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The marginal efficiency of capital/investment itself is dependent upon
business confidence and expectations about future demand levels and therefore
plant utilization. The volatility of business expectations in the short run means
that planned levels of fixed investment can vary significantly over time, leading
to large changes in the demand for capital goods, that is, large fluctuations in
the investment component of aggregate demand leading to larger fluctuations in
output and employment through the multiplier effect.
Similar considerations apply to inventory investment with stock levels
being increased or decreased over time with changing business expectations.
The long-term significance of investment lies in the contribution it makes
to economic prosperity. Building new factories, adding new machinery and
equipment, and investing in new techniques and products enables industry to
supply a greater quantity of more sophisticated products and services to the
consuming public, while similar investments in the provision of social capital
(schools, health, etc.) contribute vitally to the up-grading of general living
standards.
At the micro-level a firm's investment decisions depend upon the
profitability or cash flow implications of particular investment projects and are
considered as part of its capital budgeting procedures.
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