A

　　Ability-to-pay principle 能力納稅原則

　　The idea that taxes should be levied on a person according to how well that person can shoulder the burden

　　Absolute advantage 絕對優勢

　　The comparison among producers of a good according to their productivity

　　Aggregate-demand curve 總需求曲線

　　A curve that shows the quantity of goods and services that households, firms, and the government want to buy at any price level

　　Aggregate-supply curve 總供給曲線

　　A curve that shows the quantity of goods and services that firms choose to produce and sell at any level

　　Appreciation 升值

　　An increase in the value of a currency as measured by the amount of foreign currency it can buy

　　Automatic stabilizers 自動穩定器

　　Changes in fiscal policy that stimulate aggregate demand when the economy goes into a recession without policymakers having to take any deliberate action

　　Average fixed cost 平均固定成本

　　Fixed costs divided by the quantity of output

　　Average revenue 平均收益

　　Total revenue divided by the quantity sold

　　Average tax rate 平均稅率

　　Total taxes paid divided by total income

　　Average total cost 平均總成本

　　Total cost divided by the quantity of output

　　Average variable cost 平均可變成本

　　Variables costs divided by the quantity of output

　　Accelerator 加速數

　　the effect on GDP of the increase in investment that results from an increase in output. For instance, the greater output leads a firm to believe that the demand for its products will rise in the future; the resulting increase in investment leads to growth in output and still further increases in investment, accelerating the expansion of the economy

　　Acquired endowments 后天稟賦

　　resources a country builds for itself, like a network of roads or an educated population

　　Adaptive expectations 適應性預期

　　expectations based on the extrapolation of events in the recent past into the future

　　aggregate expenditures schedule 總支出曲線

　　a curve that traces out the relationship between expenditures--the sum of consumption, investment, government expenditures, and net exports--and the national income, at a fixed price level

　　antitrust laws 反托拉斯法

　　laws that discourage monopoly and restrictive practices and encourage greater competition

　　arbitrage 套利

　　the process by which assets with comparable risk, liquidity, and tax treatment are priced to yield comparable expected returns

　　adverse selection 逆向選擇

　　principle that says that those who most want to buy insurance tend to be those most at risk, but charging a high price for insurance (to cover the high risk)will discourage those at less risk from buying insurance at all

　　asset 資產

　　any item that is long-lived, purchased for the service it renders over its life and for what one will receive when one sells it

　　assistance in kind 實物援助

　　public assistance that provides particular goods and services, like food or medical care, rather than cash

　　asymmetric information 信息不對稱

　　a situation in which the parties to a transaction have different information, as when the seller or a used car has more information about its quality then the buyer

　　autonomous consumption 自主消費

　　that part of consumption that does not depend on income

　　average costs 平均成本

　　the total costs divided by the total output

　　average productivity 平均產量

　　total quantity divided by the total quantity of input

　　B

Benefits principle 受益原則

　　The idea that people should pay taxes based on the benefits they receive from government services

　　Bond 債券

　　A certificate of indebtedness

　　Budget constraint 預算約束

　　The limit on the consumption bundles that a consumer can afford

　　Budget deficit 預算赤字

　　An excess of government spending over government receipts

　　Budget surplus 預算盈余

　　An excess of government receipts over government spendin

　　barriers to entry 進入障礙

　　factors that prevent firms from entering a market, such as government rules or patents

　　basic competitive model 基本競爭模型

　　the model of the economy that pulls together the assumptions of self-interested consumers, profit maximizing firms, and perfectly competitive markets

　　bequest savings motive 儲蓄的遺產動機

　　people save so that they can leave an inheritance to their children

　　Bertrand competition 伯特蘭競爭

　　an oligopoly in which each firm believes that its rivals are committed to keeping their prices fixed and that customers can be lured away by offering lower prices

　　bilateral trade 雙邊貿易

　　trade between two parties

　　boom 繁榮

　　a period of time when resources are being fully used and GDP is growing steadily

　　C

Capital 資本

　　The equipment and structures used to produce goods and services

　　Capital flight 資本外流

　　A large and sudden reduction in the demand for assets located in a country

　　Cartel 卡特爾

　A group of firms acting in unison

　　Catch-up effect 追趕效應

　　The property that countries that start off poor tend to grow more rapidly than countries that start off rich

