cost leadership competitive strategy see COMPETITIVE STRATEGY.
cost minimization production of a given OUTPUT at minimum cost by combining FACTOR INPUTS with due regard to their relative prices. See COST FUNCTION, ISOQUANT CURVE.
cost of capital the payments made by a firm for the use of long-term capital employed in its business. The average cost of capital to a firm that uses several sources of long-term funds (e.g. LOANS, SHARE CAPITAL (equity)) to finance its investments will depend upon the individual cost of each separate source of capital (for example, INTEREST on loans) weighted in accordance with the proportions of each source used. See CAPITAL GEARING, DISCOUNT RATE.
cost of goods sold or cost of sales the relevant cost that is compared with sales revenue in order to determine GROSS PROFIT in the PROFIT-AND-LOSS ACCOUNT. Where a trading company has STOCKS of finished goods, the cost of goods sold is not the same as purchases of finished goods. Rather, purchases of goods must be added to stocks at the start of the trading period to determine the goods available for sale, then the stocks left at the end of the trading period must be deducted from this to determine the cost of the goods that have been sold during the period. See STOCK EVALUATION.
cost of living the general level of prices of goods and services measured in terms of a PRICE INDEX. To protect people’s living standards from being eroded by price increases (INFLATION), wage contracts and old-age pensions, etc., sometimes contain cost-of-living adjustment provisions that automatically operate to increase wages, pensions, etc., in proportion to price increases. See INDEXATION.
cost-plus pricing a pricing method that sets the PRICE of a product by adding a profit mark-up to AVERAGE COST or unit total cost. This method is similar to that of FULL-COST PRICING insofar as the price of a product is determined by adding a percentage profit mark-up to the product’s unit total cost. Indeed, the terms are often used interchangeably. Cost-plus pricing, however, is used more specifically to refer to an agreed price between a purchaser and the seller, where the price is based on actual costs incurred plus a fixed percentage of actual cost or a fixed amount of profit per unit. Such pricing methods are often used for large capital projects or high technology contracts where the length of time of construction or changing technical specifications leads to a high degree of uncertainty about the final price.
Cost-plus pricing is frequently criticized for failing to give the supplier an incentive to keep costs down.
cost price a PRICE for a product that just covers its production and distribution COSTS with no PROFIT MARGIN added.
cost-push inflation a general increase in PRICES caused by increases in FACTOR INPUT costs. Factor input costs may rise because raw materials and energy costs increase as a result of world-wide shortages or the operation of CARTELS (oil, for example) and where a country’s EXCHANGE RATE falls (see DEPRECIATION 1), or because WAGE RATES in the economy increase at a faster rate than output per man (PRODUCTIVITY). In the latter case, institutional factors, such as the use of COMPARABILITY and WAGE DIFFERENTIAL arguments in COLLECTIVE BARGAINING and persistence of RESTRICTIVE LABOUR PRACTICES, can serve to push up wages and limit the scope for productivity improvements. Faced with increased input costs, producers try to ‘pass on’ increased costs by charging higher prices. In order to maintain profit margins, producers would need to pass on the full increased costs in the form of higher prices, but whether they are able to depends upon PRICE ELASTICITY OF DEMAND for their products. Important elements in cost-push inflation in the UK and elsewhere have been periodic ‘explosions’ in commodity prices (the increases in the price of oil in 1973, 1979 and 1989 being cases in point), but more particularly ‘excessive’ increases in wages/earnings. Wages/earnings account for around 77% of total factor incomes (see FUNCTIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME) and are a critical ingredient of AGGREGATE DEMAND in the economy. Any tendency for money wages/earnings to outstrip underlying PRODUCTIVITY growth (i.e. the ability of the economy to ‘pay for/absorb’ higher wages by corresponding increases in output) is potentially inflationary. In the past PRICES AND INCOMES POLICIES have been used to limit pay awards. At the present time, policy is mainly directed towards creating a low inflation economy (see MONETARY POLICY, MONETARY POLICY COMMITTEE), thereby reducing the imperative for workers, through their TRADE UNIONS, to demand excessive wage/earnings increases to compensate themselves for falls in their real living standards.
The Monetary Policy Committee, in monitoring inflation, currently operates a ‘tolerance threshold’ for wage/earnings growth of no more than 4½% as being compatible with low inflation (this figure assumes productivity growth of around 2¾–3%). See INFLATION, INFLATIONARY SPIRAL, COLLECTIVE BARGAINING.
council tax see LOCAL TAX.
countercyclical policy see DEMAND MANAGEMENT.
countertrade the direct or indirect exchange of goods for other goods in INTERNATIONAL TRADE. Countertrade is generally resorted to when particular FOREIGN CURRENCIES are in short supply or when countries apply FOREIGN EXCHANGE CONTROLS. There are various forms of countertrade, including:
(a) BARTER: the direct exchange of product for product;
(b) compensation deal: where the seller from the exporting country receives part payment in his own currency and the remainder in goods supplied by the buyer;
(c) buyback: where the seller of plant and equipment from the exporting country agrees to accept some of the goods produced by that plant and equipment in the importing country as part payment;
(d) counterpurchase: where the seller from the exporting country receives part payment for the goods in his own currency and the remainder in the local currency of the buyer, the latter then being used to purchase other products in the buyer’s country. See EXPORTING.
countervailing duty a TAX levied on an imported product (see IMPORTS) that raises the price in the domestic market as a means of counteracting ‘unfair’ trading practices by other countries. Countervailing duties are frequently employed against imported products that are deliberately ‘dumped’ (see DUMPING) or subsidized by EXPORT INCENTIVES. See TARIFF, IMPORT DUTY, BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR POLICY.
countervailing power the ability of large buyers to offset the market power of huge suppliers as in BILATERAL OLIGOPOLY. Large buyers usually have the upper hand in a vertical market chain (for example, multiple retailers buying from food manufacturers) because, unless suppliers collude (see COLLUSION), a large buyer is able to play one supplier off against another and obtain favourable discounts on bulk purchases. Provided that competition is strong in final selling markets, countervailing power can play an important role in checking monopolistic abuse.
The economist J. K. GALBRAITH uses the phrase ‘countervailing power’ in a slightly different way to refer to the growth of trade unions and consumer groups in response to the growth of large firms.
coupon 1 a document that shows proof of legal ownership of a FINANCIAL SECURITY and entitlement to payments thereon; for example, a SHARE certificate or BEARER BOND certificate.
2 a means of promoting the sale of a product by offering buyers of the product coupons that can be redeemed for cash, gifts or other goods.
coupon interest rate the INTEREST RATE payable on the face value of a BOND. For example, a £100 bond with a 5% coupon rate of interest would generate a nominal return of £5 per year. See EFFECTIVE INTEREST RATE.
Cournot, Augustin (1801–77) a French economist who explored the problems of price in conditions of competition and monopoly in his book The Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth (1838). Cournot concentrated attention on the exchange values of products rather than their utilities, and he used mathematics to explore the relationship