Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms.
[2] For households and individuals in the United States, income is defined by tax law as a sum that includes any wage, salary, profit, interest payment, rent, or other form of earnings received in a calendar year.
For a firm, gross income can be defined as sum of all revenue minus the cost of goods sold.
[1] "Full income" refers to the accumulation of both the monetary and the non-monetary consumption-ability of any given entity, such as a person or a household.
It omits the utility a person may derive from non-monetary income and, on a macroeconomic level, fails to accurately chart social welfare.
In the multi-period case, something might also happen to the economy beyond the control of the individual to reduce (or increase) the flow of income.
[5] The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) uses the following definition: "Income is increases in economic benefits during the accounting period in the form of inflows or enhancements of assets or decreases of liabilities that result in increases in equity, other than those relating to contributions from equity participants."
Previously the IFRS conceptual framework (4.29) stated: "The definition of income encompasses both revenue and gains.
Revenue arises in the course of the ordinary activities of an entity and is referred to by a variety of different names including sales, fees, interest, dividends, royalties and rent.
4.30: Gains represent other items that meet the definition of income and may, or may not, arise in the course of the ordinary activities of an entity.
According to John Hicks' definitions, income "is the maximum amount which can be spent during a period if there is to be an expectation of maintaining intact, the capital value of prospective receipts (in money terms)".
[2] It encourages people to find happiness in nonmonetary, nontaxable ways and means that reported income may overstate or understate the well-being of a given individual.
[10] Many factors contribute to people having a higher income, including education,[11] globalisation and favorable political circumstances such as economic freedom and peace.
Gary Becker developed a Human Capital Theory, which emphasizes that investment in education and training lead to efficiency gains, and by extension to economic growth.
[1] Thereby necessitating initiatives like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10 aimed at reducing inequality.
[20] Basic income models advocate for a regular, and usually unconditional, receipt of money from the public institution.
[21] The proponents of UBI argue, that basic income is needed for social protection, mitigating automation and labour market disruptions.
Saint Paul wrote 'For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil:' (1 Timothy 6:10 (ASV)).
Some scholars have come to the conclusion that material progress and prosperity, as manifested in continuous income growth at both the individual and the national level, provide the indispensable foundation for sustaining any kind of morality.
[26] A landmark systematic review from Harvard University researchers in the Cochrane Collaboration found that income given in the form of unconditional cash transfers leads to reductions in disease, improvements in food security and dietary diversity, increases in children's school attendance, decreases in extreme poverty, and higher health care spending.
[31] Another study found that “an increase in household income of £1,000 is associated with a 3.6 month increase in life expectancy for both men and women.”[32] A study by a Professor of Epidemiology Michael G Marmot found argues that there are two ways which could explain a positive correlation between income and health: the ability to afford goods and services necessary for biological survival, and the ability to influence life circumstances.
[33] Russell Ecob and George Davey Smith found that there is a relationship between income and a number of health measures.
Greater household equivalised income is associated with better health indicators such as height, waist–hip ratio, respiratory function, malaise, limiting long-term illness.
Some consider Y as an alternative letter for the phoneme I in languages like Spanish,[35] although Y as the "Greek I" was actually pronounced like the modern German ü or the phonetic /y/.