曼昆宏观经济学英文定义大全.doc

How people make decisions: 1. people face tradeoffs
2. The cost of something is what you give up to get it
3. Rational people think at the margin
4. People respond to incentives
How people interact: 5.trade can make everyone better off
6. Markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity
7. Government can sometimes improve market outcomes
How the economy as 8. A country’s standard of living depends on its ability to produce
A whole works: goods and services
9. Prices rise when the government prints too much money
10. Society faces a short-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment
Key concepts:
Ability-to-pay principle（税收的）能力支付原则: The idea that taxes should be levied on a person according to how well that person can shoulder the burden
Absolute advantage绝对优势: The comparison among producers of a good according to their productivity
Accounting profit会计利润: Total revenue minus total explicit cost
Adverse selection逆向选择: The tendency for the mix of unobserved attributes to become undesirable from the standpoint of an uninformed party
Agent代理人: A person who is performing an act for another person, called the principal
Aggregate-demand curve: a curve that shows the quantity of goods and services that households, firms, and the government want to buy at each price level
Aggregate risk: risk that affects all economic actors at once
Aggregate-supply curve: a curve that shows the quantity of goods and services that firms choose to produce and sell at each price level
Appreciation: an increase in the value of a currency as measured by the amount of foreign currency it can buy
Arrow’s impossibility theorem阿罗不可能定理: A mathematical result showing that, under certain assumed conditions, there is no scheme for aggregating individual preferences into a valid set of social preferences
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平均税率: Total taxes paid divided by total income
Average total cost平均总成本: Total cost divided by the quantity of output
Average variable cost平均可变成本: Variable costs divided by the quantity of output
Automatic stabilizers: changes in fiscal policy that stimulate aggregate demand when the economy goes into a recession without policymakers having to take any deliberate action
Balance trade: a situation in which exports equal imports
Benefits principle受益原则: The idea that people should pay taxes based on the benefits they receive from government services
Bond: a certificate of indebtedness
Budget constraint预算约束: The limit on the consumption bundles that a consumer can afford
Budget deficit预算赤字: An excess of government spending over government receipts
Budget surplus预算盈余: An excess of government receipts over government spending
Business cycle经济周期: Fluctuations in economic activity, such as employment and production
Capital资产: The equipment and structures used to produce goods and services
Capital flight: a large and sudden reduction in the demand for assets located in a country
Cartel 卡特尔: A group of firms acting in unison
Catch-up effect: the property whereby countries that start off poor tend to grow more rapidly that countries that start off rich
Central bank: an institution designed to oversee the banking system and regulate the quantity of money in the economy
Circular-flow diagram循环流向图: A visual model of the economy that shows how dollars flow through markets among households and firms
Closed economy: an economy that does not interact with other economies in the world
Collective bargaining: the process by which unions and firms agree on the terms of employment
Commodity money: money that takes the form of a commodity with intrinsic value
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
Collusion共谋: An agreement among firms in a market about quantities to produce or prices to charge
Common resources共同资源: Goods that are rival but not excludable
Comparative advantage比较优势: The comparison among producers of a good according to their opportunity cost
Compensating differential补偿性工资差别: A difference in wages that arises to offset the nonmonetary characteristics of different jobs
Competitive market竞争性市场: A market with many buyers and sellers trading identical products so that each buyer and seller is a price taker
Complements互补性商品: Two goods for which an increase in the price of one leads to a decrease in the demand for the other
Condorcet paradox: the failure of majority rule to produce transitive preferences for society
Compounding: the accumulation of a sum of money in, say, a bank account, where the interest earned remains in the account to earn additional interest in the future
Constant returns to scale规模报酬不变: The property whereby long-run average total cost stays the same as the quantity of output
Consumer price index (CPI): a measure of the overall cost of the goods and services bought by a typical consumer
Consumer surplus消费者剩余: A buyer’s willingness to pay minus the amount the buyer actually pays
Consumption: 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 producing 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: a decrease in investment that results from government borrowing
Crowding-out effect: the offset in aggregate demand that results when expansionary fiscal policy raise the interest rate and thereby reduces investment spending
Cross-price elasticity of demand需求的交叉价格弹性: A measure of how much the quantity demanded of one good responds to a change in the price of another good, computed as the percentage change in quantity demanded of the first good divided by the percentage change in the price of the second good
Currency: the paper bills and coins in the hands of the public
Cyclical unemployment: the deviation of unemployment from a market distortion, such as a tax
Deadweight loss无谓损失: The fall in total surplus that results from a market distortion, such as a tax
Demand curve需求曲线: A graph of the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity demanded
Demand deposits: 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: a decrease in the value of a currency as measured by the amount of foreigh currency it can buy
Depression: a severe recession
Diminishing marginal product边际产品递减: The property whereby the marginal product of an input declines as the quantity of the input increases
Discrimination歧视: The offering of different opportunities to similar individuals who differ only by race, ethnic group, sex, age, or other personal characteristics
Diseconomies of scale规模不经济: The property whereby long-run average total cost rises as the quantity of output increases
Discount rate: the interest rate on the loans that the Fed makes to banks
Discouraged workers: individuals who would like to work but have given up looking for job
Diversification: the reduction of risk achieved by replacing a single risk with a large number of smaller unrelated risks
Dominant strategy占优策略: A strategy that is best for a player in a game regardless of the strategies chosen by the other players
Economic profit经济利润: Total revenue minus total cost, including both explicit and implicit costs
