page_title: Circular flow of income
section_title: Three-sector model
hierarchical_section_title: Circular flow of income / Types of models / Three-sector model
caption_attribution_description: English: Cartoon of the circular flow concept in economics
context_page_description: The circular flow of income or circular flow is a model of the economy in which the major exchanges are represented as flows of money, goods and services, etc. between economic agents. The flows of money and goods exchanged in a closed circuit correspond in value, but run in the opposite direction. The circular flow analysis is the basis of national accounts and hence of macroeconomics.
  The idea of the circular flow was already present in the work of Richard Cantillon. François Quesnay developed and visualized this concept in the so-called Tableau économique. Important developments of Quesnay's tableau were Karl Marx' reproduction schemes in the second volume of Capital: Critique of Political Economy, and John Maynard Keynes' General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Richard Stone further developed the concept for the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to the system, which is now used internationally.
context_section_description: The three-sector model adds the government sector to the two-sector model. Thus, the three-sector model includes (1) households, (2) firms, and (3) government. It excludes the financial sector and the foreign sector. The government sector consists of the economic activities of local, state and federal governments. Flows from households and firms to government are in the form of taxes. The income the government receives flows to firms and households in the form of subsidies, transfers, and purchases of goods and services. Every payment has a corresponding receipt; that is, every flow of money has a corresponding flow of goods in the opposite direction. As a result, the aggregate expenditure of the economy is identical to its aggregate income, making a circular flow.
caption: Three-sector circular flow diagram
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