Scope and Function of the Capital Market in the American Economy

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Scope and Function of the Capital Market in the American Economy This PDF is a selection from an out-of-print volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: The Flow of Capital Funds in the Postwar Economy Volume Author/Editor: Raymond W. Goldsmith Volume Publisher: NBER Volume ISBN: 0-870-14112-0 Volume URL: http://www.nber.org/books/gold65-1 Publication Date: 1965 Chapter Title: Scope and Function of the Capital Market in the American Economy Chapter Author: Raymond W. Goldsmith Chapter URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c1680 Chapter pages in book: (p. 22 - 42) CHAPTER 1 Scope and Function of the Capital Market in the American Economy Origin of the Capital Market in the Separation of Saving and Investment A MARKET for new capital, apart from transactions in existing finan- cial and real assets, exists because in a modern economy saving (the excess of current income over current expenditures on consumption) is to a large extent separated from investment, i.e., expenditures on durable assets usually defined as new construction, equipment, and additionstoinventories and excluding education,research, and health.1 In any given period every economic unit either saves or dissaves— if we ignore the relatively few units whose current expenditures ex- actly balance their current income; and most units make capital expenditures, which usually involve payments to other units for fin- ished durable goods, materials, or labor, but which may also be internal and imputed (e.g., Crusoe building his boat). Both saving and investment may be calculated gross or net of capital consumption allowances or retirements. Since these diminish saving and investment equally, the difference between saving and investment is the same whether calculated on a gross or net basis. The relation between saving and investment varies considerably among economic units. For some, saving is regularly in excess of 1Foran individual economic unit, investment also includes the acquisition of existing tangible assets, but such acquisitions are offset by equivalent sales in a closed economy. 22 Scope and Function of the Capital Market CHART 1 CHARACTERISTICS OF FINANCIAL SURPLUS AND DEFICIT UNITS Saving= increase in net assets of all types Capital expenditures = net increase in tangible assets Financial surplus increase in financial assets (or decrease in liabilities and contributed capital) Financial deficit = decrease in financial assets (Or increase in liabilities and contributed capital) Surplus units Deficit units Neutral units investment. These units, which may be designated as saving surplus units (Chart 1), make funds available to the capital market, either by acquiring financial assets—money, other claims, or equities—or by reducing their own liabilities through repayment. The fact that a unit has a surplus status does not, of course, mean that it does not have any investment during the period, i.e., that it makes no capital expenditures; it only indicates that the unit's investment is smaller than its saving during the period. For other units, designated as sav- ing deficit Units,2 capital expenditures are in excess of saving. These units absorb funds from the capital market by increasing their liabil- 2 The terms surplus and deficit units indicate the difference between saving and investment, not, as might be suggested by the words, the difference between current income and current expenditure which, of course, is equal to saving or dissaving. 23 Scope and Function of the Capital Market ities, including the sale of their own equity securities or by reducing their financial assets, including their holdings of money. In the third type of unit, which may be called neutral, saving is equal to invest- ment. These units, therefore, neither supply funds to nor demand funds from the capital market. If all the economic units in a country were constantly neutral, no capital market would exist and money would be used only as a me- dium of exchange, as a means of immediate payment for transactions undertaken in markets for commodities and services. Such an economy is characterized by the absence of financial assets or liabilities. At the other conceptual extreme stands a society in which saving (or dissaving) and investment are completely separated, i.e., in which the investment of all saving surplus units and the saving of all saving deficit units are zero. Such a society is entirely compatible with the basic characteristics of a modern economy. It would only require that all homes and consumer durables, as well as the structures and equip- ment used by the government and nonprofit organizations, be rented from business enterprises, which in turn rely entirely on external financing supplied by ultimate economic units either directly or through financial institutions. All the societies which we know, and particularly all modern econo- mies, lie between these two extremes. In them, saving surplus units account for most of saving, and saving deficit units account for a large proportion