Economics Vocabulary

The difference in value between total exports and total imports of goods.

B

The rate of interest used by individual commercial banks as a basis for their lending rates.

B

A period of high economic growth characterized by rising wages, profits, and prices, full employment, and high levels of investment, trade, and other economic activity.

B

The amount by which government expenditure exceeds income from taxation, customs duties, etc, in any one fiscal year.

B

An economy in which business activities and the allocation of resources are determined by government order rather than market forces.

C

A description of a market or economy that takes all opportunities to make some people better off without making other people worse off.

E

To buy or bring in (goods or services) from a foreign country.

I

The part of economics concerned with large-scale or general economic factors, such as interest rates and national productivity.

M

An economic system in which production and prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.

M

The part of economics concerned with single factors and the effects of individual decisions.

M

An economic system combining private and public enterprise.

M

Exclusive control of the market supply of a product or service.

M

The part of economics that focuses on the idea of fairness and what the outcome of the economy or goals of public policy ought to be.

N

The loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.

O

The branch of economics concerned with describing and explaining economic phenomena, focused on facts and behavioral relationships of cause and effect. It includes the development and testing of economic theories.

P

The practice of dividing a share of the profits of a business among employees, in addition to paying their regular wages and salaries.

P

A temporary depression in economic activity or prosperity.

R

The unemployment that remains in periods of full employment, as a result of those mentally, physically, or emotionally unfit to work.

R

A service or other asset used to produce goods and services that meet human needs and wants.

R

Money (usually of a specific country) that is liable to depreciate in value and is therefore difficult to exchange for another currency.

S

The level of subsistence or material welfare of a community, class, or person.

S

A school of economic thought that emphasizes the importance to a strong economy of policies that remove impediments to supply.

S

The ratio of export prices to import prices.

T

An economic system in which traditions, customs and beliefs shape the goods and services the society produces.

T

Capital that is provided for a new commercial enterprise by individuals or organizations other than those who own the new enterprise.

V