Term | Definition |
private good | goods when consumed can not be consumed by another |
public good | economic goods that are consumed collectively |
externality | the unintended side effect of an action that affects someone not involved in the action |
monopoly | when the market creates a sole provider for a good or service |
antitrust law | legislation to prevent new monopolies from forming and police those that already exist |
merger | a combination of two or more companies to form a single business |
natural monopoly | a market situation in which the cost of production are minimized by having a single firm produce the product |
recall | situation where a company pulls a product off the shelf or agree to make it safer |
real gdp | gdp after adjustments for inflation |
business cycle | alternating periods of growth and decline that the economy goes through |
civilian labor force | all civilians 16 years or older working or looking for work. |
unemployment rate | the percent of people in the civilian labor force who are not working but are looking for jobs |
fiscal policy | the federal government's use of spending and taxation policies to affect overall business activity |
inflation | sustained increase in general level of prices |
consumer price index CPI | measure of change in price over time of specific group of goods and services |
food stamps | government coupons that can be used to purchase food |
women, infants, and children (WIC) | a program that provides help for nutrition and health care to low-income women, infants, and children up to the age of 5 |
workefare | programs that require welfare recipients to exchange some of their labor in return for benefits |
progressive incometax | a tax that takes a larger percentage of higher incomes than lower incomes |
earned tax credit(EITC) | a program that gives tax credit and even cash payments to qualified workers |