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In economics labour is a factor of production usually combined with land and capital to produce outputs. Economists of the Classical school and Marxists attach a special importance to labour as the prime mover of the production process, a view encapsulated in the labour theory of value. Economists of the neo-classical school view labour as simply one input among several, whose value is determined by supply and demand, in the same way as any other commodity.
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In economics, the labour burden (or indirect labour) is an aggregate cost consisting of all indirect labour costs incidental to operations.
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The labour market is a theoretical concept used in macroeconomic analysis and is the market that determines who has jobs and the rate of pay for a particular job.
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The labour rate variance is a variance arising when the rate at which labour is paid differs from the standard rate.
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In business, the term labour relations describes the interaction (relations) between a company's upper management and the rest of its employees.
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The labour theory of value is the theory that the value of an item is dependent on the quantity of labour that is required to make it. First developed by Adam Smith, this theory was at the core of the Classical school of economics and has subsequently been the basis of Marxist economic theory. In practice, the theory has few useful applications and was superseded by the Marginalist theory of value, which associates the value of a good with its utility and its scarcity.
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The labour turnover rate is the ratio, usually expressed as a percentage, of the number of employees leaving an organisation or industry in a stated period to the average number of employees working in that organisation or industry during the period.
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Labour-intensive is a term denoting an industry or firm in which the remuneration paid to employees represents a higher proportion of the costs of production than the cost of raw materials or capital equipment (in the reverse case the industry or firm is said to be capital-intensive). While publishing is a labour-intensive industry, printing is capital-intensive.
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In economics, a ladder strategy is a strategy in which a bond portfolio is constructed to have approximately equal amounts invested in each maturity within a given range, to reduce interest rate risk.
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A Laffer curve is a curve on a graph, popularised by the American economist Arthur Laffer, in which the amount of government tax revenue is plotted against the percentage rate of taxation. Supply- side economists believe that this curve is hill-shaped, so that at very high rates of taxation a cut in percentage rates will actually increase government tax revenues. This belief is based on the view that lower tax rates will induce individuals to work harder and earn more income, enabling more tax to be raised at the lower rate. Although the Laffer curve has been very popular politically, there is little empirical evidence to support it.
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Laggard is a business slang expression for an underperforming stock.
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A laissez-faire economy is an economy in which government intervention is kept to a minimum and market forces are allowed to rule. The term, attributed to the French merchant J Gourlay, is best translated as 'let people do as they think best'. Laissez-faire policies were popular with western governments until the time of John Keynes, when mass unemployment caused them to become discredited. During the stagflation of the late 1960s and 1970s they became, once again, fashionable.
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In 1714, during Governor Dudley's rule of Massachusetts, the downfall of credit and general scarcity of circulating medium induced certain merchants to suggest the erection of a Bank of Credit in Boston, founded on land security, and to promote subscription promised 200 pounds annually to Harvard College. Dudley was greatly opposed to this measure and his son wrote an able paper setting forth the objections to such a scheme. To forestall the action of the bank, the province, by law, issued 50,000 pounds to be let out on mortgages of real estate, and these bills were in circulation during thirty years. The Land Bank scheme was thus prevented.
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A land certificate is a document that takes the place of a title deed for registered land. It is granted to the registered proprietor of the land and indicates ownership. It will usually be kept in the Land Registry if the land is subject to a mortgage.
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Land charges are encumbrances, such as contracts, payments, or other matters, to which land is subject; they must either be dealt with before the land is sold or they will bind the purchaser. Formerly, they bound a purchaser who had notice of them. Now most of them must be registered if they are to remain effective, either under the Land Charges Act (1972; applicable to unregistered land) or under the Land Registration Act (1925; applicable to registered land).
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A land lease or ground lease is a lease in which only the land is rented.
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Land registration is the system of registration of title introduced by the
Land Registration Act (1925). Land is registered by reference to a map rather than against the name of any estate owner. Three registers are kept: (a) the property register, which records the land and estate; it refers to a map and mentions any interests benefiting the land, e.g. easements and restrictive covenants; (b) the proprietorship register, which sets out the name of the owner, the nature of the title (e.g. freehold or leasehold), and any restrictions on the way the land may be dealt with (e.g. if the land is subject to a trust); (c) the charges register, which contains notice of rights adverse to the land, such as mortgages and land charges as defined in the Land Charges Act (1972). The owner's title is guaranteed by registration in most circumstances. Rights in registered land may be a registered interest, which amounts to ownership of the freehold or leasehold estate; an overriding interest, which binds a purchaser without needing to be registered; or a minor interest, which needs to be protected by an entry on
the register (e.g. interest under a trust or restrictive covenant). The purpose of the system was to simplify conveyancing, so that instead of checking title deeds, a search of the register would reveal all relevant matters. Unfortunately the simplicity of the system is breached by the difficulties arising from overriding interests. Eventually, all land in England and Wales will be registered, enabling unregistered conveyancing to disappear.
