经济学原理名词解释(英文版).docx

经济学原理名词解释CHAPTER 1Scarcity : the limited nature of society’s resources.Economics : the study of how society manages its scarce resources.Efficiency : the property of society getting the most it can from its scarce resources.Equity : the property of distributing economic prosperity fairly among the members of society.Opportunity cost : whatever must be given up to obtain some item.Marginal changes : small incremental adjustments to a plan of action.Market economy : an economy that allocates resources through the decentralized decisions of many firms and households as they interact in markets for goods and services.Market failure : a situation in which a market left on its own fails to allocate resources efficiently.Externality : the impact of one person’s actions on the well-being of a bystander.Market power : the ability of a single economic actor (or small group of actors) to have a substantial influence on market prices.Productivity : the quantity of goods and services produced from each hour of a worker’s time.Inflation : an increase in the overall level of prices in the economy.Phillips curve : a curve that shows the short-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment.Business cycle : fluctuations in economic activity, such as employment and production.CHAPTER 2Circular-flow diagram : a visual model of the economy that shows how dollars flow through markets among households and firms.Production possibilities frontier : a graph that shows the combinations of output that the economy can possibly produce given the available factors of production and the available production technology.Microeconomics : the study of how households and firms make decisions and how they interact in markets.Macroeconomics : the study of economy-wide phenomena, including inflation, unemployment, and economic growth.Positive statements: claims that attempt to describe the world as it is.Normative statements: claims that attempt to prescribe how the world should be.CHAPTER 3Absolute Advantage : the comparison among producers of a good according to their productivity.Opportunity Cost: whatever must be given to obtain some item.Comparative Advantage : the comparison among producers of a good according to their opportunity cost.Imports : goods produced abroad and sold domestically.Exports: goods produced domestically and sold abroad.CHAPTER 4Market: a group of buyers and sellers of a particular good or service.Competitive market: a market in which there are many buyers and many sellers so that each has a negligible impact on the market price.Quantity demanded: the amount of a good that buyers are willing and able to purchase.Law of demand: the claim that, other things equal, the quantity demanded of a good falls when the price of the good rises.Demand schedule: a table that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity demanded.Demand curve: a graph of the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity demanded.Normal good: a good for which, other things equal, an increase in income leads to an increase in demand.Inferior good : a good for which, other things equal, an increase in income leads to a decrease in demand.Substitutes : two goods for which an increase in the price of one good leads to an increase in the demand for the other.Complements : two goods for which an increase in the price of one good leads to a decrease in the demand for the other.quantity supplied : the amount of a good that sellers are willing and able to sell.Law of supply : the claim that, other things equal, the quantity supplied of a good rises when the price of the good rises.Supply schedule: a table that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied.Supply curve: a graph of the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied.Equilibrium : a situation in which the price has reached the level where quantity supplied equals quantity demanded.Equilibrium price : the price that balances quantity supplied and quantity demanded.Equilibrium quantity : the quantity supplied and the quantity demanded at the equilibrium price.Surplus : a situation in which quantity supplied is greater than quantity demanded.Shortage : a situation in which quantity demanded is greater than quantity supplied.Law of supply and demand : the claim that the price of any good adjusts to bring the supply and demand for that good into balance.CHAPTER 5Elasticity a measure of the responsiveness of quantity demanded or quantity supplied to one of its determinants.Price elasticity of demand: a measure of how much the quantity demanded of a good responds to a change in the price of that good, computed as the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price.Income elasticity of demand: a measure of how much the quantity demanded of a good responds to a change in consumers’ income, computed as the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage。