meaning ‘let the buyer beware’. Put simply, this means that the supplier has no legal obligation to inform buyers about any defects in his goods or services. The onus is on the buyer to determine for himself or herself that the good or service is satisfactory. Compare CAVEAT VENDOR.
caveat vendor a Latin phrase meaning ‘let the seller beware’. In brief, this means that the supplier may be legally obliged to inform buyers of any defects in his goods or services. Compare CAVEAT EMPTOR.
census a comprehensive official survey of households or businesses undertaken at regular intervals in order to obtain socioeconomic information. In the UK, a population census has been carried out every 10 years since 1891 to provide information on demographic trends. This data is useful to the government in the planning of housing, education and welfare services. A production census is carried out annually to provide details of industrial production, employment, investment, etc. A distribution census provides data about wholesaling and retailing. This information can be used by the government in formulating its economic and industrial policies.
central bank a country’s leading BANK, generally responsible for overseeing the BANKING SYSTEM, acting as a ‘clearing’ banker for the COMMERCIAL BANKS (see CLEARING HOUSE SYSTEM) and for implementing MONETARY POLICY. In addition, many central banks are responsible for handling the government’s budgetary accounts and for managing the country’s external monetary affairs, in particular the EXCHANGE RATE.
Examples of central banks include the USA’s Federal Reserve Bank, Germany’s Deutsche Bundesbank, France’s Banque de France and the European Union’s EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK. (For a more detailed discussion of a central bank’s activities see the BANK OF ENGLAND entry.)
centralization the concentration of economic decision-making centrally rather than diffusing such decision-making to many different decision-makers. In a country, this is achieved by the adoption of a CENTRALLY PLANNED ECONOMY where the state undertakes to own, control and direct resources into particular uses. In a firm, centralization involves top managers retaining authority to make all major decisions and issuing detailed instructions to particular divisions and departments. See U-FORM ORGANIZATION.
centrally planned economy or command economy or collectivism a method of organizing the economy to produce goods and services. Under this ECONOMIC SYSTEM, economic decision-making is centralized in the hands of the state with collective ownership of the means of production, (except labour). It is the state that decides what goods and services are to be produced in accordance with its centralized NATIONAL PLAN. Resources are allocated between producing units, and final outputs between customers by the use of physical quotas.
The main rationale underlying state ownership of industry is the view that the collective ownership of the means of production ‘by the people for the people’ is preferable to a situation in which the ownership of the means of production is in the hands of the ‘capitalist class’ who are able to exploit their élite position to the detriment of the populace at large. State control of industry enables the economy as a whole to be organized in accordance with some central plan, which by interlocking and synchronizing the input-output requirements of industry is able to secure an efficient allocation of productive resources. Critics of state-owned economic systems argue, however, that