P

　　Perfect complements 完全互補品

　　Two goods with right-angle indifference curves

　　Perfect substitutes 完全替代品

　　Two goods with straight-line indifference curves

　　Permanent income 持久收入

　　A person's normal income

　　Phillips curve 菲利普斯曲線

　　A curve that shows the short-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment

　　Physical capital 物質資本

　　The stock of equipment and structures that are used to produce goods and services

　　Pigovian tax 庇古稅

　　A tax enacted to correct the effects of a negative externality

　　Positive statements 實證表述

　　Claims that attempt to describe the world as it is

　　Poverty line 貧困線

　　An absolute level of income set by the federal government for each family size below which a family is deemed to be in poverty

　　Poverty rate 貧困率

　　The percentage of the population whose family income falls below an absolute level called the poverty line

　　Price ceiling 價格上限

　　A legal maximum on the price at which a good can be sold

　Price discrimination 價格歧視

　The business practice of selling the same good at different prices to different customers

　　Price elasticity of demand 需求價格彈性

　　A measure of how much the quantity demanded of a good responds to a change in the price of that good, computed as a percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price

　　Price elasticity of supply 供給價格彈性

　　A measure of how much the quantity supplied of a good responds to a change in the price of that good, computed as the percentage change in quantity supplied divided by the percentage change in price

　　Price floor 價格下限

　　A legal minimum on the price at which a good can be sold

　　Prisoners' dilemma 囚犯的兩難處境

　　A particular 'game' between two captured prisoners that illustrates why cooperation is difficult to maintain even when it is mutually beneficial

　　Private goods 私人物品

　Goods that are both excludable and rival

　　Private saving 私人儲蓄

　　The income that households have left after paying for taxes and consumption

　　Producer price index 生產物價指數

　　A measure of the cost of a basket of goods and services bought by firms

　　Producer surplus 生產者剩余

　　The amount a seller is paid for a good minus the seller's cost

　　Production function 生產函數

　　The relationship between quantity of inputs used to make a good and the quantity of output of that good

　　Production possibilities frontier 生產可能性邊界

　　A graph that shows the various combinations of output that the economy can possibly produce given the available factors of production and the available production technology

　　Productivity 生產率

　　The amount of goods and services produced from each hour of a worker's time; The quantity of goods and services produced from each hour of a worker's time

　　Profit 利潤

　　Total revenue minus total cost

　　Progressive tax 累進稅

　　A tax for which high-income taxpayers pay a larger fraction of their income than do low-income taxpayers

　　Proportional tax 比例稅

　　A tax for which high-income and low-income taxpayers pay the same fraction of income

　　Public goods 公共物品

　　Goods that are neither excludable nor rival

　　Public saving 公共儲蓄

　　The tax revenue that the government has left after paying for its spending

　　Pareto-efficient allocations 帕雷托有效配置

　　resource allocations, that cannot make a person better off without making someone else worse off

　　partial equilibrium analysis 局部均衡分析

　　an analysis that focuses on only one or a few markets at a time

　　partnership 合伙制

　　a business owned by two or more individuals, who share the profits and are jointly liable for any losses

　　patent 專利

　　a government decree giving an inventor the exclusive right to produce, use, or sell an invention

　　paternalism 父愛主義

　　the making of judgments by government about what is good for people to have, rather than letting people choose on their own

　　payroll tax 工薪稅

　　a tax based on payroll (wages) that is used to finance the Social Security and Medicare programs

　　perfect competition 完全競爭

　　situation in which each firm is a price taker--it cannot influence the market price; at the market price the firm can sell as much as it wishes, but if it raises its price, it loses all sales

　　perfectly mobile capita 具有完全流動性的資本

　　capital that responds quickly to changes in returns in different countries

　　permanent-income hypothesis 永久收入假說

　　the theory that individuals base their current consumption levels on their permanent (long-run average) income

　　permanent-income savings motive 永久收入儲蓄動機

　　people save in good years, to tide them over in bad years; they choose their pattern of savings and spending year by year to average or smooth their consumption over good years and bad

　　piece-rate system 計件工資制度

　　a compensation system in which workers are paid specifically for each item produced

　　planned or unplanned inventories 計劃或無計劃庫存

　　planned inventories are those firms choose to have on hand because they make business more efficient; unplanned inventories result when cannot sell what they produce

