Free Market Vs Regulation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Free Market Vs Regulation - Essay Example Government Role in Infrastructure: Infrastructure is a very vital cog of any country, and hence takes a supremely significant position in the government’s perception. Now, Rostow, who was a specialist in this field has made note and brought to light the fact that the inability of the governments to create infrastructure was one of the major road blocks that were faced during the process of modernization in Europe during the 19th century. In his argument, he says that the â€Å"creation of preconditions for take-off was largely a matter of building social overhead capital†. This comes in line with the generally accepted argument that the cost of infrastructure or the social overhead capital compliments the industrial production process as this facilitates the transfer of goods, which leads to the creation of mobilization of markets on a national and international level. Haber, another esteemed expert in this field, has further developed the importance of infrastructural support in his arguments based on the case study of Mexico. (Bracking, 2009) Here, he offers the opinion that Mexico was unable to solve the problem of surplus capacity which it was facing in the 1980s by exporting goods to different countries around the world. All of this, he attributes to the lack of infrastructural support that was present in the country at that point in time. He cites Avisador Comercial de Havana which attributes this problem related to the exorbitant costs of transportation: â€Å"How, then, can goods be shipped to the coastline at a beneficial value? How can they [Mexican manufacturers] compete in foreign markets†¦if within their own borders they have incredibly high freight rates?† (Geoffrey, 2002) In recent times, economic analysts have argued that the major difference between the growth differentials of different countries is infrastructure as highlighted by the case on India and China. Due to the importance infrastructure plays in the workings of a country and its non-excludable and unrivalled nature has further substantiated the claim for the need of governmental intervention to facilitate and hasten industrial growth in the country. On face value, one can see that this notion is somewhat not contestable in nature in that not many can refute the claim that has been put forward; however, some economists have also offered the notion of a private sector backed infrastructural growth. This notion certainly has immense promise in theory as this would basically remove the role of the government from this entire workup and would subsequently move the entire mechanisms onto a free market which would be highly appreciated in light of the concept at hand. However, that certainly does not appear to be a distinct possibility at the current point in time which is why infrastructural support has been ascribed to governments to this day and age. (Kiely, 2007) The rationale behind this is suggestions like the one offered are more likely to fail in the developing countries as private sector led infrastructural growth needs immensely advanced institutional or technological support in order to create and sustain excludable and rivaling properties.

Contemporary Developments in Employment Relations Coursework

Contemporary Developments in Employment Relations - Coursework Example Labour demand on the other hand, consists of the employers who have a need for work to be done, and who offer compensation for this work to employees who undertake it (ONS 2014). In normal market operations, the market wage in this case would be determined by the intersection between labour demand and labour supply or the equilibrium. However, the government intervenes to control wages thus setting minimum wages below which they are not legally acceptable. The employed are those who are actively engaged in work and comprised 72.7% of the labour force in March 2014 while the unemployed are those not actively engaged in work but are willing and able to work and are actively engaged in search for a job and are of the required age and the unemployment rate for the same period was 6.8% (ONS, 2014). By December 2013, there were 5.5 million people working in the public sector comprising 18.2% of those in employment representing a fall of 159, 000million workers between September and Decembe r 2013. The top three employers included National Health Services (NHS), education and public administration. In order to function properly, the labour market needs to be regulated and this is done through the employment law. These regulations include: national minimum wage; working time; maternity/paternity leave; health and safety; race and/or sex discrimination; information and consultation but for the sake of this paper we will discuss the national minimum wage and working time. According to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) rankings, the UK has the least regulated labour market just next to U.S and Canada. However, the industry is more regulated than in the 1960s when collective employment rights ad use of trade unions in bargaining terms and conditions was the norm. Employment contracts were unheard of, working time was deregulated, minimum wage restricted to a limited number of