Definition of Comparative Advantage

Comparative Advantage

A country has a comparative advantage over another country in the production of good A if to produce a unit of A it forgoes more of the production of good B than would the other country when it produces a unit of good A. Its efficiency in the production of good A relative to its efficiency in the production of good B is greater than is the case for the other country. See also absolute advantage.

Absolute Advantage

The ability to produce a good or service with fewer resources than competitors. See also comparative advantage.

Comparative credit analysis

A method of analysis in which a firm is compared to others that have a desired
target debt rating in order to infer an appropriate financial ratio target.

Net advantage of refunding

The net present value of the savings from a refunding.

Net advantage to leasing

The net present value of entering into a lease financing arrangement rather than
borrowing the necessary funds and buying the asset.

Net advantage to merging

The difference in total post- and pre-merger market value minus the cost of the merger.

Competitive Advantage

The strategies, skills, knowledge, resources or competencies that differentiate a business from its competitors.

Absolute priority

Rule in bankruptcy proceedings whereby senior creditors are required to be paid in full
before junior creditors receive any payment.

BARRA's performance analysis (PERFAN)

A method developed by BARRA, a consulting firm in
Berkeley, Calif. It is commonly used by institutional investors applying performance attribution analysis to
evaluate their money managers' performances.

Best-interests-of-creditors test

The requirement that a claim holder voting against a plan of reorganization
must receive at least as much as he would have if the debtor were liquidated.

Break-even analysis

An analysis of the level of sales at which a project would make zero profit.

Cluster analysis

A statistical technique that identifies clusters of stocks whose returns are highly correlated
within each cluster and relatively uncorrelated between clusters. Cluster analysis has identified groupings
such as growth, cyclical, stable and energy stocks.

Common-base-year analysis

The representing of accounting information over multiple years as percentages
of amounts in an initial year.
Common-size analysis The representing of balance sheet items as percentages of assets and of income
statement items as percentages of sales.

Consumer credit

credit granted by a firm to consumers for the purchase of goods or services. Also called
retail credit.

Credit

Money loaned.

Credit analysis

The process of analyzing information on companies and bond issues in order to estimate the
ability of the issuer to live up to its future contractual obligations. Related: default risk

Credit enhancement

Purchase of the financial guarantee of a large insurance company to raise funds.

Credit period

The length of time for which the customer is granted credit.

Credit risk

The risk that an issuer of debt securities or a borrower may default on his obligations, or that the
payment may not be made on a negotiable instrument. Related: Default risk

Credit scoring

A statistical technique wherein several financial characteristics are combined to form a single
score to represent a customer's creditworthiness.

Credit spread

Related:Quality spread

Crediting rate

The interest rate offered on an investment type insurance policy.

Creditor

Lender of money.

Demand line of credit

A bank line of credit that enables a customer to borrow on a daily or on-demand basis.

Discriminant analysis

A statistical process that links the probability of default to a specified set of financial ratios.

Eurocredits

Intermediate-term loans of Eurocurrencies made by banking syndicates to corporate and
government borrowers.

Evergreen credit

Revolving credit without maturity.

Factor analysis

A statistical procedure that seeks to explain a certain phenomenon, such as the return on a
common stock, in terms of the behavior of a set of predictive factors.

Federal credit agencies

Agencies of the federal government set up to supply credit to various classes of
institutions and individuals, e.g. S&Ls, small business firms, students, farmers, and exporters.

Five Cs of credit

Five characteristics that are used to form a judgement about a customer's creditworthiness:
character, capacity, capital, collateral, and conditions.

Foreign tax credit

Home country credit against domestic income tax for foreign taxes paid on foreign
derived earnings.

Full faith-and-credit obligations

The security pledges for larger municipal bond issuers, such as states and
large cities which have diverse funding sources.

Fundamental analysis

Security analysis that seeks to detect misvalued securities by an analysis of the firm's
business prospects. Research analysis often focuses on earnings, dividend prospects, expectations for future
interest rates, and risk evaluation of the firm.

Horizon analysis

An analysis of returns using total return to assess performance over some investment horizon.

Horizontal analysis

The process of dividing each expense item of a given year by the same expense item in
the base year. This allows for the exploration of changes in the relative importance of expense items over time
and the behavior of expense items as sales change.

Investment tax credit

Proportion of new capital investment that can be used to reduce a company's tax bill
(abolished in 1986).

Letter of credit (L/C)

A form of guarantee of payment issued by a bank used to guarantee the payment of
interest and repayment of principal on bond issues.

Line of credit

An informal arrangement between a bank and a customer establishing a maximum loan
balance that the bank will permit the borrower to maintain.

Line of credit

An informal arrangement between a bank and a customer establishing a maximum loan
balance that the bank will permit the borrower to maintain.

