EcoGloss (Click the name to learn About EcoGloss)

A Glossary of Terms Used in Economics

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Above full-employment equilibrium
Absolute advantage
Abstract
Accounting cost
Accounting profit
Ad valorem tax
Adverse selection
Aggregate demand
Aggregate hours
Aggregate market
Aggregate planned expenditure
Aggregate supply
Aggregate production function
Allocative efficiency
Antitrust law
Arbitrage
Arbitrageur
Asset
Ask
Automatic fiscal policy
Automatic stabilizers
Autonomous expenditure
Average cost pricing rule
Average fixed cost (AFC)
Average product
Average revenue
Average tax rate
Average total cost (ATC)
Average variable cost (AVC)
Axiom

B

Bad
Balanced budget
Balance of payments accounts
Balance of trade
Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
Bank holding company (BHC)
Barriers to entry
Barter
Below full-employment equilibrium
Benefits principle of taxation
Bid
Big tradeoff
Bilateral monopoly
Bilateralism
Bill
Black market
Board of Governors
Bond
Breakeven income
Bretton Woods system
Budget constraint
Budget deficit
Budget line
Budget surplus
Bundesbank
Business cycle

C

Capacity output
Capacity utilization rate
Capital
Capital account
Capital accumulation
Capital flight
Capital gain
Capital gains tax
Capital stock
Capture theory
Cartel
Causation
Central bank
Ceteris paribus
Chain-weighted output index
Change in demand
Change in supply
Change in the quantity demanded
Change in the quantity supplied
Circular-flow diagram
Classical growth theory
Closed economy
Coase theorem
Coincidence of wants
Collateral
Collective bargaining
Collusive agreement
Command system
Commercial bank
Comparable worth
Comparative advantage
Compensating wage differential
Competitive market
Complement
Constant returns to scale
Consumer efficiency
Consumer equilibrium
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Consumer surplus
Consumption expenditure
Consumption function
Consumption schedule
Contestable market
Contractionary fiscal policy
Contractionary monetary policy
Controlled experiments
Corporate income tax
Corporation
Correlation
Cooperative equilibrium
Cost
Cost-benefit analysis
Cost-push inflation
Craft union
Cross price elasticity of demand
Crowding out
Council of Economic Advisers
Currency
Cyclical unemployment

D

Deadweight loss
Debtor nation
Decisions at the margin
Decreasing returns to scale
Deflation
Demand
Demand curve
Demand for labor
Demand schedule
Demand-pull inflation
Deposit multiplier
Depository institution
Depreciation
Depression
Derived demand
Diminishing marginal rate of substitution
Diminishing marginal product
Diminishing marginal returns
Diminishing marginal utility
Direct relationship
Discounting
Discount rate
Discouraged workers
Discretionary fiscal policy
Discretionary policy
Discrimination
Diseconomies of scale
Disequilibrium
Disequilibrium price
Disposable income
Disutility
Dividend
Dominant strategy equilibrium
Dumping
Duopoly
Dynamic comparative advantage

E

Economic depreciation
Economic efficiency
Economic growth
Economic growth rate
Economic information
Economic model
Economic profit
Economic rent
Economic shock
Economic welfare
Economics
Economies of scale
Economies of scope
Efficiency
Efficiency criterion
Efficiency wage
Efficient
Efficient market
Elastic demand
Elasticity of demand
Elasticity of supply
Embargo
Employment Act of 1946
Employment-to-population ratio
Entitlement spending
Entrants
Entrepreneurship
Envelope curve
Equation of exchange
Equilibrium
Equilibrium expenditure
Equilibrium price
Equilibrium quantity
Equity
Eurodollars
Excess capacity
Excess demand
Excess supply
Excess reserves
Exchange efficiency
Exchange rate
Excise tax
Exclusion principle
Exhaustible natural resource
Expansion
Expansionary fiscal policy
Expansionary monetary policy
Expectations
Expected utility
Explicit cost
Exports
External benefit
External cost
External diseconomies
External economies
Externality

