Abstract Some articles in this journal are clearly intended to be models of how things could be, or should be, done. Typical of such articles are those describing an analytical technique for determining elasticity of demand in a given market. This article is intended to fill an entirely different role. In it, the author suggests that consideration should be given to thinking in terms of another factor of production: information. There is definitely no consensus on the issue. There are those who clearly believe information is a factor of production, and that much greater attention to (1) developing it consciously as part of the production process can bring great rewards, and (2) explicitly pricing information is important for maximum efficiency in the modern productive enterprise. On the other side of the argument are those who argue that information is not a factor input, but that it shapes the production function, and is therefore highly important. There is universal agreement that information is important. There is disagreement about how to treat it for analytical purposes, and this article is intended to spark some thought on that issue. Journal Information We live in unprecedented economic times. It’s now more crucial than ever to have access to clear, cogent analysis and insightful commentary about the economy and the economic outlook for business. Business Economics provides all of this and more, publishing hard-hitting, peer-reviewed articles from academics, policy-makers and those in commerce. Regular features focussing on statistics, industries and markets, and economics at work supplement the peer-reviewed article content. Business Economics is compelling reading for all of those with a practical interest in how economics is used within business. Publisher Information Palgrave Macmillan is a global academic publisher, serving learning and scholarship in higher education and the professional world. We publish textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. Our programme focuses on the Humanities, the Social Sciences and Business. As part of the Macmillan Group, we represent an unbroken tradition of 150 years of independent academic publishing, continually reinventing itself for the future. Our goal is to be publisher of choice for all our stakeholders – for authors, customers, business partners, the academic communities we serve and the staff who work for us. We aim to do this by reaching the maximum readership with works of the highest quality. Rights & Usage This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. The factors of production are resources that are the building blocks of the economy; they are what people use to produce goods and services. Economists divide the factors of production into four categories: land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship. The first factor of production is land, but this includes any natural resource used to produce goods and services. This includes not just land, but anything that comes from the land. Some common land or natural resources are water, oil, copper, natural gas, coal, and forests. Land resources are the raw materials in the production process. These resources can be renewable, such as forests, or nonrenewable such as oil or natural gas. The income that resource owners earn in return for land resources is called rent. The second factor of production is labor. Labor is the effort that people contribute to the production of goods and services. Labor resources include the work done by the waiter who brings your food at a local restaurant as well as the engineer who designed the bus that transports you to school. It includes an artist's creation of a painting as well as the work of the pilot flying the airplane overhead. If you have ever been paid for a job, you have contributed labor resources to the production of goods or services. The income earned by labor resources is called wages and is the largest source of income for most people. The third factor of production is capital. Think of capital as the machinery, tools and buildings humans use to produce goods and services. Some common examples of capital include hammers, forklifts, conveyer belts, computers, and delivery vans. Capital differs based on the worker and the type of work being done. For example, a doctor may use a stethoscope and an examination room to provide medical services. Your teacher may use textbooks, desks, and a whiteboard to produce education services. The income earned by owners of capital resources is interest. The fourth factor of production is entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur is a person who combines the other factors of production - land, labor, and capital - to earn a profit. The most successful entrepreneurs are innovators who find new ways to produce goods and services or who develop new goods and services to bring to market. Without the entrepreneur combining land, labor, and capital in new ways, many of the innovations we see around us would not exist. Think of the entrepreneurship of Henry Ford or Bill Gates. Entrepreneurs are a vital engine of economic growth helping to build some of the largest firms in the world as well as some of the small businesses in your neighborhood. Entrepreneurs thrive in economies where they have the freedom to start businesses and buy resources freely. The payment to entrepreneurship is profit. You will notice that I did not include money as a factor of production. You might ask, isn't money a type of capital? Money is not capital as economists define capital because it is not a productive resource. While money can be used to buy capital, it is the capital good (things such as machinery and tools) that is used to produce goods and services. When was the last time you saw a carpenter pounding a nail with a five dollar bill or a warehouse foreman lifting a pallet with a 20 dollar bill? Money merely facilitates trade, but it is not in itself a productive resource. Remember, goods and services are scarce because the factors of production used to produce them are scarce. In case you have forgotten, scarcity is described as limited quantities of resources to meet unlimited wants. Consider a pair of denim blue jeans. The denim is made of cotton, grown on the land. The land and water used to grow the cotton is limited and could have been used to grow a variety of different crops. The workers who cut and sewed the denim in the factory are limited labor resources who could have been producing other goods or services in the economy. The machines and the factory used to produce the jeans are limited capital resources that could have been used to produce other goods. This scarcity of resources means that producing some goods and services leaves other goods and services unproduced. It's time to test your knowledge with a little game I like to call, Name That Resource. I will say the name of an item and you will identify it as one of the four possible resources that form the factors of production: land, labor, capital, or entrepreneurship.
It's time to wrap things up, but before we go, always remember that the four factors of production - land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship - are scarce resources that form the building blocks of the economy. |
Which factor of production refers to the risk taking and management component of production
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