　　policy ineffectiveness 政策無效性命題

　　the proposition that government policies are ineffective--policies aimed at stimulating aggregate demand at most change the price level

　　planned economy 計劃經濟

　　an economy in which most decisions about resource allocation are made by the government

　　portfolio theories 資產組合理論

　　theories that argue that monetary policy affects output through its effect on prices of various assets, in particular the prices of stocks

　　portfolio 資產組合

　　an investor's entire collection of assets and liabilities

　　potential GDP 潛在GDP

　　a measure of what the value of GDP would be if the economy's resources were fully employed

　　potential output 潛在產出

　　the level of output that would prevail if labor were fully employed (output may exceed that level if workers work more than the normal level of overtime)

　　precautionary savings motive 謹慎儲蓄動機

　　people save to guard against the chance of an unexpected illness or accident

　　predatory pricing 掠奪性定價

　　the practice of cutting prices below the marginal costs of production to drive out a new firm (or to deter future entry), at which point prices can be raised again

　　present discounted value 現期貼現值

　　how much an amount of money to be received in the future is worth right now

　　price index 價格指數

　　a measure of the level of prices found by comparing the cost of a certain basket of goods in one year with that cost in a base year

　　principal 本金

　　the original amount a saver deposits in a bank or a borrower borrows

　　principal-agent problem 所有者—代理人問題

　　any situation in which one party (the principal) needs to delegate actions to another party (the agent), and thus wishes to provide the agent with incentives to work hard and make decisions about risk that reflects the interests of the principal

　　private marginal cost 私人邊際成本

　　the marginal cost of production borne by the producer of a good; when there is a negative externality, such as air pollution, private marginal cost is less than social marginal cost

　　privatization 私有化

　　the process whereby functions that were formally run by the government are delegated instead to the private sector

　　product differentiation 產品差異

　　the fact that similar products (like breakfast cereals or soft drinks) are perceived to differ from one another and thus are imperfect substitutes

　　product market 產品市場

　　the market in which goods and services are bought and sold

　　product-mix efficiency 產品組合效應

　　the condition in which the mix of goods produced by the economy reflects the preferences of consumers

　　production efficiency 生產效率

　　the condition in which firms cannot produce more of some goods without producing less of other goods

　　productivity (GDP per hour) 生產率/平均每人時的GDP

　　how much an average worker produces per hour, calculated by dividing real GDP by hours worked in the economy

　　proprietorship 獨資企業

　　a business owned by a single person, usually a small business

　　protectionism 保護主義

　　a policy of protecting domestic industries from foreign-made competition

　　pure profit (monopoly rents) 純利潤或壟斷租金

　　the profit earned by a monopolist that results from its reducing output and increasing the price from the level at which price equals marginal cost

　　Q

Quantity demanded 需求量

　　The amount of a good that buyers are willing and able to purchase

　　Quantity equation 貨幣數量方程式

　　The equation MxV=PxY, which relates the quantity of money, the velocity of money and the dollar value of the economy's output of goods and services

　　Quantity supplied 供給量

　　The amount of a good that sellers are willing and able to sell

　　Quantity theory of money 貨幣數量論

　　A theory that asserts that the quantity of money available determines the price level and that the growth rate in the quantity of money available determines the inflation rate; The theory that velocity is constant, so that changes in the money supply lead to proportionale changes in nominal income (which also equals the value of output)

　　quota rents 配額租金

　　profits that accrue to firms which are allocated the rights to import a good subject to quotas that result from the artificially created scarcity

　　quotas 配額

　　limits on the amount of foreign goods that can be imported

R

Rational expectations 理性預期

　　The theory according to which people optimally use all the information they have, including information about government policies, when forecasting the future

　　Real GDP 實際GDP

　　The production of goods and services valued at constant prices

　　Real exchange rate 實際匯率

　　The rate at which a person can trade the goods and services of one country for the goods and services of another

　　Real interest rate 實際利率

　　The interest rate corrected for the effects of inflation

　　Real variables 實際變量

　　Variables measured in physical units

　　Recession 衰退

　　A period of declining real incomes and rising unemployment

　　Regressive tax 累退稅

　　A tax for which high-income taxpayers pay a smaller fraction of their income than do low-income taxpayers

