[GMAT机经]12月19日GMAT阅读机经-智课教育.pdfVIP

智 课 网 G M A T 备 考 资 料 [GMAT机经]12月19日GMAT阅读机经-智课教育 12月19日GMAT阅读机经分享，一篇关于私人支票的起源的GMAT 阅读机经，希望可以帮到大家。 一、原文： Despite the growing availability and acceptance of electronic payment instruments—such as credit cards, debit cards, and automated clearinghouse (ACH) payments—by far the most popular noncash payment instrument used in the United States is the paper check. In 1995, approximately 80 percent of all noncash transactions were made by check (Bank for International Settlements, forthcoming). Furthermore, although use of electronic instruments has grown in the past several years, check use has grown as well： between 1987 and 1993, the average annual number of payments per capita increased by 26 payments for electronic instruments, but by 31 payments for checks (Humphrey, Pulley, and Vesala, forthcoming). Clearly, individuals and businesses are not rapidly shifting away from checks to electronic instruments.The popularity of checks persists even though checks cost society more to produce and process than do electronic instruments. According to standard economic theory, that may be a sign that the market for payment instruments is not working properly. In general, in an efficient market, when competing goods are available and one costs society more, the prices of the goods will reflect the relative costs of the resources used to produce them, and the cheaper good will be substituted for the more expensive. In this way, society uses its resources to produce only the particular goods it wants in the particular amounts it wants. In other words, resources are used efficiently. When use does not shift to the cheaper good, either the goods are not close substitutes or the market has failed, and there is a potential role for a public authority to attempt to correct the failure. Market failure is a commonly accepted view of what’s happened in the market for payment instruments. According to