F

Factors of production
Fallacy of composition
Federal budget
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Federal funds
Federal funds rate (funds rate)
Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB)
Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)
Federal Reserve Act of 1913
Federal Reserve Bank
Federal Reserve notes
Federal Reserve System
Feedback-rule policy
Fiat money
Financial innovation
Financial institution
Financial intermediary
Financal market
Fiscal policy
Fisher effect
Fixed exchange rate system
Fixed-rule policy
Floating exchange rate system
Flow
Foreign exchange desk
Foreign exchange market
Foreign exchange rate
Foreign purchase effect
Forward exchange
Four-firm concentration ratio
Fractional-reserve banking
Free rider
Frictional unemployment
Friedman's law
Fringe benefits
Full employment
Funds rate

G

Game theory
GDP deflator
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
Giffen good
Good
Government budget deficit
Government budget surplus
Government debt
Government purchases
Government purchases multiplier
Government sector surplus or deficit
Great Depression
Gross domestic product (GDP)
Gross investment
Growth accounting

H

Herfindahl-Hirschman Index
Heterogeneous products
Homogeneous products
Human capital
Horizontal equity
Hyperinflation

I

Imperfect competition
Implicit contract
Implicit rental rate
Imports
In-kind transfers
Incentive regulation scheme
Incentive system
Income
Income distribution
Income effect
Income elasticity of demand
Increasing marginal returns
Increasing returns to scale
Indexation
Indifference curve
Induced expenditure
Induced taxes
Industrial union
Inefficiency
Inelastic demand
Infant-industry argument
Inferior goods
Inflation
Inflation rate
Inflationary gap
Information cost
Insider-outsider theory
Intellectual property rights
Interest
Interest rate
Interest rate effect
Interest rate parity
Intermediate goods and services
Internalizing an externality
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Inverse relationship
Investment
Investment demand
Involuntary unemployment

J

J curve effect
Job leavers
Job losers
Job rationing
Job search
K

Keynesian activist
Keynesian economics
Keynesian theory of the business cycle

L

Labor
Labor demand curve
Labor force
Labor force participation rate
Labor productivity
Labor supply curve
Labor union
Land
Law of demand
Law of diminishing returns
Law of increasing (opportunity) cost
Law of supply
Learning-by-doing
Legal monopoly
Legal tender
Leisure
Liability
Limit pricing
Limited liability
Linear relationship
Liquidity
Local public good
Logrolling
Long run
Long-run aggregate supply curve
Long-run average cost
Long-run cost
Long-run industry supply curve
Long-run macroeconomic equilibrium
Long-run Phillips curve
Lorenz curve
Lump-sum taxes
Lump-sum tax multiplier

M

M1
M2
M3
Macroeconomics
Macroeconomic long run
Macroeconomic short run
Marginal benefit
Marginal cost
Marginal cost pricing rule
Marginal product
Marginal product of labor
Marginal propensity to consume (MPC)
Marginal propensity to import
Marginal propensity to save (MPS)
Marginal rate of substitution
Marginal revenue
Marginal revenue product
Marginal social benefit
Marginal social cost
Marginal tax rate
Marginal utility
Marginal utility per dollar spent
Market
Market clearing price
Market demand
Market economy
Market failure
Market power
Means of payment
Medium of exchange
Member bank
Microeconomics
Minimum efficient scale
Minimum wage
Minimum wage law
Monetarist
Monetarist theory of the business cycle
Monetary base
Monetary policy
Money
Money market mutual fund
Money multiplier
Money supply
Money wage rate
Monopolistic competition
Monopoly
Monopsonistic competition
Monopsony
Moral hazard
Multilateralism
Multiplier
Mutual fund
Mutual savings banks
N

Nash equilibrium
National income
National saving
Natural monopoly
Natural rate hypothesis
Natural rate of unemployment
Negative income tax
Negative relationship
Neolassical growth theory
Net borrower
Net exports
Net investment
Net lender
Net present value
Net taxes
New classical theory of the business cycle
New growth theory
New Keynesian theory of the business cycle
Nominal GDP
Nominal GDP targeting
Nonexhaustible natural resource
Nontariff barrier
Normal goods
Normal profit
Normative economics
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Note
O