　　Central bank 中央銀行

　　An institution designed to oversee the banking system and regulate the quantity of money in the economy

　　Ceteris paribus 其它條件相同

　　A Latin phrase, translated as 'other things being equal,' used as a reminder that all variables other than the ones being studied are assumed to be constant

　Circular-flow diagram 循環流向圖

　　A visual model of the economy that shows how dollars flow through markets among households and firms

　　Classical dichotomy 古典二分法

　　The theoretical separation of nominal and real variables

　　Closed economy 封閉經濟

　　An economy that does not interact with other economies in the world

　　Coase theorem 科斯定理

　　The proposition that if private parties can bargain without cost over the allocation of resources, they can solve the problem of externalities on their own

　　Collective bargaining 集體談判

　　The process by which unions and firms agree on the terms of employment

　　Collusion 勾結

　　An agreement among firms in a market about quantities to produce or prices to charge

　　Commodity money 商品貨幣

　　Money that takes the form of a commodity with intrinsic value

　　Common resources 共有資源

　　Goods that are rival but not excludable

　　Comparable worth 同工同酬

　　A doctrine according to which jobs deemed comparable should be paid the same wage

　　Comparative advantage 比較優勢

　　The comparison among producers of a good according to their opportunity cost

　　Compensating wage differential 補償性工資差別

　　A difference in wages that arises to offset the nonmonetary characteristics of different jobs

　　Competitive market 競爭市場

　　A market with many buyers and sellers trading identical products so that each buyer and seller is a price taker

　　Complements 互補品

　　Two goods for which an increase in the price of one good leads to a decrease in the demand for the other good

　　Constant returns to scale 規模收益不變

　　The property that long-run average total cost stays the same as the quantity of output changes

　　Consumer price index 消費物價指數

　　A measure of the overall cost of the goods and services bought by a typical consumer

　　Consumer surplus 消費者剩余

　　A buyer's willingness to pay minus the amount the buyer actually pays

　　Consumption 消費

　　Spending by households on goods and services, with the exception of purchases of new housing

　　Cost 成本

　　The value of everything a seller must give up to produce a good

　　Cost-benefit analysis 成本—收益分析

　　A study that compares the costs and benefits to society of providing a public good

　　Crowding-out effect 擠出效應The offset in aggregate demand that results when expansionary fiscal policy raises the interest rate and thereby reduces investment spending

　　Currency 通貨

　　The paper bills and coins in the hands of the public

　　Cyclical unemployment 周期性失業

　　The deviation of unemployment from its natural rate

　　capital gain 資本增值

　　the increase in the value of an asset between the time it is purchased and the time it is sold

　　capital market 資本市場

　　the market in which savings are made available to investors

　　categorical assistance 分類幫助

　　public assistance aimed at a particular category of people, like the elderly or the disabled

　　causation 因果關系

　　relationship that results when an change in one variable is not only correlated with but actually causes the change in another one

　　central planning 中央計劃

　　the system in which central government bureaucrats (as opposed to private entrepreneurs or even local government bureaucrats) determine what will be produced an how it will be produced

　　centralization 集權

　　organizational structure in which decision making is concentrated at the top

　　centrally planned economy 中央計劃經濟

　　an economy in which most decisions about resource allocation are made by the central government

　　certificate of deposit (CD) 存單

　　account in which money is deposited for a preset length of time, that must yield a slightly higher return to compensate for the reduced liquidity

　　circular flow 循環流程

　　how funds move through the capital, labor, and product markets between households, firms, the government, and the foreign sector

　　classical economists 古典經濟學家

　economists prevalent before the Great Depression who believed that the basic competitive model provided a good description of the economy and that if short periods of unemployment did occur, market forces would quickly restore the economy to full employment