　　Reserve ratio 準備金率

　　The fraction of deposits that banks hold as reserves

　　Reserve requirements 法定準備金

　　Regulations on the minimum amount of reserves that banks must hold against deposits

　　Reserves 準備金

　　Deposits that banks have received but have not lent out

　　Rivalness 競爭性

　　The property of a good that one person's use diminishes other people's use

　　random walk 隨機行走

　　a term used to describe the way prices of stock move, where the next movement cannot be predicted on the basis of previous movements

　　rationing systems 配給制

　　ways of distributing goods that do not rely on prices, such as queues, lotteries, and coupons

　　real balance effect 實際余額效應

　　as prices fall, the real value of people's money holdings increases, and they consume more

　　real business-cycle theorists 實際經濟周期理論家

　　a school of economists who contend that the economy's fluctuations have nothing to do with monetary policy but are determined by real forces

　　real income 實際收入

　　income measured by what it can actually buy, rather than by the amount of money

　　real product wage 實際產品工資

　　the wage divided by the price of the good being produced

　　regulatory capture 管制俘虜

　　a term used to describe a situation in which regulators serve the interests of the regulated rather than the interests of consumers

　　relative performance compensation 相對表現補償

　　pay (compensation) based on performance on the job relative to others who have similar responsibilities and authority

　　rent seeking 尋租

　　the name given to behavior that seeks to obtain benefits from favorable government decisions, such as protection from foreign competition

　　revenue curve 收益曲線

　　the relationship between a firm's total output and its revenue

　　revenues 收益

　　the amount a firm receives for selling its products, equal to the price received multiplied by the quantity sold

　　right-to-work laws 工作權利法

　　laws that prevent union membership from being a condition of employment

　　risk averse / loving / neutral 厭惡風險/喜愛風險/中性風險

　　given equal expected returns and different risks risk averse people will choose assets with lower risk, risk loving people will choose assets with higher risk, and risk-neutral individuals will not care about differences in risk

　　risk premium 風險收益

　　the additional interest required by lenders as compensation for the risk that a borrower may default; more generally, the extra return required to compensate an investor

　　S

Sacrifice ratio 犧牲率

　The number of percentage points of annual output that is lost in the process of reducing inflation by one percentage point

　　Scarcity 希缺性

　　The limited nature of society's resources

　　Shoeleather costs 皮鞋成本

　　The resources wasted when inflation encourages people to reduce their money holdings

　　Stagflation 滯脹

　　A period of falling output and rising prices

　　Stock 股票

　　A claim to partial ownership in a firm

　　Store of value 價值儲藏

　　An item that people can use to transfer purchasing power from the present to the future

　　Strike 罷工

　　The organized withdrawal of labor from a firm by a union

　　Substitutes 替代品

　　Two goods for which an increase in the price of one good leads to an increase in the demand for the other good

　　Substitution effect 替代效應

　　The change in consumption that results when a price change moves the consumer along a given indifference curve to a point with a new marginal rate of substitution

　　Supply curve 供給曲線

　　A graph of the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied

　　Supply schedule 供給表

　　A table that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied

　　screening 篩選

　　the process of differentiating among job candidates, when there is incomplete information, to determine who will be the most productive

　　shadow price 影子價格

　　the true social value of a resource

　　signaling 信號

　　conveying information, for example by earning a college-degree, to persuade an employer that a prospective worker has desirable characteristics that will enhance his productivity

　　slope 斜率

　　the amount by which the value along the vertical axis increases as a result of a change in a unit along the horizontal axis; the slope is calculated by dividing the change in the vertical axis (the "rise") by the change in the horizontal axis (the "run")