of investment. There are well-defined groups that have more or less regularly a saving surplus or deficit Status. Within a modern economy, nonfarm households are commonly saving surplus units, while nonfinancial business enterprises and governments as a group generally have a saving deficit status, and financial institutions are close to a neutral position. This is evident for the United States in Table 1, which shows for each of the seven main sectors aggregate saving and aggregate investment, as well as the excess of saving for the period 1946—58 as a whole. The total saving surpluses and deficits of all sectors together comes to $270 billion for 1946—58, as shown in Table 1. This figure, to repeat, is not a measure of the volume of primary capital market transactions—i.e., new loans made and new securities issued—because the saving surpluses of some units are netted against the saving deficits of other units within sectors, and because many units simultaneously save and make capital expenditures. 24 (billionTABLEdollars) 1BYSECTOR, C') Sector Gross(1)Saving(2)Net AllowancesConsumptionCapital(3) Cross(4)IavestmeutNet(5) ExcessorSurplus Deficit(6) Saving: (+) (—) 3.2.1. AgricultureNonfarm unincorp.households business 6806289 3341221 3464969 5547595 20826 +126—13—6 0 5.4.6. FederalStateNonfinancial and government local corporations govts. (civil) 278228217 2991191 18654163 359106205 1735224 +17—24—813 Cl0 10.9.8.7.FinancialTotalFederal (including(civil) government intermediaries military) (military) 1,3861,230156 478—28506 909184724 1,3711,215156 462—28491 +150 C') Col.Source: 3:1:2: DifferenceTableNational VIII—d—3.VIII—d—3b. between Balance gross Sheet, and Vol. net II.investment. Col.Gol.Note: 5:6:4: Cal.TableComponents 1VIII—a—7b.VIII—a—7. minus maycol. not 4. add to totals because of rounding here and elsewhere in this chapter. Scope and Function of the Capital Market Among the sectors, virtually the only net suppliers of funds are non- farm households, their saving being far in excess for their capital ex- penditures. This sector's saving surplus is about one-fifth of its gross saving and more than two-fifths of its net saving. Financial institutions, which hardly make sizable capital expendi- tures, represent the only other sector with a saving surplus, but it amounts to less than one-seventh of that generated by nonfarm house- holds. The largest saving deficit is shown by nonfinancial corporations, which alone account for more than three-fifths of the aggregate saving deficits of all sectors. Their saving deficit—which measures the net absorption of funds from other sectors—amounts to three-tenths of their own gross saving but to 90 per cent of their net saving. Unin- corporated business, farm and nonfarm, also absorb net funds from other sectors, the saving deficit of these two sectors together being about one-seventh of the saving deficits of all sectors and nearly one- fourth of that of nonfinancial corporations. State and local governments also show a substantial excess of invest- ment over saving, amounting to more than one-sixth of the net saving deficit of all sectors. The deficit, however, amounts to only about three-tenths of their own gross saving and four-fifths of their net sav- ing, thus being smaller relatively than for nonfinancial corporations but greater than for the other two business sectors. The federal government had during the postwar period only a negligible excess of investment over saving, so that it neither absorbed funds from other sectors nor supplied funds to them (Chart 2). It is unfortunately impossible to prepare tables similar to Table 1 for narrower sectors or to show for any given period the number of saving surplus, saving deficit, and neutral units, and the amounts of aggregate surpluses and deficits. This is because the usual statistics of corporations and governments do not classify units by the existence or size of a saving surplus or deficit. Even households have not been tabulated by the size of their saving surplus or deficit, although the information could be obtained by retabulating the basic data collected in some of the sample surveys of consumer income and expenditure.3 3Someinferences can, however, be drawn from average saving and average in- vestment for groups of households classified by total income and expenditures, ag- gregate saving or dissaving, age and occupation of head of household, or other char- acteristics by which the data have been tabulated. 26 Scope and Function of the Capital Market It is, therefore, impossible to judge how large the average proportion of saving surplus, saving deficit, and neutral units is in the different sectors and subsectors, how it varies with the business cycle, how CHART 2 SECTORAL SAVING AND INVESTMENT. 1946-58 Nonfarm Agriculture Unincorp. Nonf in. State and Federal Federal Financial households business corporations local government, government, inter— governments civil military mediaries Source:Table 1. concentrated surpluses and deficits are within groups, and how regu- larly the same units show saving surpluses or deficits.
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