Key Terms Flashcards
Barriers to Entry
Factors, such as technological or legal conditions, that prevent new firms from competing equally with an existing firm.
Business
An organization that strives for a profit by providing goods and services desired by its customers.
Business Cycles
Upward and downward changes in the level of economic activity.
Capital
The inputs, such as tools, machinery, equipment, and buildings, used to produce goods and services and get them to the customer.
Capitalism
An economic system based on competition in the marketplace and private ownership of the factors of production (resources); also known as the private enterprise system.
Circular Flow
The movement of inputs and outputs among households, businesses, and governments; a way of showing how the sectors of the economy interact.
Communism
An economic system characterized by government ownership of virtually all resources, government control of all markets, and economic decision-making by central government planning.
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
An index of the prices of a “market basket” of goods and services purchased by typical urban consumers.
Contractionary Policy
The use of monetary policy by the Fed to tighten the money supply by selling government securities or raising interest rates.
Cost-Push Inflation
Inflation that occurs when increases in production costs push up the prices of final goods and services.
Costs
Expenses incurred from creating and selling goods and services.
Crowding Out
The situation that occurs when government spending replaces spending by the private sector.
Cyclical Unemployment
Unemployment that occurs when a downturn in the business cycle reduces the demand for labor throughout the economy.
Demand
The quantity of a good or service that people are willing to buy at various prices.
Demand Curve
A graph showing the quantity of a good or service that people are willing to buy at various prices.
Demand-Pull Inflation
Inflation that occurs when the demand for goods and services is greater than the supply.
Demography
The study of people’s vital statistics, such as their age, gender, race and ethnicity, and location.
Economic Growth
An increase in a nation’s output of goods and services.
Economic System
The combination of policies, laws, and choices made by a nation’s government to establish the systems that determine what goods and services are produced and how they are allocated.
Economics
The study of how a society uses scarce resources to produce and distribute goods and services.
Entrepreneurs
People who combine the inputs of natural resources, labor, and capital to produce goods or services with the intention of making a profit or accomplishing a not-for-profit goal.
Equilibrium
The point at which quantity demanded equals quantity supplied.
Expansionary Policy
The use of monetary policy by the Fed to increase, or loosen, the growth of the money supply.
Factors of Production
The resources used to create goods and services.
Federal Budget Deficit
The condition that occurs when the federal government spends more for programs than it collects in taxes.
Federal Reserve System (The Fed)
The central banking system of the United States.