　　classical unemployment 古典失業

　　unemployment that results from too-high real wages; it occurs in the supply constrained equilibrium, so that rightwards shifts in aggregate supply reduce the level of unemployment

　　competitive equilibrium price 競爭性均衡價格

　　the price at which the quantity supplied and the quantity demanded are equal to each other

　　consumer protection legislation 消費者保護法

　　laws aimed at protecting consumers, for instance by assuring that consumers have more complete information about items they are considering buying

　　consumer sovereignty 消費者權益

　　the principle that holds that each individual is the best judge of what makes him better off

　　consumption function 消費函數

　　the relationship between disposable income and consumption

　　contingency clauses 應變條款

　　statements within a contract that make the level of payment or the work to be performed conditional upon various factors

　　corporate income tax 公司所得稅

　　a tax based on the income, or profit, received by a corporation

　　correlation 相關

　　relationship that results when a change in one variable is consistently associated with a change in another one

　　cost-push inflation 成本推動型通貨膨脹

　　inflation whose initial cause is a rise in production costs

　　Cournot competition 古諾競爭

　　an oligopoly in which each firm believes that its rivals are committed to a certain level of production and that rivals will reduce their prices as needed to sell that amount

　　credentials competition 文憑競爭

　　the trend in which prospective workers acquire higher educational credentials, not so much because of anything they actually learn in the process but to convince potential employers to hire them by signaling that they will be more productive employees than those with weaker credentials

　　credit constraint effect 信貸約束效應

　　when prices fall, firms' revenues also fall, but the money they owe creditors remains unchanged; as a result, firms have fewer funds of their own to invest. Because of credit rationing, firms cannot make up the difference; accordingly, investment decreases

　　credit rationing 信貸配給

　　credit is rationed when no lender is willing to make a loan to a borrower or the amount lenders are willing to lend to borrowers is limited, even if the borrower is willing to pay more than other borrowers of comparable risk who are getting loans

　　cross subsidization 交叉補貼

the practice of charging higher prices to one group of consumers in order to subsidize lower prices for another group

D

Deadweight loss 無謂損失

　The reduction in total surplus that results from a tax

　　Demand curve 需求曲線

　　A graph of the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity demanded

　　Demand deposits 活期存款

　　Balances in bank accounts that depositors can access on demand by writing a check

　　Demand schedule 需求表

　　A table that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity demanded

　　Depreciation 貶值

　　A decrease in the value of a currency as measured by the amount of foreign currency it can buy

　　Depression 蕭條

　　A severe recession

　　Diminishing marginal product 邊際產量遞減

　　The property whereby the marginal product of an input declines as the quantity of the input increases

　　The property that the marginal product of an input declines as the quantity of the input increases

　　Diminishing returns 收益遞減

　　The property that the benefit from an extra unit of an input declines as the quantity of the input increases

　　Discount rate 貼現率

　　The interest rate on the loans that the Fed makes to banks

　　Discouraged workers 喪失信心的工人

　　Individuals who would like to work but have given up looking for a job

　　Discrimination 歧視

　　The offering of different opportunities to similar individuals who differ only by race, ethnic group, sex, age, or other personal characteristics

　　Diseconomies of scale 規模不經濟

　　The property that long-run average total cost rises as the quantity of output increases

　　Dominant strategy 優勢戰略

　　A strategy that is best for a player in a game regardless of the strategies chosen by the other players

　　debt 債務

　　capital, such as bonds and bank loans, supplied to a firm by lenders; the firm promises to repay the amount borrowed with interest

　　decentralization 分權化

　　organizational structure in which many individuals or subunits can make decisions

　　decision tree 決策樹

　　a device for structured decision making that spells out the choices and possible consequences of alternative actions

　　deficit spending 赤字支出

　　the situation that exists when government expenditures are greater than revenues

　　deflation 通貨緊縮

　　a persistent decrease in the general level of prices

　　demand-constrained equilibrium 受需求約束的平衡

　　the equilibrium that occurs when prices are stuck at a level above that at which aggregate demand equals aggregate supply at the current price level