Mean-variance analysis

Evaluation of risky prospects based on the expected value and variance of possible outcomes.

Multiple-discriminant analysis (MDA)

Statistical technique for distinguishing between two groups on the
basis of their observed characteristics.

Performance attribution analysis

The decomposition of a money manager's performance results to explain
the reasons why those results were achieved. This analysis seeks to answer the following questions: (1) What
were the major sources of added value? (2) Was short-term factor timing statistically significant? (3) Was
market timing statistically significant? And (4), Was security selection statistically significant?

Pro forma capital structure analysis

A method of analyzing the impact of alternative capital structure
choices on a firm's credit statistics and reported financial results, especially to determine whether the firm will
be able to use projected tax shield benefits fully.

Regression analysis

A statistical technique that can be used to estimate relationships between variables.

Retail credit

credit granted by a firm to consumers for the purchase of goods or services.
See: consumer credit.

Revolving credit agreement

A legal commitment wherein a bank promises to lend a customer up to a
specified maximum amount during a specified period.

Revolving line of credit

A bank line of credit on which the customer pays a commitment fee and can take
down and repay funds according to his needs. Normally the line involves a firm commitment from the bank
for a period of several years.

Scenario analysis

The use of horizon analysis to project bond total returns under different reinvestment rates
and future market yields.

Sensitivity analysis

analysis of the effect on a project's profitability due to changes in sales, cost, and so on.

Technical analysis

Security analysis that seeks to detect and interpret patterns in past security prices.

Trade credit

credit granted by a firm to another firm for the purchase of goods or services.

Vertical analysis

The process of dividing each expense item in the income statement of a given year by net
sales to identify expense items that rise faster or slower than a change in sales.

VERTICAL ANALYSIS

A financial analysis technique that relates key amounts on the income statement and balance sheet to a 100 percent or base figure for the present and previous year.
It shows the percentage change from last year to this year, making it easier to spot problems that require analysis.

Cost–volume–profit analysis (CVP)

A method for understanding the relationship between revenue, cost and sales volume.

Credit

Buying or selling goods or services now with the intention of payment following at some time in
the future (as opposed to buying or selling goods or services for cash).

Creditors

Purchases of goods or services from suppliers on credit to whom the debt is not yet paid. Or a
term used in the Balance Sheet to denote current liabilities.

Ratio analysis

A method of analysing financial reports to interpret trends and make comparisons by using ratios – two numbers, with one generally expressed as a percentage of the other.

Sensitivity analysis

An approach to understanding how changes in one variable of cost–volume–profit analysis are affected by changes in the other variables.

Variance analysis

A method of budgetary control that compares actual performance against plan, investigates the causes of the variance and takes corrective action to ensure that targets are achieved.

Credit

One side of a journal entry, usually depicted as the right side.

Ratio analysis

A method of relating numbers from the various financial statements to one another in order to get meaningful information for comparison.

capital investment analysis

Refers to various techniques and procedures
used to determine or to analyze future returns from an investment
of capital in order to evaluate the capital recovery pattern and the
periodic earnings from the investment. The two basic tools for capital
investment analysis are (1) spreadsheet models (which I strongly prefer)
and (2) mathematical equations for calculating the present value or
internal rate of return of an investment. Mathematical methods suffer
from a lack of information that the decision maker ought to consider. A
spreadsheet model supplies all the needed information and has other
advantages as well.

Ratio Analysis

The process of using financial ratios, calculated from key accounts
found in a company's financial statements, to make judgements
concerning the finances and operations of the firm

activity analysis

the process of detailing the various repetitive actions that are performed in making a product or
providing a service, classifying them as value-added and
non-value-added, and devising ways of minimizing or eliminating
non-value-added activities

correlation analysis

an analytical technique that uses statistical
measures of dispersion to reveal the strength of the
relationship between variables

cost-benefit analysis the analytical process of comparing the

relative costs and benefits that result from a specific course
of action (such as providing information or investing in a
project)

cost driver analysis

the process of investigating, quantifying,
and explaining the relationships of cost drivers and
their related costs

incremental analysis

a process of evaluating changes that
focuses only on the factors that differ from one course of
action or decision to another

least squares regression analysis

a statistical technique that investigates the association between dependent and independent variables; it determines the line of "best fit" for a set of observations by minimizing the sum of the squares
of the vertical deviations between actual points and the
regression line; it can be used to determine the fixed and
variable portions of a mixed cost

Pareto analysis

a method of ranking the causes of variation
in a process according to the impact on an objective
Pareto inventory analysis an analysis that separates inventory
into three groups based on annual cost-to-volume usage

sensitivity analysis

a process of determining the amount of change that must occur in a variable before a different decision would be made

variance analysis

the process of categorizing the nature (favorable or unfavorable) of the differences between standard and actual costs and determining the reasons for those differences

Regression analysis

Statistical analysis techniques that quantify the
relationship between two or more variables. The intent is quantitative
prediction or forecasting, particularly using a small population to forecast the
behavior of a large population.

