It consists of establishments through which the goods are delivered to consumers.

4. Определите основную идею текста.

Marketing channel is a complex network of joined independent organizations with the purpose of delivering goods and services and increasing demand.

Neoclassical Economics

1. The most remarkable feature of neoclassical economics is that it reduces many broad categories of market phenomena to considerations of individual choice and, in this way, suggests that the science of economics can be firmly grounded on the basic individual act of subjectively choosing among alternatives.

2. Neoclassical economics began with the so-called marginalist revolution in value theory that emerged toward the end of the nineteenth century. Strictly speaking, neoclassical economics is not a school of thought (in the sense of a well-defined group of economists following a single great master) but more a loose amalgam of subschools of thought, each revolving around such acknowledged masters as Alfred Marshall in England, Leon Walras in France, and Carl Menger in Austria.

3. In England there was established the Cambridge school – a variant of neoclassical economics that stressed continuity with the past achievements of the classical school. In France, the general equilibrium school was founded in 1874. This subschool investigated the mathematical conditions under which all markets could be in equilibrium simultaneously. The Austrian subschool focused on the essential problems of economic organization.

4. What these subschools have in common is the importance they attach to explaining the coordinating features of market processes in terms of plans and subjective evaluations carried out by individuals in the market subject to the constraints of technological knowledge, social custom and practice, and scarcity of resources.

1) Завершите утверждение согласно содержанию текста.

All the subschools of Neoclassical economics paid great attention to the analysis of …

coordinating features of market processes in terms of plans and subjective evaluations

2) Определите, какое утверждение соответствует содержанию текста.

Neoclassical economists simplified many broad categories of market phenomena.

3) Ответьте на вопрос:

What caused the beginning of neoclassical economics?

Marginalist revolution did.

4) Определите основную идею текста.

Various subschools of neoclassical economics are amalgamated by the ideas of marginalist revolution, individual choice and subjective evaluations, and coordinating features of market processes.

Planned Economies

1. Planned economies are sometimes called «command economies» because the state commands the use of resources that are used to produce goods and services as it owns factories, land and natural resources. Planned economies are economies with a large amount of central planning and direction, when the government takes all the decisions; the government decides production and consumption. Planning of this kind is obviously very difficult and the result is that there is no society, which is completely a command economy. The actual system employed varies from state to state, but command or planned economies have a number of common features.

2. Firstly, the state decides precisely what the nation is to produce. It usually plans five years ahead. It is the intention of the planners that there should be enough goods and services for all. Planners are afraid to produce goods and services unless they are sure substantial amounts will be purchased. This leads to delays and queues for some products.

3. Secondly, industries are asked to comply with these plans and each industry and factory is set a production target to meet. If each factory and farm meets its target, then the state will meet its targets as set out in the five-year plans. You could think of the factory and farm targets to be objectives, which, if met, allow the nation's overall aim to be reached.

4. A major problem faced by command or planned economies is that of deciding what to produce. Command economies tend to be slow when responding to changes in people's tastes and fashions. Planners are likely to underproduce some items as they cannot predict changes in demand. Equally, some products, which consumers regard as obsolete and unattractive, may be overproduced.

1) Определите, какое утверждение соответствует содержанию текста.

A major problem of planned economies is inability to predict consumers’ demand.

2) Завершите утверждение согласно содержанию текста.

In planned economies industries …

meet a production target

3) Ответьте на вопрос:

What causes delays and queues for some products?

Underproduction of some goods does.

4) Определите основную идею текста.

A planned economy when the government takes all important decisions can lead to delays and queues.