Talk:Obstacle

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""Can be defined in a least two related way. One, economic barriers are those material elements which constrain/limit/prevent the achievement of certain economic goals, and the objectives for accomplishing such goals. Two, economic barriers are any constraints which have limiting (negative) economic implications, and these may include non-economic barriers (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1151847?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents). According to the first definition, economic obstacles are causes; they are effects in the second definition. Hence, economists argue that the overarching objective of people (consumers) and firms is to maximize satisfaction. For the consumer satisfaction is called utility, and it is subject to limited budget. For the firm, satisfaction is profit, which is constrained by economic costs. Limited budget and increasing cost result from economic obstacles are such as: •	the lack of capital as an obstacle to the development of certain projects; •	the lack of water as an obstacle to human capacity to produce certain crops on the field and to their own survival; •	the lack of light as an obstacle to economic mobility (at night??); •	the lack of electricity as an obstacle to the benefits provided by electronic devices and electrical machines; •	the lack of schools and teachers as obstacles to education and the fullness of citizenship; •	the lack of hospitals and physicians as obstacles to a system for the improvement of public health; •	the lack of transportation infrastructure as an obstacle to trade, industrial and tourism activities, among others, and to economic development. For this reason basic economic theory teaches that “the economic obstacle” is scarcity of productive resources, or factors and forces (means) of production, and the distribution of both such factors and the outputs they generate. Scarcity is the relative condition that arises when there exists, as it always is, an inequality between too few means and too many ends (wants, desires, needs). Primary among scarce resources, as apparent from the examples above, are physical capital, land and other natural resources, labor, human capital, and entrepreneurship. Because scarcity affects all people, businesses, and entire economies, whether bid or small, rich or poor, it simultaneously compels costly choices about (a) what is produced, (b) how it is produced given the state of prevailing technology, and (c) who benefits. Again, all individuals (people and firms) and economies face scarcity, but they confront barriers specific to their circumstances. To allow policy-relevant analysis in growth and development economics is generally assumed that developing countries share similar, and industrialized countries deal with similar, obstacles.

References

https://www.iisd.org/pdf/2007/igsd_economic_barriers.pdf http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty_pages/romain.wacziarg/downloads/barriers.pdf https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/63273/1/MPRA_paper_63273.pdf""

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 * Reference : Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich, 2015. "Social Obstacles to Technology, Technological Change, and the Economic Growth of African Countries: Some Anecdotal Evidence from Economic History," MPRA Paper 63273, University Library of Munich, Germany.

ExpertIdeasBot (talk) 16:55, 19 May 2016 (UTC)