CONTRIBUTIVE STANDARD: One of three basic income distribution standards (the other two are equality standard and needs standard). The contributive standard distributes income based on a person's contribution to production. This standard answers the For Whom? question of allocation primarily through the use of prices and markets. The resources used to produce goods that more highly valued society (meaning they better satisfy unlimited wants and needs) command higher prices and thus generate more income to their owners. An actor, for example, who can attract millions of adoring. $7-a-ticket fans to one performance of an action-packed, blockbuster movie produces a good that is more highly valued by society than a philosophy professor who spends all semester teaching a handful of reluctant, $100-a-credit-hour students the finer details of existentialism.

     See also | income distribution | income | distribution standards | needs standard | equality standard | three questions of allocation | efficiency | incentive | value | marginal productivity theory | For Whom? |

CONTRIBUTIVE STANDARD, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2024. [Accessed: September 7, 2024].

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A method of trading goods, commodities, or services, directly for one another without the use of money. Barter was the first type of market exchanged undertaken by human civilization as people advanced beyond self sufficiency in the satisfaction of their wants and needs. Modern economies still use a modest amount of barter to allocate resources. The key to a barter exchange is a double coincidence of wants, in which each side of the exchange wants what the other side has and has want the other side wants. A barter exchange tends to be less efficient that exchanges involving money.

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