Economics

Types of Profit

There are three main types of profit: accounting profit, economic profit, and normal profit. Accounting profit is the total revenue minus explicit costs, economic profit considers both explicit and implicit costs, and normal profit is the minimum level of profit needed to keep a firm in operation. Each type of profit provides a different perspective on a firm's financial performance.

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6 Key excerpts on "Types of Profit"

  • Book cover image for: Agricultural Production Economics in 2 Vols.
    8.2. Different Types of Profits The term ‘profit’ is used in different senses and they are discussed here This ebook is exclusively for this university only. Cannot be resold/distributed. under. 1. Economic Profit and Accounting Profit Economic profit refers to the difference between TR and total expenditure. In economic sense, the total expenditure includes both explicit costs and implicit costs. Thus, Economic profit = TR – Total expenditure = TR – (Total explicit cost + Total implicit costs) But, in accounting sense, profits refer to the difference between TR and total explicit costs. So, while computing accounting profits, implicit costs are not considered. Thus, Accounting profit = TR – Total explicit costs. 2. Gross Profit and Net Profit Gross Profit The term ‘profit’ generally refer to ‘gross profit’. That means the excess of income earned by the entrepreneur over the total expenses incurred in the production programme refers to gross profit. But, this ‘gross profit’ will include several items, which are not profits in the strict sense and they are discussed here under. a. Remuneration for the Factors of Production Contributed by the Entrepreneur Himself During the course of production programme, the entrepreneur himself contributes his owned land, owned labour and owned capital. So, the implicit returns like implicit rent, implicit wages and implicit interest earned by the entrepreneur will get included in the gross profit. These implicit earnings should be deducted from the gross profits to compute net profits. b. Depreciation and Maintenance Charges During the process of production, the machinery will get depreciated and thereby, the entrepreneur has to pay repairs and maintenance charges on the depreciated machinery. So, these costs should be deducted from gross profits to arrive at net profits.
  • Book cover image for: Economics of Information Technology and the Media
    • Linda Low(Author)
    • 2000(Publication Date)
    • WSPC
      (Publisher)
    Profit after tax may be distinguished from gross profit, since tax is paid to the government. Profit maximisation (ie, to make the largest profit possible) is the conventional goal of a firm, although other goals such as sales maximisation (a strategy of high volume sales to generate profitability) may be pursued. Profit maximisation is synonymous with cost minimisation. The economist's concept of profit is different from that of the accountant, as accounting profit is measured in actual dollars based on the firm's earnings and expenditures. Economists also consider the opportunity cost of allocating resources to produce a particular good in lieu of the next best alternative. As such, normal or zero profit (see chapter 3) is the minimum level of profit needed to encourage a firm to continue operations. Excess or supernormal profit, such as that enjoyed by monopolies, implies a sustained rate of return (before taxes on sales or invested capital) exceeding that of similar products or industries operating under similar conditions in terms of production, 40—ECONOMICS OF IT AND THE MEDIA distribution and risks. In the long run, excess profits hold for approximately five to ten years. The decision to stay in the industry while earning normal profits, or to fix the rate of return for excess profits, depends on the market structure and can be rather arbitrary. There is a need to distinguish between the concepts of average and marginal cost and revenue at the firm or industry levels. An industry is made up of all the firms that produce the same product (eg, the electronic industry). An individual firm can be privately owned (eg, a sole proprietorship incorporated but unlisted, or a private limited if listed on the stock market), or state-owned and formed to organise the factors of production in order to produce goods and services for the market. A distinction must be made between the long run and the short run.
  • Book cover image for: An Entrepreneurial Approach to Stewardship Accountability
    eBook - PDF
    • Raymond W Y Kao, Kenneth R Kao;Rowland R Kao;;(Authors)
    • 2004(Publication Date)
    • WSPC
      (Publisher)
    From Cost to Profit 91 accounting such as: Operations for the period of January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005. Therefore, the possibility of determining a firm’s profit is at the time when the business effectively terminates its operation. Our current accounting practice for profit determination would be illogical and contrary to economic reality. No wonder, in today’s accounting practice, the word “profit” has not been used in the presentation of a corporation’s Profit or Loss statement, rather it is renamed as: “Accounting Income” or “Financial Income.” Consequently, though it is still in use, the commonly used term “profit” no longer reflects economic reality, and is confined within the limitations defined by generally accepted accounting standards. 6.1.2. Profit and its varied source and identity It is seldom noticed that the meaning of “profit” has a rather varied origin. The late Professor Kierstead believed profit has no singular form. 2 We have taken the liberty to expand his version of profit into the categories in table 6.1. 3 To westerners Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (Sun Wen), the founder of the Republic of China and his work may be just as strange as finding a Bible on the sur-face of Moon. But people in Taiwan, and to a lesser extent in China still regard him as being as important as George Washington in the United States, or any other revolutionists who founded their countries and deter-mined not just the right of governing, but how to govern as well. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen left his work to people in Taiwan, and to some extent mainland China as well, in his 200 page book on how to re-build China Table 6.1. Categories of profit 1. Operating profit Residuals generated from business activities during the normal course of operations 2. Visional profit Gains from working on the entrepreneurial vision, a reward through the pursuit of opportunities beyond the normal business conduct 3. Windfall gains Gains from changes of nature, not controlled by human beings 4.
  • Book cover image for: New Perspectives of Profit Smoothing
    eBook - ePub

