经济学原理-定义.docVIP

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. Rational people: people who systematically and purposefully do the best they can to achieve their objectives. Marginal changes：small incremental adjustments to a plan of action. Incentive: something that induces a person to act. 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. Property rights: the ability of an individual to own and exercise control over scarce resources. Market failure: a situation in which a market left on its own fails to allocate resources efficiently. Externality: the impact of one person’s action n the well-being of a bystander. Market power: the ability of a single economic 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. Business cycle: fluctuations in economic activity, such as employment and production. 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: there the claim that ,other things equal, the quantity demanded of a good falls when the price of the good rises. Demand schedule: a table that shows the relationship between the price of the good and the quantity demanded. Demand curve: a graph of the relationship be