Midterm Review Flashcards
What is scarcity?
demand for a good or service is greater than the availability of the good or service
What are production possibilities?
refers to differences in the amount and quality of a product caused by different uses of resources.
What is opportunity cost?
It is the value of what one gives up to get something else.
What is an inferior good?
An item that becomes less desireable as the income of consumers increases
Ex: instant noodles
What is macroeconomics?
It is the study the of economic activity in Essex County, New Jersey or the United States.
What are the stages of the business cycle?
trough, expansion, peak, contraction
What is a recession?
two quarters of negative GDP
What is expansionary fiscal policy?
expanding the money supply faster than usual
* would include lowering taxes, increase in government spending to cure an economic downturn.
What is restrictive/tight monetary policy?
slowing the money supply’s growth to decelerate the economy
* would be employed by a central bank seeking to cure unanticipated and accelerating inflation.
What is deflation?
It is a decrease in the general level of prices.
What is disinflation?
This represents a time period when inflation rates are positive, but declining over time.
What is the Core CPI?
It is the market basket of goods measured in the United States on a regular basis minus food and energy products.
What is stagflation?
It is an economic period of high levels of unemployment and high levels of inflation.
What is the substitution effect?
Decrease in sales when products’ price is raised, people switch to cheaper alturnatives
What is seasonal unemployment?
Santa Claus, Life guards and construction workers all have this in common.
What is structural unemployment?
involuntary, mismatch between what companies need and what available workers offer
Ex: worker that is replaced by a robot or technology.
What is frictionally unemployed?
voluntary, person searching for new job
Ex: computer programmer who leaves her job to move to Florida.
Who is Adam Smith?
In 1776, this Scottish economist and philosopher published “The Wealth of Nations”. His laissez faire belief is the model for free market capitalism.