economics mocks key terms

  • Participation Rate: The percentage of the working-age population actively engaged in the labour market, either employed or seeking work.

  • Data Centres: Facilities used to house computer systems and associated components, such as servers, to store, manage, and process data.

  • Monetary Policy: The regulation of money supply and interest rates by a central bank to control inflation, stabilise currency, and promote economic growth.

  • Fiscal Policy: Government policies on taxation and spending to influence economic activity.

  • Corporation Tax: A tax imposed on the profits of companies.

  • Marginal Utility: The additional satisfaction gained from consuming one more unit of a good or service.

  • Law of Demand: States that as the price of a good decreases, the quantity demanded increases, ceteris paribus.

  • Law of Supply: States that as the price of a good increases, the quantity supplied also increases, ceteris paribus.

  • Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns: When additional units of a factor of production are added, the incremental output eventually decreases.

  • Monopoly: A market structure with a single seller dominating the market with no close substitutes.

  • Oligopoly: A market structure dominated by a few large firms, often with significant market power.

  • Perfect Competition: A market structure with many buyers and sellers, identical products, and free entry and exit.

  • Imperfect/Monopolistic Competition: A market structure where many firms sell similar but differentiated products.

  • Marginal Revenue: The additional income generated from selling one more unit of a good or service.

  • Average Revenue: Total revenue divided by the quantity sold, equal to the price per unit in most cases.

  • Average Cost: Total cost divided by the quantity of output produced.

  • Long Run: A period during which all factors of production and costs are variable.

  • Short Run: A period during which at least one factor of production is fixed.

  • Price Discrimination: Charging different prices to different consumers for the same good or service based on willingness to pay.

  • Non-Price Competition: Strategies used by firms to attract customers without lowering prices, such as advertising or product differentiation.

  • Interdependent: When firms’ decisions are influenced by the actions of their competitors, typical in oligopolistic markets.

  • Industrial Action: Measures taken by employees, such as strikes, to enforce demands regarding working conditions or pay.

  • Price Elasticity of Demand: A measure of how much the quantity demanded of a good responds to a change in its price.

  • Income Elasticity of Demand: A measure of how much the quantity demanded changes in response to a change in consumer income.

  • Comparative Advantage: The ability of a country to produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another.

  • Absolute Advantage: The ability of a country to produce more of a good with the same resources than another.

  • Exports: Goods and services produced in one country and sold to another.

  • Imports: Goods and services bought by one country from another.

  • Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): Investment by a company or individual in one country into business interests in another.

  • Urbanisation: The increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas compared to rural areas.

  • Balanced Regional Development: Ensuring economic growth is distributed fairly across all regions of a country.

  • Economy at Full Capacity: When all resources in an economy are fully utilised, and output is at its maximum potential.Þ Opportunity Cost: The value of the next best alternative foregone when making a choice.

  • Balance of Payments: A record of all economic transactions between residents of a country and the rest of the world.

  • Inflation: The rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services rises, eroding purchasing power.