click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
chapter 18
key terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| need | requirements for survival such as food, clothing, and shelter |
| want | a thing we would like to have such as entertainment vacations or an item that makes life comfortable and enjoyable |
| economics | the study of how individuals and nations make choices about ways to use scarce resources to fulfill their needs and wants |
| microeconomics | the economic behavior and decision making by individuals and small buisnesses |
| macroeconomics | economic behavior and decision making by the government or whole industries or societies |
| economic model | simplified representation of the real world that economists develop to describe how the economy behaves and is expected to perform in the future |
| economic system | nations way of producing things its people want and need |
| resourse | the money people and materials available to accomplish a communitys goal |
| scarcity | not having enough resources to produce all of the things we would like to have |
| trade-off | the alternative you face if you decide to do one thing rather than another |
| opportunity cost | the cost of the next best alternative use of time and money when choosing to do one thing rather than another |
| marginal cost | the additional or extra opportunity cost associated with an action |
| marginal benefit | the additional or extra benefit associated with an action |
| cost-benefit analysis | economic model that compares the marginal benefits of a decision |