What is a barter system? What are its drawbacks?
Barter system is a system that was used in ancient times to exchange goods. In Other words, this system was used to exchange one commodity for another before the monetary system came into existence. For example, if a person having rice wants tea, then he can exchange rice with a person who has tea and needs rice. The economy having the barter system was called ‘C-C economy’, i.e. commodity is exchanged for commodity.
The various drawbacks of the barter system are as follows:
1. Problem of double coincidence of wants
Double coincidence of wants implies that needs of two individuals should complement each other for the exchange to take place. For example, in the above case, the second person must need rice in exchange for tea.
2. Lack of common unit of value
Under the barter system there was no common unit for measuring the value of one good in terms of the other good for the purpose of exchange. For example, a horse cannot be measured in terms of rice in the case of exchange between rice and horse.
3. Difficulty in wealth storage
It was very difficult to store commodities for future exchange purposes. The perishable goods like grains, milk and meat could not be stored to exchange goods in future. Therefore, wealth storage was a major difficulty of the barter system.
4. Lack of standard of deferred payments
The future payments could not be met in a C-C economy (barter system) as wealth could not be stored. It was very difficult to pay back loans.
What are the alternative definitions of money supply in India?
What are the main functions of money? How does money overcome the shortcomings of a barter system?
What is transaction demand for money? How is it related to the value of transactions over a specified period of time?
What is High Powered Money?
What is money multiplier? What determines the value of this multiplier?
What are the instruments of monetary policy of RBI?
Explain the functions of a commercial bank.
What role of RBI is known as ‘lender of last resort’?
What is a ‘legal tender’? What is ‘fiat money’?
Do you consider a commercial bank ‘creator of money’ in the economy?
What is marginal propensity to consume? How is it related to marginal propensity to save?
Explain why public goods must be provided by the government.
Differentiate between balance of trade and current account balance.
What are the four factors of production and what are the remunerations to each of these called?
What is the difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics?
What is the difference between ex ante investment and ex post investment?
Distinguish between revenue expenditure and capital expenditure.
What are official reserve transactions? Explain their importance in the balance of payments.
Why should the aggregate final expenditure of an economy be equal to the aggregate factor payments? Explain.
What are the important features of a capitalist economy?
If inflation is higher in country A than in Country B, and the exchange rate between the two countries is fixed, what is likely to happen to the trade balance between the two countries?
What is the difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics?
What are the important features of a capitalist economy?
The value of the nominal GNP of an economy was Rs 2,500 crores in a particular year. The value of GNP of that country during the same year, evaluated at the prices of same base year, was Rs 3,000 crores. Calculate the value of the GNP deflator of the year in percentage terms. Has the price level risen between the base year and the year under consideration?
Suppose that for a particular economy, investment is equal to 200, government purchases are 150, net taxes (that is lump-sum taxes minus transfers) is 100 and consumption is given by C = 100 + 0.75Y (a) What is the level of equilibrium income? (b) Calculate the value of the government expenditure multiplier and the tax multiplier. (c) If government expenditure increases by 200, find the change in equilibrium income.
Should a current account deficit be a cause for alarm? Explain.
What do you understand by G.S.T? How good is the system of G.S.T as compared to the old tax system? State its categories.
Suppose the exchange rate between the Rupee and the dollar was Rs. 30=1$ in the year 2010. Suppose the prices have doubled in India over 20 years while they have remained fixed in USA. What, according to the purchasing power parity theory will be the exchange rate between dollar and rupee in the year 2030.
In the above example, if exports change to X = 100, find the change in equilibrium income and the net export balance.
Are fiscal deficits inflationary?