Occupational mobility
Official settlements account
Official U.S. reserves
Oligopoly
Oligopsony
Open economy
Open market operation (OMO)
Opportunity cost
Own price
P

Paper currency
Paper economy
Paradox of thrift
Partnership
Patent
Payoff matrix
Peak
Perfect competition
Perfectly elastic demand
Perfectly inelastic demand
Perfect price discrimination
Personal income
Personal income tax
Per unit tax
Phillips curve
Pigovian tax
Political equilibrium
Positive economics
Positive relationship
Potential Gross Domestic Product (potential GDP)
Poverty
Poverty line
Poverty rate
Present value
Price ceiling
Price discrimination
Price effect
Price elasticity of demand
Price floor
Price index
Price level
Price maker
Price taker
Principal-agent problem
Principle of minimum differentiation
Prisoners' dilemma
Private good
Private information
Private sector surplus or deficit
Producer efficiency
Producer surplus
Product
Product differentation
Production efficiency
Production function
Production Possibilities Frontier (PPF)
Productive resources
Productivity
Productivity growth slowdown
Progressive income tax
Property rights
Proprietorship
Proportional income tax
Public good
Public interest theory
Purchasing power parity
Q

Quantity demanded
Quantity of labor demanded
Quantity of labor supplied
Quantity supplied
Quantity theory of money
Quota

R

Rate of return regulation
Rational expectations
Rational ignorance
Rationing device
Real balances effect
Real business cycle theory
Real Gross Domestic Product (real GDP)
Real income
Real interest rate
Real wage rate
Recession
Recessionary gap
Recovery
Reentrants
Regressive income tax
Regressive tax
Regulation
Relative price
Rent
Rent ceiling
Rent seeking
Repurchase agreements
Required clearing balance
Required reserve balance
Required reserve ratio
Required reserves
Reservation price
Reserve ratio
Reserves
Resources
Return
Returns to scale
Right-to-Work laws
Risk
Rivalness

S

Sacrifice ratio
Saving
Saving function
Saving schedule
Savings and loan association (S&L)
Savings bank
Saving supply
Scarcity
Scatter diagram
Search activity
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Securities
Security interest
Seigniorage
Service
Shortage (excess demand)
Short-run
Short-run aggregate supply curve
Short-run industry supply curve
Short-run macroeconomic equilibrium
Short-run Phillips curve
Shutdown point
Signal
Single-price monopoly
Slope
Special drawing rights (SDR)
Specialization
Stabilization policies
Stagflation
Stock
Store of value
Strategies
Strike
Structural deficit
Structural surplus or deficit
Structural unemployment
Subsidy
Subsistence real wage rate
Substitute
Substitution effect
Sunk cost
Supply
Supply curve
Supply-management policies
Supply of labor
Supply shock
Surplus (excess supply)
Symmetry principle

T

Tariff
Tax
Tax incidence
Technical efficiency
Technology
Terms of trade
Theory
Thrift institutions
Tie-in sale
Time-series graph
Total cost
Total fixed cost
Total product
Total revenue
Total revenue test
Total utility
Total variable cost
Tradeoff
Tragedy of the Commons
Transactions costs
Transitivity
Treasury bill
Treasury bond
Treasury note
Trend
Trough
Twin deficits

U

Uncertainty
Unemployed
Unemployment
Unemployment insurance
Unemployment rate
Unintended consequences
Union
Unit elastic demand
Unit of account
Unlimited liability
U.S. interest rate differential
Utilitarianism
Utility
Utility of wealth

V

Value
Value added
Value of marginal product
Variable costs
Vault cash
Velocity of circulation
Vertical equity
Voluntary export restraint (VER)

W

Wages
Wealth
Wealth distribution
Welfare economics
Wholesale Price Index
Willingness to pay
Working-age population
World price
World Trade Organization (WTO)

X

X-axis
X-inefficiency

Y

Y-axis
Yield

Z

Zero-coupon bond
Zero-coupon mortgage