Economics Vocabulary
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- Capital Goods
- Buildings, structures, machinery, and tools used in the production process.
- Costs of production
- The total cost of materials, labor, and other inputs required in the manufacture of a product.
- Factors of Production
- Resources that can be used to produce goods and services.
- Production Possibilities Curve
- Shows all of the possible combinations of two goods or services that can be produced with a stated time period, given available resources and technology.
- Consumer Goods
- Finished products - goods and services that people buy.
- Supply Schedule
- This schedule lists each quantity of a product that producers are willing to supply at various market prices.
- Economist
- A person who studies these economic choices.
- Inelastic Supply
- Exists when a change in a good's price has little impact on the quantity supplied.
- Capital Resources
- The manufactured materials used to create products.
- Subsidies
- Payments to private businesses by the government.
- Services
- Actions or activites that are performed for a fee.
- Regulations
- Rules about how companies conduct business.
- Technology
- The use of technical knowledge and methods to create new products or make existing products more efficiently.
- Productivity
- The level of output that results from a given level of input.
- Microeconomics
- The study of economics by looking at individual actors or players, such as a single consumer or single business.
- Determinants of Supply
- A nonprice factor that influeces the available supply of a good or a service.
- Resource
- Anything that people use to make or obtain what they want or need.
- Tax
- A required payment of money to the government to help fund government services.
- Producers
- The people that make the things that satisfy consumers' needs and wants.
- Resource Market
- The market in which households exchange resources with businesses and the government.
- Macroeconomics
- The study of economics by looking at multiple players or groups.
- Elastic Demand
- Exists when a small change in a good's price causes a major, opposite change in the quantity demanded.
- Entrepreneur
- A person who attempts to start a new business or introduce a new product - risking economic failure in return for the possibility of financial gain.
- Credit
- Allows consumers to use items before completing payment for the merchandise.
- Price Stability
- When the overall price level of the goods and services available in the economy is relatively constant.
- Command Economy
- Relies on government officials to answer the three basic economic questions.
- Human Resource
- Any human effort exerted during production.
- Mixed Economy
- Combines elements of traditional, market, and command economic models to answer the three basic economic questions.
- Entrepreneurship
- The organizational abilities and risk taking involved in starting a new business or introducing a new product.
- Natural Resource
- Items provided by nature that can be used to produce goods and to provide services.
- Substitute Goods
- Goods that can be used to replace the purchase of similar goods when prices rise.
- Economics
- The study of choices that people make to satisfy their needs and wants.
-
Scarcity
- A combination of limited economic resources and unlimited wants.
- Goods
- Physical objects to be purchased.
- Democratic Socialism
- The government owns some of the factors of production. Usually limited to electrical utilities and telephone network.
- Substitution Effect
- The tendency of consumers to substitute a similar, lower-priced product for another product that is relatively more expensive.
- Supply
- The quantity of goods and services that producers are willing to offer at various possible prices during a given time period.
- Barter
- The exchange of one set of goods for another.
- Specialization
- The focus on one activity.
- Self-Interest
- The impulse that encourages people to fulfill their needs and wants.
- Product Market
- The market im which producers offer - and consumers purchase - final goods and services.
- Allocate
- To distribute scarce resources - such as money, land, equipment, or labor - in order to satisfy the greatest number of needs and wants.
- Supply Curve
- Plosts on a graph the information from a supply schedule.
- Determinants of Demand
- A nonprice factor that influences the amount of demand for a good or service.
- Market Economy
- Individuals answer the three basic economic questions.
- Efficiency
- The use of the smallest amount of resources to produce the greatest amount of output.
- Full Employment
- The lowest possible level of unemployment in the economy.
- Market
- The free exchange of goods and services.
- Elasticity of Supply
- The degree to which price changes affect the quantity supplied.
- Law of Supply
- States that producers supply more goods and services when they can sell them at higher prices and fewer goods and services when they must sell them at lower prices.
- Traditional Economy
- Based on custom and tradition.
- Elasticity of Demand
- The degree to which changes in a good's price affect the quantity demanded by consumers.
- Private Property
- Goods that are owned by individuals and by businesses, rather than by the government.
- Interdependence
- When events or developments in one region of the world or sector of the economy influece events or developments in other regions or sectors.
- Inelastic Demand
- Exists when a change in a good's price has little impact on the quantity demanded.
- Income
- The money paid to households by business firms and the government in exhcange for the households' resources.
- Incentive
- Something that encourages you to behave in a particular way.
- Standard of Living
- People's economic well-being as determined by the quantity of goods and services they consume over a period of time.
- Elastic Supply
- Exists when a small change in price causes a major change in the quantity supplied.
- Law of Demand
- The inverse or opposite relationship between price and the quantity demanded.Pur
- Capitalism
- Those economies that are closest to the market model. Individuals own the factors of production.
- Purchasing Power
- The amount of money, or income, that people have available to spend on goods and services.
- Profit
- The amount of money remaining after producers have paid all of their costs.
- Self-Sufficiency
- When people or a society can fulfill all of their needs without outside assistance.
- Income Effect
- Any increase or decrease in consumers' purchasing power caused by a change in price.
- Exchange
- Producers and consumers agree to provide one type of item in return for another.
- Division of Labor
- Assigning a small number of tasks to each worker, enabling workers to increase output through specialization.
- Value
- The worth of a good or service for the puposes of exchange, expressed as the amount of money.
- Authoritarian Socialism or Communism
- Economies that are closest to the pure command model. The government owns or controls nearly all the factors of production.
- Money
- Any item that is readily accepted by people in return for goods and services.
- Competition
- The economic rivalry that exists among businesses selling the same or similar products.
- Complementary Goods
- Goods that are commonly used with other goods.
- Free Enterprise
- A system under which business can be conducted freely with little government intervention.
- Quantity Supplied
- The amount of a good or service that a producer is willing to sell at each particular price.
- Total Revenue
- -Sometimes called Total Receipts - refers to the total income that a business recieves from selling its products.
- Diminishing Marginal Utility
- When the marginal, or additional, utility of each unit consumed diminishes, or lessens, with each unit.
- Opportunity Cost
- The value of the next best alternative given up to obtain that item.
- Utility
- The usefulness of a product for determing value.
- Demand Schedule
- A way to show the relationship between the price of a good or service and the quantity that consumers demand.
- Demand Curve
- Plots the information given on the demand schedule.