Desde el punto de vista macroeconómico la inversión, también denominada en contabilidad nacional formación bruta de capital, es uno de los componentes del producto interno bruto (PIB) observado desde el punto de vista de la demanda "Demanda (economía)") o el gasto.

En una economía nacional cualquier bien producido puede tener tres destinos:.

Los tres usos antes expuestos intervienen como componentes agregados del PIB:.

donde PIB es el producto interior bruto contabilizado en precios de mercado, C es el valor total de los bienes consumidos, I es la formación bruta de capital (inversión), G es el gasto de gobierno o consumo público, X es el valor de las exportaciones y M, el valor de las importaciones. A partir de la identidad anterior, es trivial derivar la identidad fundamental de la contabilidad nacional:.

Exclusions from the concept of investment in macroeconomics

In macroeconomics, the term investment is used to refer to the increase in the amount of productive assets such as capital goods (equipment, structures or inventories). For example, when the company EADS, manufacturer of Airbus, builds a new aircraft factory or the Pérez family builds a new house, these activities are investment. In terms of a family, many talk about "investment" when they buy land, a Telefónica share or an investment fund. In economics, these purchases constitute financial transactions or portfolio changes, since what one person buys, another sells. There is only investment when real capital is created.

Thus, companies make investments almost systematically, while the acquisition of capital goods by families is not considered an investment: cars, computers, appliances, even though they are used by households for several years. The only investment that families make, according to national accounting, is the acquisition they make of homes.

Investment components

From this macroeconomic point of view, investment can be broken down into three elements:

The sum of all of them provides the total investment.

Determinants of investment

When looking for the reasons why companies invest, it is ultimately seen that companies buy capital goods when they expect to obtain a profit, that is, income greater than the costs of the investment. This simple statement contains three essential elements that determine investment:

In general, it can be said that there are three major types of markets in the world:[12]​.

Investments are usually made indirectly through intermediary financial institutions. These intermediaries include pension funds, banks and insurance companies. They can pool money received from several individual end investors into funds such as investment trusts, unit trusts and SICAVs to make large-scale investments. Each individual investor has an indirect or direct right to the acquired assets, subject to the fees charged by the intermediary, which can be large and varied.

Investment approaches sometimes referred to in collective investment marketing include cost averaging and market timing.

In the medieval Islamic world, the qirad was an important financial instrument.

The qirad is also known as Muqaradah by scholars of the Hanafi and Hanbali schools.[13] It was an agreement between one or more investors and an agent in which the investors entrusted capital to an agent who then traded with him in the hope of making a profit. Then, both parties received a previously settled portion of the profits. The agent was not responsible for any loss, as long as it did not exceed the subscribed capital. (In later Hanafi jurisprudence, the agent had no authority to incur obligations in excess of the capital, so he would have to personally bear any additional losses.[14]​)

The qirad is similar to the institution of the commenda, later used in Western Europe. The commenda was a medieval contract that developed in Italy around the turn of the century and was one of the first forms of limited partnership.[15][16] The commenda (or encomienda) was an agreement between an investing partner and a traveling partner to carry out a commercial enterprise, usually abroad.[17] The terms of the partnership varied and modern historians generally classify them as unilateral commendas and bilateral commendas, depending on the sharing of contributions and profits between the partners. partners.[18]​ The bilateral commenda was known in Venice as collegantia or colleganza.[19]​ The commenda has been described as a fundamental innovation in the history of finance and commerce.[18]​[20][21]​.

It cannot be stated with certainty whether the qirad became a commenda or whether the two institutions evolved independently.[22]​.

At the turn of the century, buyers of stocks, bonds, and other securities were described in the media, academia, and commerce as speculators. Since the Wall Street financial crash of 1929, and particularly in the 1950s, the term 'investment' had come to denote the more conservative end of the securities spectrum, while financial brokers and their advertising agencies applied 'speculation' to higher risk securities, very fashionable at the time.[23] Since the second half of the century, the terms speculation and speculator have referred specifically to high-risk ventures.