　　Smith's "invisible hand" 斯密“看不見的手”

　　the idea that if people act in their own self-interest, they will often also be acting in a broader social interest, as if they had been directed by an "invisible hand"

　　smoothing consumption 均勻消費

　　consuming similar amounts in the present and future, rather than letting year-to-year income dictate consumption

　　social marginal cost 社會邊際成本

　　the marginal cost of production, including the costs of any negative externality, such as air pollution, borne by individuals in the economy other than the producer

　　socialism 社會主義

　　an economic system in which the means of production are controlled by the state

　　soft budget constraints 軟預算約束

　　budget constraints facing a firm in which the government subsidizes any losses

　　static expectations 靜態預期

　　the belief of individuals that today's prices and wages are likely to continue into the future

　　sticky prices 粘性價格

　　prices that do not adjust or only adjust slowly toward a new equilibrium

　　sticky wages 粘性工資

　　wages that are slow to adjust in response to a change in labor market conditions

　　stock statistics 存量統計

　　measurements of the quantity of a certain item at a certain point in time, such as capital stock, the total value of buildings and machines

　　sunk cost 沉沒成本

　　a cost that has been incurred and cannot be recovered

　　supply-constrained equilibrium 供給約束的均衡

　　the equilibrium that occurs when prices are stuck at a level below that at which aggregate demand equals aggregate supply; in a supply-constrained equilibrium, output is equal to aggregate supply but less than aggregate demand

　　surplus labor 剩余勞動

a great deal of unemployed or under employed labor, readily available to potential employers

T

Tariff 關稅

　　A tax on goods produced abroad and sold domestically

　　Tax incidence 稅收歸宿

　　The study of who bears the burden of taxation

　　Technological knowledge 技術知識

　　Society's understanding of the best ways to produce goods and services

　　Theory of liquidity preference 流動偏好理論

　　Keynes' theory that the interest rate adjusts to bring money supply and money demand into balance

　　Total cost 總成本

　　The amount a firm pays to buy the inputs into production

　　Total revenue 總收益

　　The amount a firm receives for the sale of its output; The amount paid by buyers and received by sellers of a good, computed as the price of the good times the quantity sold

　　Trade balance 貿易余額

　　The value of a nation's exports minus the value of its imports, also called net exports

　　Trade deficit 貿易赤字

　　An excess of imports over exports

　　Trade policy 貿易政策

　　A government policy that directly influences the quantity of goods and services that a country imports or exports

　　Trade surplus 貿易盈余

　　An excess of exports over imports

　　Tragedy of the Commons 公用地悲劇

　　A parable that illustrates why common resources get used more than is desirable from the standpoint of society as a whole

　Transaction costs 交易成本

　　The costs that parties incur in the process of agreeing and following through on a bargain

　　tacit collusion 暗中勾結

　　collusive behavior among the firms of an oligpoly based on an implicit understanding that it is in each firm's best interest not to compete too vigourously; they tacitly understand that it is undesirable to undercut each others' prices, but there is no open discussion about price fixing

　　takeover 收購

　　when one management team (one firm) takes over the control of another

　　target savings motive 目標儲蓄動機

　　people save for a particular target, for example to make a down payment on a house or to pay college tuition

　　tax expenditures 稅收支出

　　the revenue lost from a tax subsidy

　　tax-favored assets

　　the return on these assets receives favorable tax treatment, such as tax-exempt municipal bonds

　　tax subsidies 稅收補貼

　　subsidies provided through the tax system to particular industries or to particular expenditures, in the form of favorable tax treatment

　　technological risks 技術風險

　　risks facing a firm associated with technology, such as whether a new technology will work or be reliable

　　theorem 定理

　　a logical proposition that follows from basic definitions and assumptions

　　theory 理論

　　a set of assumptions and the conclusions derived from those assumptions put forward as an explanation for some phenomena

　　thin markets 薄弱市場

　　markets with relatively few buyers and sellers

　　tie-ins 搭售

　　a restrictive practice in which a customer who buys one product must buy another

　　time constraints 時間約束

　　the limitations on consumption of different goods imposed by the fact that households have only a limited amount of time to spend (twenty-four hours a day). The time constraint defines the opportunity set of individuals if the only constraint that they face is time

　　time value of money 貨幣的時間價值

　　the fact that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future is called the time value of money

　　total factor productivity analysis 總生產要素分析

　　the analysis of the relationship between output and the aggregate of all inputs; total factor productivity growth is calculated as the difference between the rate of growth of output and the weighted average rate of growth of inputs, where the weight associated with each input is its share in GDP

　　trade creation 貿易創造

　　new trade that is generated as a result of lowered tariff barriers

　　trade diversion 貿易多樣化

　　trade that is diverted away from outside countries as a result of lowering tariffs between the members of a trading bloc

