Infrastructural capital In economics, capital or capital goods or real capital refers to factors of production used to create goods or services that are not themselves significantly consumed in the production process. Capital goods may be acquired with money or financial capital. In finance and accounting, capital generally refers to financial wealth, especially that refers to any physical means of production Means of production , are things used by human labourers to create products. They include two broad categories of objects: instruments of labour (tools, factories, infrastructure, etc.) and subjects of labour (natural resources and raw materials). People operate on the subjects of labour, using the instruments of labour, to create a product; or, or means of protection A means of protection is some contract or guarantee of security for body or property. It is usually achieved, in a modern state society, by agreeing to some social contract including a monopoly on violence, e.g. placing police and military powers under the control of an authority obeying some predictable theory of civics that guarantees such beyond that which can be gathered or found directly in nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic, i.e. beyond natural capital Natural capital is the extension of the economic notion of capital to environmental goods and services. Natural capital is thus the stock of natural ecosystems that yields a flow of valuable ecosystem goods or services into the future. For example, a stock of trees or fish provides a flow of new trees or fish, a flow which can be sustainable and that which is not considered as "fluid capital Liquid Capital, or Fluid capital is a readily convertible asset, such as money or other bearer economic instruments, as opposed to a long term asset like real estate. Liquid capital may be held by individuals, companies, or governments".[1] It may include tools, clothing, shelter, irrigation systems, dams, roads, boats, ports, factories or any physical improvements made to nature. This term can overlap with the notion of internal improvements and public works The notion of internal improvements or public works is a concept in economics and politics. The term public infrastructure refers only to the infrastructural capital involved in these activities.
In macro-economics the term "infrastructure Infrastructure can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. The term typically refers to the technical structures that support a society, such as roads, water supply, sewers, power grids," usually refers to the added-value of a nation-state relative to the raw natural capital of its ecoregions An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area smaller than a "realm" or "ecozone". Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural communities and species. The biodiversity of flora, fauna and, e.g. dams, roads, ports, canals, sewers, border posts, etc. - although it can also be used to describe firm-specific infrastructure In macro-economics the term infrastructure usually refers to public infrastructure. That is, that which provides or supports state services. There is also firm-specific infrastructure such as factories, private roads, capital equipment, and other infrastructural capital assets under private ownership such as factories, private roads, capital equipment, and other such assets.
The more generic term physical capital In general physical capital refers to any non-human asset made by humans and then used in production. Often, it refers to economic capital in some ambiguous combination of infrastructural capital and natural capital. As these are combined in process-specific and firm-specific ways that neoclassical macroeconomics does not differentiate at its is sometimes used to refer to any combination of either infrastructural capital and natural capital, recognizing that often an infrastructural improvement, e.g. a dam or road, becomes impossible to differentiate from the natural ecology within which it is embedded. Although it is confusing to consider personal property Personal property, roughly speaking, is private property that is moveable, as opposed to real property or real estate. In the common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. In the civil law systems personal property is often called movable property or movables - any property that can be moved from one location to carried on the individual human body part of an "infrastructure", it is also contrary to refer to joint products of nature and man as being "manufactured" or "built" rather than as being "grown" or "developed", e.g. vines or other plants which grow on a manmade trellis. As both infrastructural and natural capital serve as means of production Means of production , are things used by human labourers to create products. They include two broad categories of objects: instruments of labour (tools, factories, infrastructure, etc.) and subjects of labour (natural resources and raw materials). People operate on the subjects of labour, using the instruments of labour, to create a product; or, and means of protection A means of protection is some contract or guarantee of security for body or property. It is usually achieved, in a modern state society, by agreeing to some social contract including a monopoly on violence, e.g. placing police and military powers under the control of an authority obeying some predictable theory of civics that guarantees such from the elements, macro-economists rarely differentiate the two in their analysis.
However, from a public policy point of view, infrastructural capital is prone to more obvious and significant breakdowns and is usually a cost center.
See also
- Five Capitals The Five Capitals Model of sustainable development was developed by the organization Forum for the Future. The model groups together:
- Infrastructure Infrastructure can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. The term typically refers to the technical structures that support a society, such as roads, water supply, sewers, power grids,
- Natural resource Natural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity existent in various ecosystems
- Sustainable development Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for future generations. The term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as
- Sustainability Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of wellbeing, which in turn depends on the wellbeing of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources
References
- ^ Infrastructural Capital from Economic Expert website. Retrieved April 2009.
Categories: Capital | Physical infrastructure Categories: Infrastructure | Physical geography | Civil engineering
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Natural resources are natural capital converted to commodity inputs to infrastructural capital processes They include soil timber oil minerials and other goods taken more or less from the
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UTI . Infrastructure. Fund is an open-ended equity scheme, which has the investment objective to provide . capital. appreciation by investing in the companies engaged in the sectors like metals, building materials, oil and gas, power, ...
