Economic Context in the Built Environment - Introduction

Vocabulary flashcards covering core foundational concepts from the introductory lecture on Economic Context in the Built Environment, including scarcity, trade-offs, microeconomics, macroeconomics, and the basic principles of economics.

Economics

The social science that studies the choices individuals, businesses, governments, and societies make as they cope with scarcity, and the study of how society manages limited resources to satisfy unlimited wants.

Scarcity

The condition occurring because resources (such as land, labour, and capital) are finite, resulting in an excess of human wants over what can actually be produced.

Trade-off

An exchange that involves giving up one thing in order to obtain another.

Microeconomics

The branch of economics that studies the choices made by individuals and businesses, how those choices interact in markets, and the influence of governments.

Macroeconomics

The branch of economics that studies the overall performance of the national economy and the global economy.

Forms of Economic Reasoning

The three modes of reasoning used by property and construction professionals: verbal/theoretical reasoning, diagrammatic reasoning, and mathematical reasoning.

Market Equilibrium

The point where market supply intersects market demand, establishing an equilibrium price and equilibrium quantity where there is neither a surplus nor a deficit.

Incentive

A factor or reward that motivates or influences people to alter their behavior and make decisions.

Thinking at the Margin

The economic principle that rational decision-makers evaluate incremental adjustments or marginal costs and benefits rather than totals.

Inflation

A rise in overall prices across an economy, which principle-based economics notes occurs when a government prints too much money.

Short-run Macroeconomic Trade-off

The temporary trade-off that society faces between inflation and unemployment.