Final Exam Colander Vocab
Econ 2010 F20 Discussion Sprott
Disclaimer, once again: This vocabulary is from the previous edition of Colander’s
Microeconomics. Though it is unlikely he drastically changed his definitions, keep in mind
that there may be some discrepancies. Additionally, this list is compiled as a starting point
for studying for this exam. It is not a comprehensive guide, but rather an outline of the
material that appears in the textbook, not the lectures.
ECON 2010 Vocab List
Unit 1 The Central Economics Problems and the
Approach of Economics
Chapter 1
- Economics: the study of how human beings coordinate their wants and
desires, given the decision-making mechanisms, social customs, and political
realities of the society
- Scarcity: the goods available are too few to satisfy individuals’ desires -
Microeconomics: the study of individual choice, and how that choice is
influenced by economic forces
- Macroeconomics: the study of the economy as a whole
- TANSTAAFL: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
- Marginal cost: the additional cost to you over and above the costs you have
already incurred
- Sunk costs: costs that have already been incurred and cannot be recovered -
Marginal benefit: the additional benefit above what you’ve already derived -
Economic decision rule: if the marginal benefits of doing something exceed
the marginal costs, do it. If the marginal costs of doing something exceed the
marginal benefits, don’t do it.
- Opportunity cost: the benefit that you might have gained from choosing the
next-best alternative
- Implicit costs: costs associated with a decision that often aren’t included in
normal accounting costs
- Economic forces: the necessary reactions to scarcity
- Market force: an economic force that is given relatively free rein by society
, to work through the market
- Invisible hand: the price mechanism, the rise and fall of prices that guides
our actions in the market
- Social forces: forces that guide individual actions even though those actions
may not be in an individual’s selfish interest
- Political forces: legal directives that direct individuals’ actions - Economic
model: a framework that places the generalized insights of the theory in a
more specific contextual setting
- Economic principle: a commonly held economic insight stated as a law or
principle
- Experimental economics: a branch of economics that studies the economy
through controlled experiments
- Theorems: propositions that are logically true based on the assumption in a
model
- Precepts: policy rules that conclude a particular course of action in
preferable
- Efficiency: achieving a goal as cheaply as possible
- Invisible hand theorem: a market economy, through the price mechanism,
will tend to allocate resources efficiently
- Economic policies: actions (or inaction) taken by the government to
influence economic actions
- Positive economics: the study of what is, and how the economy works -
Normative economics: the study of what the goals of the economy should b e -
The art of economics (political economy): the application of the knowledge
learned in positive economics to achieve the goals one has determined in
normative economics
Chapter 2
- Production possibility curve (PPC): also called the Production Possibility
Frontier (PPF), a curve measuring the maximum combination of outputs that
can be obtained from a given number of inputs.
- Comparative advantage: better suited to the production of one good than to
the production of another good
- Productive efficiency: achieving as much output as possible from a given
amount of inputs or resources
- Inefficiency: getting less output from inputs that, if devoted to some other
activity, would produce more.
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