(完整版)微观经济学(英文版)名词解释

1、 微观经济名词解释CHAPTER 1Scarcity : the limited nature of societys 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 me

2、mbers of society.Opportunity cost : whatever must be given up to obtain some item.Rational : systematically and purposefully doing the best you can to achieve your objectives.Marginal changes : small incremental adjustments to a plan of action.Incentive : something that induces a person to act.Marke

3、t economy : an economy that allocates resources through the decentralized decisions of many firms andhouseholds 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

4、market left on its own fails to allocate resources efficiently.Externality : the impact of one persons actions on 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 onmarket prices.Productivity : the quantity

5、 of goods and services produced from each hour of a workers time.Inflation : an increase in the overall level of prices in the economy.Phillips curve : a curve that shows the short-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment.Business cycle : fluctuations in economic activity, such as employment

6、and production.CHAPTER 2Circular-flow diagram : a visual model of the economy that shows how dollars flow through markets amonghouseholds and firms.Production possibilities frontier : a graph that shows the combinations of output that the economy can possiblyproduce given the available factors of pr

7、oduction and the available production technology.Microeconomics : the study of how households and firms make decisions and how they interact in markets.Macroeconomics : the study of economy-wide phenomena, including inflation, unemployment, and economicgrowth.Positive statements: claims that attempt

8、 to describe the world as it is.Positive statements: claims that attempt to describe the world as it is.CHAPTER 4Quantity demanded: the amount of a good that buyers are willing and able to purchase.Law of demand: the claim that, other things equal, the quantity demanded of a good falls when the pric

9、e of thegood rises.Demand schedule: a table that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity demanded.Demand curve : a graph of the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity demanded.Normal good : a good for which, other things equal, an increase in income lea

10、ds to an increase in demand.Inferior good : a good for which, other things equal, an increase in income leads to a decrease in demand. Substitutes : two goods for which an increase in the price of one good leads to an increase in the demand for theother.Complements : two goods for which an increase

11、in the price of one good leads to a decrease in the demand forthe other.quantity supplied : the amount of a good that sellers are willing and able to sell.Law of supply : the claim that, other things equal, the quantity supplied of a good rises when the price of thegood rises.Supply schedule: a tabl

12、e that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied.Supply curve: a graph of the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied.Equilibrium : a situation in which the price has reached the level where quantity supplied equals quantitydemanded.Equil

13、ibrium price : the price that balances quantity supplied and quantity demanded.Equilibrium quantity : the quantity supplied and the quantity demanded at the equilibrium price.Surplus : a situation in which quantity supplied is greater than quantity demanded.Shortage : a situation in which quantity d

14、emanded is greater than quantity supplied.Law of supply and demand : the claim that the price of any good adjusts to bring the supply and demand for thatgood into balance.CHAPTER 5Elasticity a measure of the responsiveness of quantity demanded or quantity supplied to one of itsdeterminants.Price ela

15、sticity of demand: a measure of how much the quantity demanded of a good responds to a change inthe price of that good, computed as the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentagechange in price.Total revenue: the amount paid by buyers and received by sellers of a good, computed

16、 as the price of the goodtimes the quantity sold.Income lasticity of demand: a measure of how much the quantity demanded of a good responds to a changein consumers income, computed as the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentagechange in income.Crossprice elasticity of demand

17、 : a measure of how much the quantity demanded of one good responds to achange in the price of another good, computed as the percentage change in the quantity demanded of the firstgood divided by the percentage change in the price of the second good.Price elasticity of supply: a measure of how much

18、the quantity supplied of a good responds to a change in theprice of that good, computed as the percentage change in quantity supplied divided by the percentage change inprice.CHAPTER 6Price ceiling: a legal maximum on the price at which a good can be sold.Price floor: a legal minimum on the price at

19、 which a good can be sold.Tax incidence: the manner in which the burden of a tax is shared among participants in a market.CHAPTER 7Welfare economics: the study of how the allocation of resources affects economic well-being. Willingness to pay: the maximum amount that a buyer will pay for a good.Cons

20、umer surplus: a buyers willingness to pay minus the amount the buyer actually pays.Cost：the value of everything a seller must give up to produce a good.Producer surplus: the amount a seller is paid for a good minus the sellers cost.Eficiency: the property of a resource allocation of maximizing the t

21、otal surplus received by all members ofsociety.Euity :fairness of the distribution of well-being among the members of society.CHAPTER 8Deadweight loss: the fall in total surplus that results from a market distortion, such as a tax.CHAPTER 10Externality :the uncompensated impact of one persons action

22、s on the wel-l being of a bystander.Internalizing an externality: altering incentives so that people take account of the external effects of theiractions.Coase theorem: the proposition that if private parties can bargain without cost over the allocation of resources,they can solve the problem of ext

23、ernalities on their own.Transaction costs: the costs that parties incur in the process of agreeing and following through on a bargain.CHAPTER11Excludability:the property of a good whereby a person can be prevented from using it.Rivalry in consumption: the property of a good whereby one persons use d

24、iminishes other peoples use.Private goods: goods that are both excludable and rival.Public goods :goods that are neither excludable nor rival.Common resources: goods that are rival but not excludable.Free rider: a person who receives the benefit of a good but avoids paying for it.Costbenefit analysi

25、s: a study that compares the costs and benefits to society of providing a public good.Tragedy of the commons: a parable that illustrates why common resources get used more than is desirable fromthe standpoint of society as a whole.CHAPTER 13Total revenue: the amount a firm receives for the sale of i

26、ts output.Total cost: the market value of the inputs a firm uses in fit :total revenue minus total cost.explicit costs: input costs that require an outlay of money by the firm.Implicit costs: input costs that do not require an outlay of money by the firm.Economic profit: total revenue

27、minus total cost, including both explicit and implicit costs.Accounting profit: total revenue minus total explicit cost.Production function: the relationship between quantity of inputs used to make a good and the quantity ofoutput of that good.Marginal product: the increase in output that arises fro

28、m an additional unit of input.Diminishing marginal product: the property whereby the marginal product of an input declines as the quantityof the input increases. Fixed costs: costs that do not vary with the quantity of output produced.Variable costs: costs that do vary with the quantity of output pr

29、oduced.Average total cost: total cost divided by the quantity of output.Average fixed cost: fixed costs divided by the quantity of output.Average variable cost: variable costs divided by the quantity of output.Marginal cost: the increase in total cost that arises from an extra unit of production.Eff

30、icient scale: the quantity of output that minimizes average total cost.Economies of scale: the property whereby long-run average total cost falls as the quantity of output increases.Diseconomies of scale: the property whereby long-run average total cost rises as the quantity of outputincreases.Const

31、ant returns to scale : the property whereby long-run average total cost stays the same as the quantity ofoutput changes.CHAPTER 14Competitive market: a market with many buyers and sellers trading identical products so that each buyer andseller is a price taker.Average revenue: total revenue divided

32、by the quantity sold.Marginal revenue: the change in total revenue from an additional unit sold.Sunk cost: a cost that has been committed and cannot be recovered.CHAPTER 15Monopoly a firm that is the sole seller of a product without close substitutes.Natural monopoly: a monopoly that arises because a single firm can supply a good or service to an entire marketat a smaller cost than could two or more firms.Price discrimination: the busine