　　trade-offs 交易

　　the amount of one good (or one desirable objective) that must be given up to get more of another good (or to attain more of another desirable objective)

　　trade secret 商業秘密

　　an innovation or knowledge of a production process that a firm does not disclose to others

　　trading blocs 商業集團

　　groups of countries that agree to lower trade and other economic barriers among themselves

　　traditional monetary theory 傳統貨幣理論

　　the theory (first developed by John Maynard Keynes, and therefore sometimes referred to as Keynesian monetary theory) that the nominal interest rate is the opportunity cost of holding money, that the demand for money decreases as the interest rate rises, and that the interest rate is determined to equate the demand and supply of money

　　transactions demand for money 貨幣的交易需求

　　the demand for money arising from its use in buying goods and services

　　transfer programs 轉移支付計劃

　　programs directly concerned with redistribution, such as AFDC and Medicaid, that move money from one group in society to another

　　transplants 移植

　　plants constructed in one country by firms based in another. U.S. factories producing Mazdas and Toyotas are Japanese transplants

　　Treasury bills (T-bills) 短期國庫券

　　bills the government sells in return for a promise to pay a certain amount in a short period, usually less than 180 days

　　trough 波谷

　　the bottom of a recession

　　trusts 信托公司

　　organizations that attempted to control certain markets in the late nineteenth century; they were designed to allow an individual or group owning a small fraction of the total industry to exercise control

　　two-tier wage system 雙重工資系統

wage systems in which newly hired workers are paid lower wages than established workers are paid

U

Unemployment insurance 失業保險

　　A government program that partially protects workers' incomes when they become unemployed

　　Unemployment rate 失業率

　　The percentage of the labor force that is not employed

　　Union 工會

　　A worker association that bargains with employers over wages and working conditions

　　Unit of account 計價單位

　　The yardstick with which people post prices and record debts

　　Utilitarianism 功利主義

　　The political philosophy according to which the government should choose policies to maximize the total utility of everyone in society

　　Utility 效用

　　A measure of happiness or satisfaction

　　union shops 工會化企業

　　unionized firms in which all workers are required to join the union as a condition of employment

　　utility possibilities curve效用可能性曲線

　　a curve showing the maximum level of utility that one individual can attain, given the level of utility attained by others

　　V

　　Value of the marginal product 邊際產量價值

　　The marginal product of an input times the price of the output

　　Variable costs 可變成本

　　Cost that do vary with the quantity of output produced

　　Velocity of money 貨幣流通速度

　　The rate at which money changes hands

　　Vertical equity 縱向公平

　　The idea that taxpayers with a greater ability to pay taxes should pay larger amounts

　　variable inputs 可變投入

　　inputs that rise or fall with the quantity of output

　　velocity 流通速度

　　the speed with which money circulates in the economy, defined as the ratio of income to the money supply

　　vertical merger 縱向兼并

　　a merger between two firms, one of which is a supplier or distributor for the other

　　voluntary unemployment 自愿失業

　　a situation in which workers voluntarily drop out of the labor force when the wage level falls

　　voting paradox 投票悖論

　　the fact that under some circumstances there may be no determinate outcome with majority voting: choice A wins a majority over B, B wins over C, and C wins over A

　　W

　　Welfare economics 福利經濟學

　　The study of how the allocation of resources affects economic well-being

　　Willingness to pay 支付意愿

　　The maximum amount that a buyer will pay for a good

　　World price 世界價格

　　The price of a good that prevails in the world market for that good

　　wage discrimination 工資歧視

　　paying lower wages to women or minorities

　　wage-productivity curve 工資—生產率曲線

　　the curve that depicts the relationship between wages and productivity

　　wholesale price index 批發價格指數

　　a price index that measures the average level of wholesale prices

　　work sharing 工作分攤

　　reducing all employees' hours by equal amounts rather than firing some workers

　　World Trade Organization (WTO) 世界貿易組織

　　the organization established in 1995, as a result of the Uruguay round of trade negotiations, replacing GATT, designed to remove trade barriers and settle trade disputes

　　Z

　　zero elasticity 零彈性

a demand (or supply) curve has zero elasticity if the quantity demanded (or supplied) does not change at all if price changes; the demand (supply) curve is vertical