Pareto analysis

The 80:20 ratio that states that 20% of the variables included in an
analysis are responsible for 80% of the results. For example, 20% of all customers
are responsible for 80% of all customer service activity, or 20% of all inventory
items comprise 80% of the inventory value.

break-even analysis

analysis of the level of sales at which the company breaks even.

credit analysis

Procedure to determine the likelihood a customer will pay its bills.

credit policy

Standards set to determine the amount and nature of credit to extend to customers.

line of credit

Agreement by a bank that a company may borrow at any time up to an established limit.

scenario analysis

Project analysis given a particular combination of assumptions.

sensitivity analysis

analysis of the effects of changes in sales, costs, and so on, on project profitability.

simulation analysis

Estimation of the probabilities of different possible outcomes, e.g., from an investment project.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

The calculation and comparison of the costs and benefits of a policy or project.

Credit Crunch

A decline in the ability or willingness of banks to lend.

Credit Rationing

Restriction of loans by lenders so that not all borrowers willing to pay the current interest rate are able to obtain loans.

Investment Tax Credit

A reduction in taxes offered to firms to induce them to increase investment spending.

Consumer Credit Protection Act

A federal Act specifying the proportion of
total pay that may be garnished.

Absolute Right of Return

Goods may be returned to the seller by the purchaser without restrictions.

Failure analysis

The examination of failure incidents to identify components
with poor performance profiles.

Creditor Proof Protection

The creditor proof status of such things as life insurance, non-registered life insurance investments, life insurance RRSPs and life insurance RRIFs make these attractive products for high net worth individuals, professionals and business owners who may have creditor concerns. Under most circumstances the creditor proof rules of the different provincial insurance acts take priority over the federal bankruptcy rules.
The provincial insurance acts protect life insurance products which have a family class beneficiary. Family class beneficiaries include the spouse, parent, child or grandchild of the life insured, except in Quebec, where creditor protection rules apply to spouse, ascendants and descendants of the insured. Investments sold by other financial institutions do not offer the same security should the holder go bankrupt. There are also circumstances under which the creditor proof protections do not hold for life insurance products. Federal bankruptcy law disallows the protection for any transfers made within one year of bankruptcy. In addition, should it be found that a person shifted money to an insurance company fund in bad faith for the specific purpose of avoiding creditors, these funds will not be creditor proof.

Break-Even Analysis

An analytical technique for studying the relationships between fixed cost, variable cost, and profits. A breakeven chart graphically depicts the nature of breakeven analysis. The breakeven point represents the volume of sales at which total costs equal total revenues (that is, profits equal zero).

Credit

A rating of a company's credit (ability to payback debt), usually by a third party credit agency.

Credit Loss

A loan receivable that has proven uncollectible and is written off.

Credit Risk

Financial and moral risk that an obligation will not be paid and a loss will result.

Credit Terms

Conditions under which credit is extended by a lender to a borrower.

Credit Union

credit unions are community based financial co-operatives and most offer a full range of services. All are owned and controlled by members who are also shareholders. credit unions are regulated provincially and insured by a stabilization fund, deposit insurance or guarantee corporation.
credit unions are supported by a system of provincial credit union Centrals, a national credit union Central and affiliated national financial co-operatives.

Creditor

Person or business that is owed money.

Export Credit Insurance

The granting of insurance to cover the commercial and political risks of selling in foreign markets.

Financial Trend Analysis

Process of analyzing financial statements of a company for any continuing relationship.

Formalized Line of Credit

A contractual commitment to make loans to a particular borrower up to a specified maximum during a specified period, usually one year.

Full Credit Period

The period of trade credit given by a supplier to its customer.

Letters of Credit

A letter of credit is a guarantee of payment by a bank (issuing institution)to a third party for a specific amount of money, if certain conditions are met.

Line of Credit

An agreement negotiated between a borrower and a lender which establishes the maximum amount against which a borrower may draw. The agreement also sets out other conditions, such as how and when money borrowed against the line of credit is to be repaid.

Operating Line of Credit

A bank's commitment to make loans to a particular borrower up to a specified maximum for a specified period, usually one year.

Revolving Credit

Line of credit against which funds may be borrowed at any time, with regular scheduled repayments of a predetermined minimum amount.

Supplier Credit

Period of delay allowed by a firm's supplier to pay its invoices. Frequently, the terms are : 2% discount on invoice if paid in 10 days or net if paid in 30 days.

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