    New Perspectives of Profit Smoothing

    Empirical Evidence from China

    © The Author(s) 2019 Domitilla Magni New Perspectives of Profit Smoothing https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21286-5_1
    Begin Abstract

    1. Theory of Profit

    Domitilla Magni
    1   
    (1) Roma Tre University, Roma, Roma, Italy
     
      Domitilla Magni

    Keywords

    Profit Classical economic view Neoclassical economic view Equilibrium Enterprise Income
    End Abstract

    1.1 Profit in Traditional Argumentation Way

    Profit can be defined as a form of income that may arise in an economy without a plan or a central authority that decides on the production and distribution of the social product. Profit’s definition does not end in only one conceptual category; rather, it is exposed to a variety of economic, social, cultural, and political uses and meanings. Any attempt to clarify the content of this notion removes the character of “absoluteness” and “neutrality” by unifying it uniquely to a particular economic vision.
    Economic science offers very different notions of profit, not only in relation to the economic and social relationships to which it refers, but also depending on the particular cognitive aim pursued from time to time, and the technique of analysis adopted.
    Economic profit theory should answer many questions, but the debate on this subject is still lit, and this reflects a sense of uncertainty and stalemate that characterizes all the literature on it. Profit has always been a multidimensional concept, which does not fall into one economic discipline. Besides having various basic arguments, profit is also a source of numerous studies and business techniques that are often outside from simple accounting
  • Book cover image for: Entrepreneurial Finance
    eBook - ePub

    Entrepreneurial Finance

    Fundamentals of Financial Planning and Management for Small Business

    • M. J. Alhabeeb(Author)
    • 2014(Publication Date)
    • Wiley
      (Publisher)
    CHAPTER 8
    PROFIT AND THE COST–VOLUME ANALYSIS