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The Lat is the currency of Latvia. One Lat equals 100 santims.
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The Latin American Free Trade Area (LAFTA) was an economic grouping that became the Latin American Integration Association in 1981.
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The Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) is an economic grouping of South American countries with headquarters in Montevideo. It took over the Latin American Free Trade Area (LAFTA) in 1981. Its members are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
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The Latin Union was a monetary union into which France, belgium, Italy and switzerland (and subsequently Greece) entered in 1865 to maintain a uniform and interchangeable coinage among themselves, and to protect their coinage system against the appreciation of silver relatively to gold, due to the gold discoveries in Australia and California. Silver was for the time being withdrawn from circulation. The terms of the convention were modified by subsequent negotiations - notably in 1874 when the member states agreed to suspend the free coinage of silver because of a fall in silver which began in 1872 which reveresd the situation, causing silver to depreciate relative to gold. By 1900 the Latin Union still existed but was in practical abeyance.
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Laundering money is the processing of money acquired illegally (as by theft, drug dealing, etc.) so that it appears to have come from a legitimate source. This is often achieved by paying the illegal cash into a foreign bank and transferring its equivalent to a British bank.
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The laurel was a gold coin struck during the reign of James I in 1619. It was so called on account of the king's head being represented crowned with laurel.
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The law of one price is the economic rule that, in the absence of trade barriers or transport costs, competition will ensure that a particular good will sell at the same price in all countries. The theory of purchasing-power parity is based on this law.
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A lease is a written agreement under which a property owner allows a tenant to use the property for a specified period of time and rent.
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Leaseback is a business arrangement in which one party sells a property to a buyer and the buyer immediately leases the property back to the seller, sometimes providing tax benefits.
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A legacy is a sum of money or article bequeathed by will and handed down from a predecessor.
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In America, after the breaking out of the American Civil War the American Congress was compelled, in 1862, to issue $150,000,000 in Treasury notes, and made them legal tender for payment of private debts and all public dues except duties on imports and interest on the public debt. These notes became the circulating medium to a large extent. The constitutional validity of these Legal-Tender Acts was strongly contested, especially in their application to debts contracted prior to their passage. Their constitutionality was generally maintained by the State courts, however. In 1869, this question came before the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Hepburn Vs Griswold. The validity of the acts was in this instance maintained only in so far as it did not affect the obligations of contracts made prior to their passage. A year later, in the case of Knox Vs Lee, this decision was overruled, and the constitutionality of the act was upheld in its applicability to pre-existing debts, though by a majority of the court only. The composition of the court had meantime been altered, two new Judges having been appointed.
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The lek is the currency of Albania.
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The leu is the currency of Romania.
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The lev is the currency of Bulgaria.
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The libra was a Roman coin equal in value to twenty denarii.
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Ligan are goods thrown overboard from a ship, tied to a cork or buoy so as to be retrieved later.
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A liquidator is a person appointed by a court, or by the members of a company or its creditors, to regularise the company's affairs on a liquidation. In the case of a members' voluntary liquidation, it is the members of the company who appoint the liquidator. In a creditors' voluntary liquidation, the liquidator may be appointed by company members before the meeting of creditors or by the creditors themselves at the meeting; in the former case the liquidator can only exercise his powers with the consent of the court. If two liquidators are appointed, the court resolves which one is to act. In a compulsory liquidation, the court appoints a provisional
liquidator after the winding-up petition has been presented; after the order has been granted, the court appoints the official receiver as liquidator, until or unless another officer is appointed. The liquidator is in a relationship of trust with the company and the creditors as a body; if he is appointed in a compulsory liquidation, he is an officer of the court, is under statutory obligations, and may not profit from his position. A
liquidator must be a qualified insolvency practitioner, according to the Insolvency Act (1986). Under this Act, insolvency practitioners must meet certain statutory requirements, including membership of an approved professional body (such as the Insolvency Practitioners' Association or the Institute of Chartered Accountants) . On appointment, the liquidator assumes control of the company, collects the assets, pays the debts, and distributes any surplus to company members according to their rights. In the case of a compulsory liquidation, the liquidator is supervised by the court, the liquidation committee, and the Department of Trade and Industry. He receives a statement of affairs from the company officers and must report on these to the court.
