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Scarcity 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 s/tuition 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
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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
Philips curve a curve that shows the short-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment Business cycle fluctuations in economic activity，such as employment and produaion
Circular-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
Positive statements claims that attempt to do describe the world as it is
Normative statements claims that attempt to prescribe how the world should be
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Absolute advantage the comparison among producers of a good according to their productivity
Opportunity cost whatever must be given up 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
Market 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
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微观经济学中英文术语及其解释