    8.1 Profit Concept Between Economics and Accounting

    There is no doubt that “profit” is the most common and widely used term in the business world. However, the commonality and popularity of the term does not necessarily make it a clear concept with an unequivocal connotation. When the classical economics specified the four major factors of production as land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurial management, it also specified the payments these factors get for their individual contribution in the production process. These payments are respectively: rent, wages, interest, and profit. From here we can conclude that profit is the monetary return to those who initiate and manage the entrepreneurial function of production. If the first three payments (rent, wages, and interests) are made out of the product's sale revenue, the residual, if any, would constitute the fourth payment to the entrepreneur or owner as profit. It is in this sense we get the equality between profit and the net revenue since what we call profit is in fact the surplus over and above the costs of production. These costs may also include taxes, financing cost, and the like. Technically, profit would equal the difference between the total cost of production (TC) and the total revenue brought by the sale of products (TR).
    It is worthwhile to note here that while the term total revenue is a clear and well-defined concept, the total cost is less clear. Total revenue is the dollar value of the product sold, which is obtained by multiplying the quantity of the units of products sold by the market price per unit. Total cost could include only the explicit cost or the outlay such as the expenditures on the factor of production mentioned earlier and other direct payments such as taxes and interests on loans. If the total cost includes only the explicit cost (EC), the calculated profit would be considered as business or accountant's profita
  • Book cover image for: The Theory Of Social And Economic Organization
    • Max Weber(Author)
    • 2009(Publication Date)
    • Free Press
      (Publisher)
    5. Empirically the administration of budgetary units and profit-making are not mutually exclusive alternatives. The business of a consumers’ co-operative, for instance, is normally oriented to the economical provision for wants; but in the form of its activity, it tends to be a profit-making business without being oriented to profit as a substantive end. In the action of an individual, the two elements may be so intimately intertwined, and in the past have typically been so, that only the conclusion of the course of action, whether its product was sold or consumed, can serve as a basis for interpreting the meaning of the action. This has been particularly true of small peasants. Exchange may well be a part of the process of budgetary management where it is a matter of acquiring consumption goods by exchange and of disposing of surpluses. On the other hand, the budgetary economy of a prince or a landowner may, at least in part in the sense of the following discussion, be a profit-making enterprise. This has been true on a large scale in earlier times. Whole industries have developed out of the heterocephalous and heteronomous enterprises which landowners, monasteries, princes, etc., have established to exploit the products of their lands. All sorts of profit-making enterprises to-day are part of the economy of such units as local authorities or even states. In these cases it is legitimate to include in the ‘income’ of the units, if they are rationally administered, only the net profits of these enterprises. Conversely, it is possible for profit-making enterprises to establish various types of heteronomous budgetary units under their direction for such purposes as providing subsistence for slaves or wage workers—among them are ‘welfare’ organizations, housing and eating facilities. Net profits are money surpluses after the deduction of all money costs. See above, para. 2 of this section.
    6. It has been possible here to give only the most elementary starting points for analysing the significance of economic calculations in kind for general social development.

    11: THE CONCEPT AND TYPES OF PROFIT MAKING . THE ROLE OF CAPITAL

    ‘Profit-making’ (Erwerben)31 is activity which is oriented to opportunities for seeking new powers of control over goods on a single occasion, repeatedly, or continuously. ‘Profit-making activity’ is activity which is partly oriented to profit-making. Profit-making is economic if it is oriented to acquisition by peaceful methods. It may be oriented to the exploitation of market situations. ‘Means of profit’ (Erwerbsmittel) are those goods and other economic advantages which are used in the interests of economic profit-making. Exchange for profit is that which is oriented to market situations in order to increase control over goods, rather than to secure means for consumption. Credit may be extended as a means of increasing control over the necessary requisites of profit-making activity.
    There is a form of monetary accounting which is peculiar to rational economic profit-making; namely, ‘capital accounting.’ Capital accounting is the valuation and verification of opportunities for profit and of the success of profit-making activity. It involves the valuation of the total assets of the enterprise, whether these consist in goods in kind or in money, at the beginning of a period of activity; and the comparison of this with a similar valuation of the assets still present or newly acquired, at the end of the process. In the case of a profit-making organization operating continuously, it is a matter of accounting periods. But in any case, a balance is drawn between the initial and final states of the enterprise. ‘Capital’ is the sum of money in terms of which the means of profit-making which are available to the enterprise are valued. ‘Profit,’ and correspondingly ‘loss,’ is the difference between the valuations as revealed by the initial balance and that drawn at the conclusion of the period. ‘Capital risk’ is the estimated probability of loss as expressed in terms of a balance. A profit-making ‘enterprise’ (Unternehmen) is a system of action capable of autonomous orientation to capital accounting. This orientation takes place by means of calculation. On the one hand, there is a calculation, prior to actual action, of the probable risks and chances of profit; on the other hand, at the conclusion of a measure, verification of the actual profit or loss resulting. ‘Profitability’ (Rentabilität
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