Economics/Glossary

Main Article

Discussion

A

Adverse selection [r]: a partial market failure that occurs when there are traders who take advantage of asymmetric information, raising uncertainty and leading to a reduction in the value of its products. ^[e]
Agency cost [r]: Add brief definition or description
Applied statistics [r]: the practice of collecting and interpreting numerical observations for the purpose of generating information. ^[e]
Arbitrage [r]: transactions to take advantage of a price differences of a product in different markets by buying where it is cheap and selling where it is dear. The possibility of arbitrage often prevents the occurrence of price differences. ^[e]
Asset price bubble [r]: The condition of an asset market in which price is governed by speculators' expectations that it will increase. ^[e]
Asymmetric information [r]: a situation in which a seller has information that is not available to potential buyers - or vice-versa. ^[e]
Austrian School of economics [r]: A school of economists who reject the tenets of macroeconomics and oppose the practice of collective economic management; and whose methodology concentrates upon the decisions of individuals and the operation of the market mechanism. ^[e]
Automatic stabilisers [r]: the tendency in times of falling economic activity for the government spending to rise, and for tax receipts to fall - and the reverse tendency in times of rising economic activity ^[e]

B

Base money [r]: currency in circulation plus bank vault cash plus deposits held by banks at the central bank (termed "high-powered money" in the US, and referred to as M0 in the UK). ^[e]
Basis point [r]: (bp) one hundredth of a percentage point . ^[e]
Broad money [r]: cash, current account deposits in banks and other financial institutions, savings deposits and time-restricted deposits (see also high-powered money). ^[e]
Bubble (economics) [r]: A surge in prices that raises expectations of further increases, so generating further increases: a process that continues until confidence falters, the bubble "bursts" and prices rapidly revert to an objectively-based level. ^[e]
Budget balance [r]: the difference between a central government's revenue and its expenditure in a given financial year. Conventions differ concerning the items that are included, and various cyclical adjustments can be made to identify its discretionary element.. ^[e]
Budget deficit [r]: the excess of a government's expenditures over its receipts. See also cyclically-adjusted budget deficit ^[e]

return to top

C

Central Bank [r]: A government agency that is responsible for monetary policy and the support of the banking system (for example the Federal Reserve Board and the Bank of England). Usually responsible for controlling a country's monetary policy and preserving the value of its currency. ^[e]
Competition [r]: The activity or condition of competing against others. Ecologically, the interaction between species or organisms which share a limited environmental resource. ^[e]
Complex interactive system [r]: A system in which an event in one of its components can have significant repercussions in many other components; and which can exist in more states than can be enumerated - including "open systems" whose operation is affected by events that have been generated from outside (such as international trade in the case of an economic system). ^[e]
Consequentialism [r]: The belief that the expected consequences of decisions should be the sole criterion of decision-making (in contrast to deontology). ^[e]
Consumer's surplus [r]: The excess of the amount that a consumer would be willing to pay for a product over its market price, changes in the value of which are usually estimated according to the rule of one-half. ^[e]
Corporation [r]: Add brief definition or description
Cost_of_capital [r]: Add brief definition or description
Covariance [r]: Add brief definition or description
Credit crunch [r]: Add brief definition or description
Cross elasticity of demand [r]: Add brief definition or description
Crowding out [r]: Add brief definition or description
Cyclically-adjusted budget deficit [r]: Add brief definition or description