THE PROCESS OF FORMING INVESTMENT SOURCES IN NEOCLASSICAL THEORIES.

Аннотация

the article is devoted to the analysis of neoclassical theory about the process of formation ofinvestment sources . Representatives of neoclassical theory were less critical of the importance of trade in obtaining profit. They believed that it can be mutually beneficial, but not equivalent in the traditional sense of this definition, which allows the parties to the transaction to gain a gain due to a higher subjective assessment of the acquired good compared to the one given. The famous Austrian economist O. Böhm-Bawerk believed that the price formed on the market is the price at which the consumer will be able to purchase this good in the future, but since this future is uncertain, it is necessary to constantly revise the assessment of the good. Changing the assessment of future goods leads to constant fluctuations in theprices ofcapital goods. Within the framework of the positive theory of capital, O. Böhm-Bawerk understands the latter as a set of monetary resources, “productively used for roundabout methods of increasing the quantity of goods in the future, which can take such forms as commercial, industrial and loan capital” 1. It should be noted that Böhm-Bawerk estimates the marginal utility of goods available in the current period much higher than the marginal utility of the future volume of goods. From his point of view, the refusal to consume goods at the present moment must be compensated by a certain reward 2. The investment process described by O. Böhm-Bawerk clearly demonstrates that the ideas of researchers of the late 19th century are based on fundamentally different approaches, according to which the consumption sphere is given a leading role, including in the process of forming investment sources. Authors increasingly argue that capital as a stock category and investments as a flow category should be determined not by the cost method, but by assessing future income, which is most clearly demonstrated in the works of I. Fisher. He is confident that income is the excess of cash flow over the initially available stock. The key form of income is interest, which permeates all economic relations, acting as a link between the present and the future. The main incentive for investment is the difference between the rate of income and the market interest rate. An increase in therate ofincome, which contributes to the expansionof investment opportunities, isa consequenceof scientificand technological progress. Fisher, studying thenature of capital and interest, believes that theiremergence is connected with the process of price formation, determined by the size of the money supply. Thus, it can be concluded that, according toI. Fisher, investmentscan also arise in thesphere ofcirculation. 1 Böhm-Bawerk,O.Selectedworksonvalue,interestandcapital/-M.:OOOIzd-voEKSMO,2009.P.76-78. 2O. Böhm-Bawerk relies in his theory of positive capital on the concept of abstinence proposed by W.N. Senior , whoalsodefinesinterestasacompensatoryincomeforthecapitalist’srefusalofcurrentconsumptionofgoods. https://ijmri.de/index.php/jmsi volume 4,issue5,2025 961 The argument that investments are a function of the interest rate, and one that is decreasing, is also reflected in the works of A. Marshall. The founder of neoclassicism, the core of which is J. B. Say's position on the equality of supply and demand 3, considers the principle of equilibrium through thecategories ofinvestments and savings. Accumulation in A. Marshall's view is the source of savings 4, which are formed as a certain surplus of income received from the sale of various factors of production. In his opinion, one can save from wages, rent, profit. In the short term, savings lead to an imbalance between production and consumption. But thanks to the financial market, the size of planned investments is able to align with the volume of savings. The interest rate is a balancing mechanism of savings and investments, regulating their size. Thus, according to A. Marshall, investments can exist only in the long term. Due to the use of economies of scale, firms will receive a positive quasi-rent , creating conditions that stimulate the investment process. Only equality between past and current investment costs, on the one hand, and the discounted value of future income, on the other, will ensure a stationary equilibrium in the long term. It is clear that this is an ideal model that is not feasible inpractice. Another representative of the neoclassical direction, A. Pigou, more closely links the investment activity of economic entities with the amount of money in circulation. If, according to I. Fisher, equality in the economy is ensured by the supply of money, then A. Pigou discusses the demand for money as an equilibrium factor, which makes his theory more realistically reflect the motivation of economic entities in the process of accumulating savings and investments. The coefficient of liquidity preference, introduced into the exchange equation of I. Fisher, clearly