UPSC » UPSC CSE Study Materials » General Awareness » Circular flow of Economic Activity

Circular flow of Economic Activity

If you’re looking for information about the circular flow model you’re at the right place. Also, learn about the payment for products and the national income.

All market economies are circular. Money and items (including business necessities) circulate between enterprises and homes. This is commonly shown using a schematic of the economy’s basic workings. A market allows buyers and sellers to meet. In a market economy, buyers and sellers interact freely to determine most economic aspects. Most economic decisions in a market system are based on supply (how much a seller is willing to sell at a particular price), demand, and prices. As prices rise, sellers supply more of their products, while purchasers buy less (because they want to maximise their own economic well-being). To complete the circular flow model, sellers determine what to supply and in what amounts based on what consumers buy and how much should be paid for products. 

Circular Flow Model

The circular flow model shows how money circulates through society. Money travels from entrepreneurs to employees as salaries and goes back to the businesses as payment for products and services. In short, any economy is an infinite cyclic flow of money. That is the fundamental shape of the model, although, in reality, the flow of money is more intricate. Economists have thrown in more components to reflect complicated modern economies better. These factors are the components of a nation’s National Income or GDP (Gross Domestic Product). For that reason, the concept is sometimes referred to as the circular flow of revenue model.

Circular Flow of Income

Circular flow refers to an economy’s continuous production of products and services and the flow of income and expenditures. This diagram depicts a circular income transfer between the producing unit and households.

Land, labour, entrepreneurship and capital are the four pillars of economic development.

  • Rent is the remuneration received for the fixed natural resources (sometimes lland) that contribute to a project.
  • Wages are the monetary reward given to a human worker in exchange for his or her effort.
  • Interest is a form of compensation for a company’s capital investment.
  • Profit is the amount received as compensation for the entrepreneur’s efforts.

Payment for Products for Circular flow of Income

In the same way that money is added to the economy, it can also be taken out of the economy or “leaked” through a variety of channels. The flow of income is decreased due to the government’s imposition of taxes (T). The amount of money (M) that is provided to foreign businesses in exchange for imports is also considered a leakage. A reduction in the circulation of an economy’s income results from savings (S) made by firms on resources that otherwise would have been put to use. When calculating a nation’s gross national income, a government must first identify all of the sources of revenue entering and exiting the system and the total amount of money being taken out.

National income for the Circular cash flow

Money circularly circulates in the economy, as the term “circular flow of revenue” implies. As you can see, this flow is made up of two primary sorts of actors. Products and services are made and sold by businesses. They employ workers and pay them wages; they also collect money from consumers. Some households consume products and services, hire workers, pay wages to those workers, and have money left over from their budgets after purchasing what they need. Later in this post, we’ll see how these fluxes are depicted in a basic circular flow diagram.

Calculating national income is a measure of the entire economic activity in a country during a given period of time. For example, it includes all of the money made from selling products as well as the money paid in salary, rent, and other expenses. Economic performance and change can be monitored with this tool. It is common to break down the calculation of the national income into three steps. “Identifiable expenditure technique,” which examines how people spend their money, “expenditure method,” which examines how firms spend their earnings, as well as the “income method” are all examples of these approaches. In the next sections, we’ll take a closer look at each of these.

Conclusion

In economics, one of the most important concepts to understand is called the circular flow of income, and it represents the foundation of the transactions that develop an economy. On the other hand, the fundamental model of the circular flow of income considers only two sectors: businesses and families; this is why the model is referred to as a two-sector economy model. The circular flow model illustrates the circulation of monetary resources within a society. The employees earn money from the producers, which is then sent back to the producers in the form of payment for products. In a nutshell, an economy can be described as an unending cycle of money circulation.

faq

Frequently asked questions

Get answers to the most common queries related to the UPSC Examination Preparation.

Explain the circular flow of national income?

Answer. Circular flow refers to an economy’s continuous production of products and services and the flow of in...Read full

What are the 3 stages of the circular flow of national income?

Answer. National income flows via three distinct stages: production, revenue and expenditure. They symbolise the thr...Read full

What is the concept of national income?

Answer. A country’s annual output of products and services is referred to as its “national income.”...Read full

Do you know the four sections of the diagram?

Answer. Household, firm, government, and foreign are the four sectors. The arrows represent the movement of income t...Read full