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50 Economics Ideas You Really Need to Know

List the economics ideas that you think are the most important in the field. These are taken from the book "50 Economics Ideas You Really Need to Know" by Edmund Conway. I tried to allow for different answer variations, but I have only take an introductory economics course, so if there are variations that weren't accepted that you think should of, mention it in the comments and I will consider adding it to the accepted answers (Most of these ones won't have variations though). Note: This is part of the 50 Ideas Quizzes and I do not necessarily agree with the list
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metternich1815
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Last updated: March 18, 2014
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First submittedMarch 18, 2014
Times taken440
Average score10.0%
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Just type the ideas you think are the most important that were discussed in the book. The descriptions correspond to "condensed ideas". Note: some answers have blank and blank. An example that is not an answer is Banks and savings accounts. The answer CAN be in the hint.
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Hint
Answer
1
Self-interest is good for society
The invisible hand
2
Something is perfectly priced when supply equals demand
Supply and demand
3
Beware relentless rises in population
The Malthusian trap
4
Time is money
Opportunity cost
5
People respond to incentives
Incentives
6
Concentrate on your specialities
Division of labor
7
Specialization+free trade=win-win
Comparative advantage
8
The least worst way to run an economy
Capitalism
9
Governments should spend to prevent deep recessions
Keynesianism
10
Control the growth of money
Monetarism
11
An egalitarian, entirely state-run society
Communism
12
Individual human choices are paramount
Individualism
13
Higher taxes mean lower growth
Supply-side economics
14
Rational people think at the margin
The marginal revolution
15
Money is a token of trust
Money
16
Micro for business, macro for countries
Micro and macro
17
The key yardstick of a country's economic performance
Gross Domestic Product
18
Central banks steer economies away from booms and busts
Central banks and interest rates
19
Keep prices rising slowly
Inflation
20
Falling prices can cripple an economy
Debt and deflation
21
As inevitable as death
Taxes
22
Zero unemplyment is impossible
Unemployment
23
The barometer of a country's standing
Currencies and exchange rates
24
The ledger of a country's international economic relations
Balance of payments
25
The irreplaceable foundations of society
Trust and the law
26
Deal with oil shortages through intervention
Energy and oil
27
Bonds are the basis of government financing
Bond markets
28
Banks connect borrowers with lenders
Banks
29
Stock markets sit at the heart of capitalism
Stocks and shares
30
Pass risk to those more willing to take it
Risky business
31
Boom and bust are inevitable
Booms and busts
32
Beware promising money you can't give
Pensions and the welfare state
33
Money markets make the world go round
Money markets
34
Humans are addicted to bubbles
Blowing bubbles
35
Economies seize up as credit drieds up
Credit crunches
36
Companies must adapt or die
Creative destruction
37
House prices go down as well as up
Home-owning and house prices
38
Governments are addicted to debt
Government deficits
39
The wealth gap will destablize nations
Inequality
40
Globalization is the adrenaline of capitalism
Globalization
41
Nations can acheive more by working together
Multilateralism
42
The biggest threat to world peace and prosperity
Protectionism
43
Technology is economic fuel
Technological revolutions
44
Aim to pull the bottom billion out of poverty
Development economics
45
Act now to avoid terrible environmental costs
Environmental economics
46
People are predictably irrational
Behavioural economics
47
People behave differently in games
Game theory
48
Economics can apply to everything
Criminomics
49
Economics is not all about money
Happynomics
50
Intervene when people are not rational
21st-Century economics
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4 Comments
fraaab
+3
Level 65
May 14, 2016
This quiz is dire - there is no way that you can know the answers to any of the hints, as the hints are so vague. For example: "Economics can apply to everything" is in no way an appropriate guideline to reach the answer "Criminomics". There's a reason the average score is so low: the hints are absolutely cretinous.
mushroomsteve
+1
Level 52
Aug 21, 2016
Sorry, but the hints are pretty bad. But this is the first time I have managed to get an answer that 0% of people have gotten!
jonf
+1
Level 70
Dec 6, 2018
Some of the answers are pretty obscure and/or so basic that you would never think of them as an answer. Who but the most boring economic historian talks about Monetarism? I have more of a problem with the hints, though. I was tempted to type "I agree" for the answer to almost every question. Questions 3, 6, 7, 9 are examples of good hints. Many of the others were rather silly.
Bletsch
+1
Level 71
Aug 21, 2023
I think "invisible hand" should be accepted. I did not think to type in the definite article...
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