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A liquidity trap is a situation that could arise in an economy in which interest rates have fallen so low that investors allow their preference for liquidity to prevent them from investing in bonds. The liquidity trap was described by John Keynes in his general theory to point out that traditional views (now associated with monetarism) were inconsistent. As a result of the
liquidity trap, falling investment could lead to falling aggregate demand as well as falling prices and wages, but with no tendency to restore equilibrium between aggregate supply and demand. Neo-classical economists were quick to point out that falling prices would increase the real value of consumers' wealth, thus increasing the demand for goods, which would lead to the restoration of (full- employment) equilibrium. Although the
liquidity trap is still taught as part of the canon of economics, it is now considered to have little practical relevance.
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The Lira is the currency of Turkey. For many years the Lira was the currency of Italy, before Italy adopted the Euro.
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A livery company is one of some eighty chartered companies in the City of London that are descended from medieval craft guilds. Now largely social and charitable institutions, livery companies owe their name to the elaborate ceremonial dress (livery) worn by their officers. Several support public schools (e.g. Merchant Taylors, Haberdashers, Mercers) and although none are now trading companies, some still have some involvement in their trades (e.g. Fishmongers). In 1878 they joined together to form the City and Guilds of London Institute, which founded the City and Guilds College of the Imperial College of Science and Technology and has been involved in other forms of technical education.
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The livre was the currency used in France before the franc, which replaced it in 1795. The value of the livre varied from place to place, but generally the value of the livre Tournois was accepted as the standard.
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Lloyd's is a corporation of underwriters (Lloyd's underwriters) and insurance brokers (Lloyd's brokers) that developed from Edward Lloyd's coffee shop in Tavern Street in the City of London in 1689 (evidence of the coffee shop first being recorded in February 1688). Lloyd's coffee shop was much frequented by ship owners and merchants. By 1774 Lloyd's was established in the Royal Exchange and in 1871 was incorporated by act of parliament. It now occupies a new building built in 1986, in Lime Street (built by Richard Rogers). As a corporation, Lloyd's itself does not underwrite insurance business; all its business comes to it from some 260 Lloyd's brokers, who are in touch with the public, and is underwritten by some 350 syndicates of Lloyd's underwriters, who are approached by the brokers and who do not, themselves, contact the public. The 30, 000 or so Lloyd's underwriters must each deposit a substantial sum of money with the corporation and accept unlimited liability before they can become members. They are grouped into syndicates, run by a syndicate manager or agent, but most of the members of syndicates are names, underwriting members of Lloyd's who take no part in organising the underwriting business, but who share in the profits or losses of the syndicate and provide the risk capital. Lloyd's has long specialised in marine insurance but now covers almost all insurance risks.
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The London Commodity Exchange is a company that provides services for commodity markets in non- metals, including cocoa, sugar, grain, coffee, petroleum, rubber, and wool.
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The London Company was the Virginia Company proper, as distinguished from the Plymouth or North Virginia Company. It was chartered in 1606, obtaining permission to colonize the territory between Cape Fear and Long Island, America. The first settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The charter was taken away by James I in 1624, and the company dissolved.
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A long run is an economic concept, first put forward by Marshall, denoting the period of time sufficient to enable producers to change the amounts employed of all factors of production, including buildings and machinery. It is thus not a fixed period of time, but varies from industry to industry, normally depending on technological factors. Marshall distinguished the
long run from the short run, which refers to the period during which only some factors, such as labour, can be changed. The difference between long and short run may be illustrated by the case of a firm whose products suddenly face increased demand. The firm wishes to raise output, but in the short run can do so only by increasing the labour input, leading to an increased labour/ capital ratio, which may reduce efficiency and increase unit costs. In the long run the firm can install additional capital equipment and so reduce the labour/capital ratio again.
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The Loyal Company was an American land company chartered on June the 12th, 1749, in opposition to the Ohio Company. Its patentees obtained a grant of 800,000 acres in the Northwest Territory, chiefly along the Ohio River.
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Abbreviations
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