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Micro Economic Terms
Armuchee Micro Economic Terms
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Law of Supply | Tendency of suppliers to supply more as price goes up and less as price goes down. |
| Law of Demand | Tendency of consumers to buy more of something as price goes down and less when price goes up. |
| Market Clearing Price/ Equilibrium Price | The price of a good that creates neither a shortage nor surplus. |
| Price Ceiling | The maximum price that can be legally charged for a good or a service. |
| Price Floor | The minimum price for a good or service. |
| Elasticity of Supply | A measure of the way producers react to a change in price. |
| Elasticity of Demand | A measure of how consumers react to a change in price. |
| Elastic | Describes supply/demand that is very sensitive to a change in price. |
| Inelastic | Describes supply/demand that is not sensitive to a change in price. |
| Unitary Elastic | Describes demand whose elasticity is exactly equal to one. |
| Sole Proprietorship | A business owned and managed by a single individual. |
| Partnership | When two or more people share in the responsibility and profit of a business. |
| Entrepreneur | Person that combines the factors of production and takes the financial risk of starting a business. |
| Pure/Perfect Competition | A market structure in which a large number of firms all produce the same product. |
| Oligopoly | A market structure in which a few firm dominate the market. |
| Corporation | Legal entity owned by individual stock holders. |
| Profit Motive | Force that encourages people and organizations to increase their material well-being. |
| Monopoly | A market that is dominated by a single form. |
| Natural Monopoly | A market that runs most efficiently when one large firm supplies all of the output. |
| Monopolistic Competition | Market structure in which many companies sell products that are similar but not identical. |
| Surplus | When quantity supplied is greater than quantity demanded. |
| Shortage | When quantity supplied is less than quantity demanded. |
| Fixed Cost | Costs that do not change, no matter how much of a good is produced. |
| Variable Cost | Costs that rise and fall depending on production. |
| Total Cost | Fixed costs plus variable costs. |
| Marginal Cost | The cost of producing one more unit of a good. |
| Marginal Revenue | The additional income received from selling one more unit of a good. |
| Normal Goods | Things that we buy more of as income increases. |
| Inferior Goods | Things that we buy more of when income goes down. |
| Complements | Goods that are typically bought together. |
| Substitutes | Goods that are used in place of one another. |
| Economies of scale | Factors that cause a producer’s average cost per unit to fall as output rises. |
| Collusion | An agreement among firms to divide the market, set prices, or limit production. |
| Price fixing | An agreement among firms to charge one price for the same good. |
| Cartel | A formal organization of producers that agree to coordinate price and production. |
| Commodity Money | Objects that have value in themselves as well as for use as money. |
| Diminishing marginal returns | When marginal production levels decrease with new worker. |
| Factor market | Where households supply labor and are paid wages and salaries |
| Fiat Money | Also called “legal tender,” has value because the government decreed that is an acceptable means to pay debts. |
| Increasing marginal returns | When production levels increase with new worker. |
| Marginal Product of Labor | The change in output from hiring one additional worker. |
| Microeconomics | The study of how economic actors (individuals and businesses) make decisions and are impacted by the allocation (distribution) of resources. |
| Money | Anything that serves as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value. |
| Negative marginal returns | When the marginal production levels become negative. |
| Product market | Where households purchase the productive output of businesses. |
| Subsidies | Governmental payments that supports a business or market. |
| Representative Money | Money that has value because the holder can exchange it for something else of value. |