Desde el punto de vista macroeconómico la inversión, también denominada en contabilidad nacional formación bruta de capital, es uno de los componentes del producto interno bruto (PIB) observado desde el punto de vista de la demanda "Demanda (economía)") o el gasto.

En una economía nacional cualquier bien producido puede tener tres destinos:.

Los tres usos antes expuestos intervienen como componentes agregados del PIB:.

donde PIB es el producto interior bruto contabilizado en precios de mercado, C es el valor total de los bienes consumidos, I es la formación bruta de capital (inversión), G es el gasto de gobierno o consumo público, X es el valor de las exportaciones y M, el valor de las importaciones. A partir de la identidad anterior, es trivial derivar la identidad fundamental de la contabilidad nacional:.

Exclusions from the concept of investment in macroeconomics

In macroeconomics, the term investment is used to refer to the increase in the amount of productive assets such as capital goods (equipment, structures or inventories). For example, when the company EADS, manufacturer of Airbus, builds a new aircraft factory or the Pérez family builds a new house, these activities are investment. In terms of a family, many talk about "investment" when they buy land, a Telefónica share or an investment fund. In economics, these purchases constitute financial transactions or portfolio changes, since what one person buys, another sells. There is only investment when real capital is created.

Thus, companies make investments almost systematically, while the acquisition of capital goods by families is not considered an investment: cars, computers, appliances, even though they are used by households for several years. The only investment that families make, according to national accounting, is the acquisition they make of homes.

Investment components

From this macroeconomic point of view, investment can be broken down into three elements:

The sum of all of them provides the total investment.

Determinants of investment

When looking for the reasons why companies invest, it is ultimately seen that companies buy capital goods when they expect to obtain a profit, that is, income greater than the costs of the investment. This simple statement contains three essential elements that determine investment:

In general, it can be said that there are three major types of markets in the world:[12]​.

Investments are usually made indirectly through intermediary financial institutions. These intermediaries include pension funds, banks and insurance companies. They can pool money received from several individual end investors into funds such as investment trusts, unit trusts and SICAVs to make large-scale investments. Each individual investor has an indirect or direct right to the acquired assets, subject to the fees charged by the intermediary, which can be large and varied.

Investment approaches sometimes referred to in collective investment marketing include cost averaging and market timing.

In the medieval Islamic world, the qirad was an important financial instrument.

The qirad is also known as Muqaradah by scholars of the Hanafi and Hanbali schools.[13] It was an agreement between one or more investors and an agent in which the investors entrusted capital to an agent who then traded with him in the hope of making a profit. Then, both parties received a previously settled portion of the profits. The agent was not responsible for any loss, as long as it did not exceed the subscribed capital. (In later Hanafi jurisprudence, the agent had no authority to incur obligations in excess of the capital, so he would have to personally bear any additional losses.[14]​)

The qirad is similar to the institution of the commenda, later used in Western Europe. The commenda was a medieval contract that developed in Italy around the turn of the century and was one of the first forms of limited partnership.[15][16] The commenda (or encomienda) was an agreement between an investing partner and a traveling partner to carry out a commercial enterprise, usually abroad.[17] The terms of the partnership varied and modern historians generally classify them as unilateral commendas and bilateral commendas, depending on the sharing of contributions and profits between the partners. partners.[18]​ The bilateral commenda was known in Venice as collegantia or colleganza.[19]​ The commenda has been described as a fundamental innovation in the history of finance and commerce.[18]​[20][21]​.

It cannot be stated with certainty whether the qirad became a commenda or whether the two institutions evolved independently.[22]​.

At the turn of the century, buyers of stocks, bonds, and other securities were described in the media, academia, and commerce as speculators. Since the Wall Street financial crash of 1929, and particularly in the 1950s, the term 'investment' had come to denote the more conservative end of the securities spectrum, while financial brokers and their advertising agencies applied 'speculation' to higher risk securities, very fashionable at the time.[23] Since the second half of the century, the terms speculation and speculator have referred specifically to high-risk ventures.