Economics经济学: The study of how society manages its scarce resources
Economies of scale规模经济: The property whereby long-run average total cost falls as the quantity of output increases
Efficiency效率: The property of society getting the most it can from its scarce resources
Efficiency wages效率工资: Above-equilibrium wages paid by firms in order to increase worker productivity
Efficient scale: the quantity of output that minimizes average total cost
Elasticity: a measure of the responsiveness of quantity demanded or quantity supplied to one of its determinants
Equilibrium: a situation in which the price has reached the level where quantity supplied equals quantity demanded
Equilibrium price: the price that balances quantity supplied and quantity demanded
Equilibrium quantity: the quantity supplied and the quantity demanded at the equilibrium price
Equity: the property of distributing economic prosperity fairly among the members of society
Excludability: the property of a good whereby a person can be prevented from using it
Explicit costs: input costs that require an outlay of money by the firm
Export: goods produced domestically and sold abroad
Externality: the uncompensated impact of one person’s actions on the wellbeing of a bystander
Factors of production: the inputs used to produce goods and services
Federal reserve (Fed) : the central bank of the united states
Fiat money: money without intrinsic value that is used as money because of government decree
Finance: the field that studies how people make decisions regarding the allocation of resources over time and the handling of risk
Financial intermediaries: financial institutions through which savers can indirectly provide funds to borrowers
Financial markets: financial institutions through which savers can directly provide funds to borrowers
Financial system: the group of institutions in the economy that help to match one person’s saving with another person’s investment
Fisher effect: the one-for-one adjustment of the nominal interest rate to the inflation rate
Fractional-reserve banking: a banking system in which banks hold only a fraction of deposits as reserves
Frictional unemployment: unemployment that results because it takes time for workers to search for the jobs that best suit their tastes and skills
Fundamental analysis: the study of a company’s accounting statements and future prospects to determine its value
Future value: the amount of money in the future that an amount of money today will yield, given prevailing interest rates
Fixed costs: costs that do not vary with the quantity of output produced
Free rider: a person who receives the benefit of a good but avoids paying for it
Game theory: the study of how people behave in strategic situations
GDP deflator: a measure of the price level calculated as the ratio of nominal GDP to real GDP times 100
Government purchases: spending on goods and services by local, state, and federal governments
Gross domestic product GDP: the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time
Horizontal equity: the idea that taxpayers with similar abilities to pay taxes should pay the same amount
Human capital: the accumulation of investment in people, such as education and on-the-job training
Idiosyncratic risk: risk that affects only a single economic actor
Implicit costs: input costs that do not require an outlay of money by the firm
Import quota: a limit on the quantity of a good that can be produced abroad and sold domestically
Imports: goods produced abroad and sold domestically
Income effect: the change in consumption that results when a price change moves the consumer to a higher or lower indifference curve
Income elasticity of demand: a measure of how much the quantity demanded of a good responds to a change in consumers’ income, computed as the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in income
Indexation: the automatic correction of a dollar amount for the effects of inflation by law or contract
Indifference curve: a curve that shows consumption bundles that give the consumer the same level of satisfaction
Inferior good: a good for which, other things equal, an increase in income leads to a decrease in demand
Inflation: an increase in the overall level of prices in the economy
Inflation rate: the percentage change in the price index from the preceding period
Inflation tax: the revenue the government raises by creating money
Informationally efficient: reflecting all available information in a rational way
In-kind transfers: transfers to the poor given in the form of goods and services rather than cash
Internalizing an externality: altering incentives so that people take account of the external effects of their actions
Investment: spending on capital equipment, inventories, and structures, including household purchases of new housing
Job search: the process by which workers find appropriate jobs given their tastes and skills
labor force: the total number of workers, including both the employed and the unemployed
Labor-force participation rate: the percentage of the adult population that is in the labor force
Law of demand: the claim that, other things equal, the quantity demanded of a good falls when the price of the good rises
Law of supply: the claim that, other things equal, the quantity supplied of a good rises when the price of the good rises
Law of supply and demand: the claim that the price of any good adjusts to bring the quantity supplied and the quantity demanded for that good into balance
Liberalism: the political philosophy according to which the government should choose policies deemed to be just, as evaluated by an impartial observe behind a “veil of ignorance”
Libertarianism: the political philosophy according to which the government should punish crimes and enforce voluntary agreements but not redistribute income
Life cycle: the regular pattern of income variation over a person’s life
Liquidity: the ease with which an asset can be converted into the economy’s medium of exchange
Lump-sum tax: a tax that is the same amount for every person
Macroeconomics: the study of economy-wide phenomena, including inflation, unemployment, and economic growth
Marginal changes: small incremental adjustments to a plan of action
Marginal cost: the increase in total cost that arises from an extra unit of production
Marginal product: the increase in output that arises from an additional unit of input
Marginal product of labor: the increase in the amount of output from an additional unit of labor
Marginal rate of substitution: the rate at which a consumer is willing to trade one good for another
Marginal revenue: the change in total revenue from an additional unit sold
Marginal tax rate: the extra taxes paid on an additional dollar of income
Market: a group of buyers and sellers of a particular good or services
Market economy: an economy that allocates resources through the decentralized decisions of many firms and households as they interact in m