Prices and markets. Types of market, страница 29

Это - частная организация, за которую платят подписки участников. Членство открыто для всех. Его ежемесячный журнал, Который?, издает результаты тестов, выполненных на широком диапазоне товаров и услуг. Так как ассоциация не получает денег от промышленности или рекламы, это может дать независимый совет и свободно раскритиковать что-нибудь, что это думает, опасно, низшего качества или плохого соотношения цены и качества.

Ответьте на них вопрос, основанный на тексте выше:

4.  Для чего был настроен суд нарушений свободы конкуренции?

5.  Каковы обязанности Директора – Общий из Добросовестной конкуренции?

6.  Каковы главные парламентские акты, которые имеют дело с потребительскими правами?

2.5 Nationalization and privatization

·  Nationalization

The term ‘nationalization’ describes the process of transferring industry from private ownership to public ownership. The state buys the companies in an industry by paying shareholders a price which approximates to the market value of their shares. Nationalization is included in this chapter because most of the nationalized industries have some degree of monopoly power.

During the course of this century many large and important industries were nationalized. In 1979 the nationalized industries employed nearly two million people and accounted for about 10 % of the total output of the UK. They dominated the industries supplying coal, gas, electricity, steel, rail transport, telecommunications and postal services.

·  Privatization

Since 1979 the picture has greatly changed. The Conservative government elected in 1979 and re-elected in 1983 carried out a major program of privatization. In other words, it returned many state owned industries to the private sector. The public corporations which ran these industries were converted into limited companies, and the shares were sold to the general public. Among the better-known industries which were privatized were British Gas, British Telecom and British Airways.

·  The nationalized industries

Nationalization, of course, is not peculiar to the UK. The public ownership of industries supplying gas, electricity, coal, railway transport, and postal and telephone services is a common feature of many economies.

2.5.1 Arguments for nationalization

·  To avoid wasteful competition

As explained earlier, the industries supplying gas, water, electricity and telephone services need vast networks of pipes and cables in order to supply their customers. To allow several firms to compete with one another in such industries would lead to a wasteful duplication of overhead and underground equipment. However, this is an argument. However, this is an argument for monopoly rather than for nationalization. The argument for nationalization says that these monopolies should be publicly owned because the goods and services they supply are so important to the economy that they should be run in the national interest and not for private profit.

·  Economies of scale

In industries such as those mentioned above, the full benefits of economies of scale can only be obtained if there is one large firm in each industry. Many people believe that the quickest and most certain way of achieving a monopoly in these industries is to nationalize them.

·  To help manage the economy

The ownership and control of major industries gives the government a powerful instrument for influencing the performance of the economy. For example, the prices of coal and electricity are important elements in the costs of industry and they are major items in the spending of households. In times of rising prices, therefore, the government may hold down the prices charged by the nationalized industries in an attempt to slow down the rate of inflation.

·  Political arguments