Roskilde Universitet 2026 Economics Exam Review

These flashcards cover the key economic thinkers, theories, and vocabulary from the Roskilde Universitet 2026 lecture notes, spanning from Classical Political Economy to modern Environmental and Inequality Economics.

Classical Political Economy

The study of how wealth is created and distributed within society, emphasizing the link between the economy, state politics, and historical social developments.

Austerity

A policy, often based on the household analogy, where the state reduces public spending to balance its budget, which can lead to lower $BNP$ and higher unemployment.

Pluralism

An approach in economics that utilizes multiple perspectives and schools of thought to understand issues, based on the idea that no single theory explains everything.

Merkantilisme

An economic system from roughly 1500 to 1750 where the state actively controlled the economy with a focus on trade, colonies, and the accumulation of gold and silver.

Kapitalisme

An economic system based on private property, markets, and profit as the central driving forces.

Marginal Nytte (Marginal Utility)

The additional satisfaction or value an individual derives from consuming one extra unit of a product; it is characterized by being 'aftagende' (diminishing) as consumption increases.

Subjektiv Værdi

The theory that value is determined by an individual's personal assessment of a good's utility rather than the amount of labor required to produce it.

Vand-diamant-paradokset

An illustration showing that while water is essential for life, it is cheap due to its abundance (low marginal utility), whereas diamonds are expensive due to their scarcity (high marginal utility).

Metodologisk Individualisme

The principle of explaining economic phenomena primarily through the actions, choices, and motivations of individual actors.

The Gilded Age (Den forgyldte æra)

A period in the late 19th-century United States marked by rapid industrialization and growth alongside deep-seated corruption, extreme inequality, and the rise of monopolies.

Monopolkapitalisme

A stage of capitalism where a few large companies dominate entire markets through acquisitions, access to bank loans, and technological control.

Conspicuous Consumption

A term coined by Thorstein Veblen describing the practice of purchasing and using goods to publicly display status and social standing rather than for their actual utility.

Pecuniary Emulation

The behavioral tendency where individuals attempt to imitate the consumption patterns and lifestyle of the wealthy to gain social status.

Vested Interests

Powerful elite groups who seek to preserve and protect the economic and social advantages they already possess.

Say's Law

The classical principle stating that supply creates its own demand, suggesting that long-term economic crises should be impossible because production generates income.

Aggregate Demand

Keynes's central concept representing the total demand for goods and services in an economy, calculated as the sum of consumption, investment, and public spending.

Sticky Wages

The observation that wages do not adjust downward immediately during economic downturns due to contracts and unions, preventing the labor market from clearing automatically.

Multiplier-effekten

The principle that an initial increase in spending (such as by the state) leads to a chain of subsequent spending, resulting in a total increase in economic activity greater than the initial amount.

Mixed Economy

An economic system that combines market mechanisms with state intervention for stabilization and social security, a model prominent after the Great Depression.

BNP (Bruttonationalprodukt)

The total value of all goods and services produced within a country over a specific period, used as a primary measure of economic activity.

Udgiftsmetoden

A method to calculate $BNP$ represented by the formula: $BNP = C + I + G + (X - \text{IM})$.

BNP-deflator

An economic metric used to distinguish between nominal growth and actual production growth by measuring price changes: $\frac{\text{Nominelt BNP}}{\text{Realt BNP}} \times 100$.

Den Gyldne Æra (1945-1973)

A period of high economic growth, low unemployment, and falling inequality in the West, supported by the Bretton Woods system and the postwar social contract.

Stagflation

A terminal challenge for traditional Keynesianism characterized by high inflation and high unemployment occurring simultaneously.

Monetarisme

An economic school founded by Milton Friedman arguing that the money supply is the most important factor in the economy and that inflation is always a monetary phenomenon.

Kvantitetsteorien

The fundamental formula of monetarism: $M \times V = P \times T$, where $M$ is money supply, $V$ is velocity, $P$ is price level, and $T$ is output.

NAIRU (Naturlig Arbejdsløshed)

The 'Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment,' or the level of unemployment toward which the economy naturally moves and below which inflation begins to accelerate.

r > g

Thomas Piketty's formula stating that when the return on capital ($r$) exceeds the rate of economic growth ($g$), wealth inequality will naturally increase.

Finansialisering

The process where financial markets, motives, and institutions gain increasing influence over the economy, shifting the profit regime from production to financial activities.

Shareholder Value

The corporate steering principle that the primary objective of a company is to maximize financial returns for its owners/investors.

RoE (Return on Equity)

A central metric in financial capitalism measuring how much profit is generated relative to the owners' equity: $\frac{\text{Årets resultat}}{\text{Egenkapital}}$.

Fair Value

An accounting method where assets are valued at their current market price rather than their historical cost, making future expectations a part of current bookkeeping.

Endogen Pengemængde

The theory in political economy that money is created within the economy through bank lending rather than being externally controlled by a central bank.

Moral Hazard

An economic situation where a bank takes excessive risks because it knows that the consequences of failure will be borne by others, such as through state bailouts.

Negative Eksternalitet

A market failure occurring when the production or consumption of a good imposes unintended costs on third parties, such as environmental pollution, that are not reflected in the market price.

Tragedy of the Commons

The overexploitation of shared, non-owned resources (e.g., fisheries) occurring because individuals gain all the benefits of use while the costs of depletion are shared by everyone.

Pigou-afgift

A state-imposed tax designed to correct a market failure by making the polluter pay for the societal cost of a negative externality.

Cap-and-Trade

A market-based system where the state sets a limit (cap) on total emissions and issues tradable permits, allowing companies to buy and sell the right to pollute.

Planetære Grænser

The biological and environmental thresholds of the Earth (such as climate change or biodiversity loss) that human economic activity must stay within to avoid irreversible damage.

Doughnut Economics

Kate Raworth’s model advocating for an economy that meets all human social needs without exceeding the Earth’s ecological boundaries.

Afkobling (Decoupling)

The theory that economic growth ($BNP$) can be separated from environmental impact, categorized as either 'relative' (resource use grows slower than $BNP$) or 'absolute' (resource use falls while $BNP$ grows).

ESG

A framework for sustainability reporting focusing on Environmental, Social, and Governance factors to make a company’s non-financial risks visible to investors.