Chapter 1 Vocabulary Flashcards
fundamental economic problem facing all societies resulting from a combination of
scarce resources and people’s virtually unlimited needs and wants.
Scarcity
social science dealing with how people satisfy seemingly unlimited and competing
needs and wants with the careful use of scarce resources.
Economics
basic requirement for survival, including food, clothing, and shelter.
Need
something we would like to have but is not necessary for survival.
Want
tangible economic product that is useful, transferable to others, and used to satisfy wants
and needs.
Goods
work or labor performed for someone; economic product that includes haircuts, home
repairs, and forms of entertainment.
Service
ability or capacity of a good or service to be useful and give satisfaction to someone.
Utility
monetary value of all final goods, services, and structures produced
within a country’s national borders during a one-year period.
Gross Domestic Product
productive resources needed to produce goods; the four factors are land,
capital, labor, and entrepreneurship.
Factors of Production
risk-taking individuals who introduce new products or services in search of profits;
one of the four factors of production.
Entrepeneurs
diagram representing all possible combinations of goods and/or
services an economy can produce when all productive resources are fully employed.
Production Possibilities Curve
cost of the next best alternative use of money, time, or resources, when one
choice is made rather than another.
Opportunity Cost
alternative that must be given up when one choice is made rather than another.
Trade-offs
a social movement that was aimed at promoting the interests of consumers.
Consumerism
increase in a nation’s total output of goods and services over time.
Economic Growth
a measure of the amount of output produced in a specific time period with a given
amount of resources; normally refers to labor, but can apply to all factors of production.
Productivity
assignment of tasks to the works, factories, regions, or nations that can perform
them most efficiently.
Specialization
mutual dependence of the economic activities of one person,
company, region, or nation on those of another person, company, region, or nation.
Economic Interdependence
comparison of the cost of an action to its benefits.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
market economy in which privately owned businesses have the freedom
to operate for a profit with limited government intervention.
Free Enterprise Economy
