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Here all the variables are expressed in terms of money. We can think of the market prices of the goods being used to evaluate the different variables listed here. And we can introduce more players in the chain of production in the example and make it more realistic and complicated. For example, the farmer may be using fertilisers or pesticides to produce wheat. The value of these inputs will have to be deducted from the value of output of wheat. Or the bakers may be selling the bread to a restaurant whose value added will have to be calculated by subtracting the value of intermediate goods (bread in this case). We have already introduced the concept of depreciation, which is also known as consumption of fixed capital. Since the capital which is used to carry out production undergoes wear and tear, the producer has to undertake replacement investments to keep the value of capital constant. The replacement investment is same as depreciation of capital. If we include depreciation in value added then the measure of value added that we obtain is called Gross Value Added. If we deduct the value of depreciation from gross value added we obtain Net Value Added. Unlike gross value added, net value added does not include wear and tear that capital has undergone. For example, let us say a firm produces Rs 100 worth of goods per year, Rs 20 is the value of intermediate goods used by it during the year and Rs 10 is the value of capital consumption. The gross value added of the firm will be, Rs 100 – Rs 20 = Rs 80 per year. The net value added will be, Rs 100 – Rs 20 – Rs 10 = Rs 70 per year. It is to be noted that while calculating the value added we are taking the value of production of firm. But a firm may be unable to sell all of its produce. In such a case it will have some unsold stock at the end of the year. Conversely, it may so happen that a firm had some initial unsold stock to begin with. During the year that follows it has produced very little. But it has met the demand in the market by selling from the stock it had at the beginning of the year. How shall we treat these stocks which a firm may intentionally or unintentionally carry with itself? Also, let us remember that a firm buys raw materials from other firms. The part of raw material which gets used up is categorised as an intermediate good. 18 What happens to the part which does not get used up? s m In economics, the stock of unsold finished goods, or semi-finished goods, n or raw materials which a firm carries from one year to the next is called e inventory. Inventory is a stock variable. It may have a value at the beginning c of the year; it may have a higher value at the end of the year. In such a case a inventories have increased (or accumulated). If the value of inventories is less y at the end of the year compared to the beginning of the year, inventories have t d decreased (decumulated). We can therefore infer that the change of inventories t of a firm during a year ≡ production of the firm during the year – sale of the I firm during the year. The sign ‘≡’ stands for identity. Unlike equality (‘=’), an identity always holds irrespective of what variables we have on the left hand and right hand sides of it. For example, we can write 2 + 2 ≡ 4, because this is always true. But we must write 2 × x = 4. This is because two times x equals to 4 for a particular value of x, (namely when x = 2) and not always. We cannot write 2 × x ≡ 4. Observe that since production of the firm ≡ value added + intermediate goods used by the firm, we get, change of inventories of a firm during a year ≡ value added + intermediate goods used by the firm – sale of the firm during a year. For example, let us suppose that a firm had an unsold stock worth of Rs 100 at the beginning of a year. During the year it had produced Rs 1,000 Reprint 2026-27