　　demand-pull inflation 需求拉動型通貨膨脹

　　inflation whose initial cause is aggregate demand exceeding aggregate supply at the current price level

　　demographic effects 人口效應

　　effects that arise from changes in characteristics of the population such as age, birthrates, and location

　　deregulation 放松管制

　　the lifting of government regulations to allow the market to function more freely

　　devaluation 貶值

　　a reduction in the rate of exchange between one currency and other currencies under a fixed exchange rate system

　　developed countries 發達國家或工業化國家

　　the wealthiest nations in the world, including Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand

　　diminishing marginal utility 邊際效用遞減

　　the principle that says that as an individual consumes more and more of a good, each successive unit increases her utility, or enjoyment, less and less

　　dividends 股息

　　that portion of corporate profits paid out to shareholders

　　downward rigidity of wages 工資下降剛性

　　the situation that exists when wages do not fall quickly in response to a shift in the demand or supply curve for labor, resulting in an excess supply of labor

　　dual economy 二元經濟

　　the separation in many LDCs between an impoverished rural sector and an urban sector that has higher wages and more advanced technology

　　duopoly 雙頭壟斷

　　an industry with only two firms

　　durable goods 耐用品

　　goods that provide a service over a number of years, such as cars, major appliances, and furniture

　　dynamic consistency 動態一致性

　　a policy is said to have dynamic consistency when government announces a course of action and then has the incentives to actually carry out that policy

　　E

Economics 經濟學

　　The study of how society manages its scarce resources

　　Economies of scale 規模經濟

　　The property that long-run average total cost falls as the quantity of output increases

　　Efficiency 效率

　　The property of a resource allocation of maximizing the total surplus received by all members of society; The property of society getting the most it can from its scarce resources

　　Efficiency wages 效率工資

　　Above-equilibrium wages paid by firms in order to increase worker productivity

　　Efficient scale 有效規模

　　The quantity of output that minimizes average total cost

　　Elasticity 彈性

　　A measure of the responsiveness of quantity demanded or quantity supplied to one of its determinants

　　Equilibrium 均衡

　　A situation in which supply and demand have been brought into balance

　Equilibrium price 均衡價格

　　The price that balances supply and demand

　　Equilibrium quantity 均衡數量

　　The quantity supplied and the quantity demanded when the price has adjusted to balance supply and demand

　　Equity 平等

　　The fairness of the distribution of well-being among the various buyers and sellers; The property of distributing economic prosperity fairly among the members of society

　　Excess demand 超額需求

　　A situation in which quantity demanded is greater than quantity supplied

　　Excess supply 超額供給

　　A situation in which quantity supplied is greater than quantity demanded

　　Excludability 排他性

　　The property of a good that a person can be prevented from using it

　　Exports 出口

　　Goods and services that are produced domestically and sold abroad; Goods produced domestically and sold abroad

　　Externality 外部性

　　The impact of one person's actions on the well-being of a bystander

　　economic rents 經濟租金

　payments made to a factor that are in excess of what is required to elicit the supply of that factor

　　efficiency wage theory 效率工資理論

　　the theory that paying higher wages (up to a point) lowers total production costs, for instance by leading to a more productive labor force

　　economies of scope 范圍經濟

　　what exists when it is less expensive to produce two products together than it would be to produce each one separately

　　efficient markets theory 有效市場理論

　　the theory that all available information is reflected in the current price of an asset

　　elasticity of labor supply 勞動供給彈性

　　the percentage change in labor supplied resulting from a 1% change in wages

　　equity, shares, stock 股票

　　terms that indicate part ownership of a firm, which the firm sells in order to raise money, or capital

　　equity capital 股份資本

　　capital, such as shares (or stock), supplied to a firm by its owners(shareholders); the returns received by the owners are not guaranteed but depend on how well the firm does

　　exchange efficiency 交換的效率

　　the condition in which whatever the economy produces is distributed among individuals in an efficient way

　　exchange rate 匯率

　　the rate at which one currency (such as dollars) can be exchanged for another(such as marks, yen, or pounds)

　　excise tax 貨物稅

　　a tax on a particular good or service

　　expected return 預期收益

　　the average return--a single number that combines the various possible returns per dollar invested with the chances that each of these returns will actually be paid

　　export-led growth 出口導向型增長

　　the strategy that government should encourage exports in which the country has a comparative advantage to stimulate growth

