Key Terms Flashcards
Basic economic problem
Infinite wants while resources are scarce. So choices must be made on how to allocate resources.
Scarcity
There are not enough resources to satisfy all wants
Opportunity cost
The value of the next best alternative forgone when making a decision
Trade off
What is given up when making a choice
Business objectives
What a business is trying to achieve (profit, growth,survival, helping the community)
Stakeholder
Anyone interested in the activities or success of a business
Corporate Social Responsibility
When a firm surpasses minimum legal requirements. (Using recycled packaging)
Entrepreneur
Someone who has the skills and traits required for starting a business
Creative destruction
When competition is strengthened via innovation
Factors of production
The inputs to the production process, CELL
- Capital : Equipment used in the production process
- Enterprise : The creative spark that combines the other factors to create output
- Labour : Human input, the workforce
- Land : All natural resources
Non-renewable resources
Resources which once exploited, cannot be replaced (oil,coal)
Renewable resources
Resources which can be continually exploited, because they can be replaced (trees, fish)
Specialisation
When workers become specialists at one task. So at a given amount of input, more is produced.
Market
A place where buyers and sellers communicate to agree prices for goods and services
Free market economy
An economic system which resolves the basic economic problem through the market mechanism (the invisible hand)
Demand
The quantity that buyers are willing and able to purchase of a good at any given price over a given time
Consumer surplus
The difference between how much buyers are prepared to pay for a good and what they actually pay
Supply
The quantity of goods that suppliers are willing and able to sell at any given price over a period of time
Producer surplus
The difference between the market price which firms receive and the price at which they are prepared to supply
Complement
A good which is purchased with other goods to satisfy a want
Substitute
A good which can be replaced by another to satisfy a want
Price inelastic demand
Where the P.E.D is less than 0. Demand is less responsive to a change in price
Price elastic demand
Where the P.E.D is less than -1. Demand is more responsive to a change in price
Cross elasticity of demand
A measure of the responsiveness of quantity demanded on one good to a change in price of another. % change Q demanded / % change price