　　F

Factors of production 生產要素

　　The inputs used to produce goods and services

　　Federal Reserve (Fed) 聯邦儲備

　　The central bank of the United States

　　Fiat money 法定貨幣

　　Money without intrinsic value that is used as money because of government decree

　　Financial intermediaries 金融中介機構

　　Financial institutions through which savers can indirectly provide funds to borrowers

　　Financial markets 金融市場

　　Financial institutions through which savers can directly provide funds to borrowers

　　Financial system 金融體系

　　The group of institutions in the economy that help to match one person's saving with another person's investment

　　Fisher effect 費雪效應

　　The one-for-one adjustment of the nominal interest rate to the inflation rate

　　Fixed cost 固定成本

　　Costs that do not vary with the quantity of output produced

　　Fractional-reserve banking 部分準備金銀行體系

　　A banking system in which banks hold only a fraction of deposits as reserves

　　Free rider 搭便車者

　　A person who receives the benefit of a good but avoids paying for it

　　factor demand 要素需求

　　the amount of an input demanded by a firm, given the price of the input and the quantity of output being produced; an input will be demanded up to the point where the value of the input's marginal product equals the price of theinput

　　federal government structure 聯邦政府結構

　　a system in which government activity takes place at several levels--national, state, county, city, and others

　　firm wealth effect 廠商的財富效應

　　lower prices or lower demand cause firms' profits and net worth to fall, and this makes them less willing to undertake the risks involved with investment

　　fiscal policies 財政政策

　　policies that affect the level of government expenditures and taxes

　　fixed exchange rate system 固定匯率體系

　　an exchange rate system in which the value of each currency is fixed in relationship to other currencies

　　flexible exchange rate system 浮動匯率體系

　　a system in which exchange rates are determined by market forces, the law of supply and demand, without government interference

　　fixed or overhead inputs 不變投入或分攤投入

　　inputs that do not change depending on the quantity of output, at least over the short term

　　flow statistics 流量統計

　　measurements of a certain rate of quantity per period of time, such as GDP, which measures output per year

　　full-employment deficit 充分就業赤字

　　the budget deficit that would have prevailed if the economy were at full employment, thus with higher tax revenues and lower public assistance expenditures

　　full-employment output/ potential output 充分就業產出或潛在產出

　　the level of output that would prevail if labor were fully employed (output may exceed that level if workers work more than the normal level of overtime

G

GDP deflator 平減指數

　　A measure of the price level calculated as the ratio of nominal GDP to real GDP times 100

　　Game theory 博弈理論

　　The study of how people behave in strategic situations

　　Giffen good 吉芬物品

　　A good for which an increase in the price raises the quantity demanded

　　Gross domestic product (GDP) 國內生產總值

　　The market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time

　　Gross national product (GNP) 國名生產總值

　　The market value of all final goods and services produced by permanent residents of a nation within a given period of time

　　gains from trade 交易所得

　the benefits that each side enjoys from a trade

　　GDP per capita 人均國內生產總值

　　the value of all goods and services produced in the economy divided by population

　　general equilibrium analysis 一般均衡分析

　　a simultaneous analysis of all capital, product, and labor markets throughout the economy

　　Gini coefficient 基尼系數

　　a measure of inequality (equal to twice the area between the 45 degree line and the Lorenz curve)

　green revolution 綠色革命

　the invention and dissemination of new seeds and agricultural practices that led to vast increases in agricultural output in LDCs during the 1960's and 1970's