Economic Theory

Ability-to-Pay: Principles and Applications in Taxation
The principle of Ability-to-Pay asserts that taxes should be levied based on the taxpayer's capacity to bear the tax burden. This principle often leads to progressive taxation where higher income or wealth results in higher tax rates.
Abnormal Profit: Understanding Above-Normal Gains
An in-depth exploration of abnormal profit, its significance, and implications in economic theory and business practice.
Adaptive Expectations: Understanding Economic Forecasting
An in-depth explanation of adaptive expectations in economics, where future values are calculated based on previous predictions and outcomes. Learn about its significance, models, and practical applications.
Adjustment: Explanation and Applications
An in-depth look at adjustment, including cyclical, partial, and seasonal adjustments, their importance, applications, and related concepts.
Autonomous Consumption: Fundamental Economic Concept
Autonomous consumption is the portion of consumption expenditure that occurs even when current income is zero, influenced by assets, expectations, and social standards.
Budget Line: Understanding Consumer Choices
A budget line represents the combinations of two goods that a consumer can purchase with a given income, demonstrating the trade-offs and opportunities in consumer choice theory.
Buffer Stock: Stabilizing Commodity Prices
A buffer stock is a stock of a commodity held to stabilize its price by buying when prices fall and selling when prices rise, thus smoothing out short-run fluctuations while adapting to long-run market conditions.
Bygones: Past Events in Decision-Making
Past events which play no part in rational present decision-making. For a firm, bygones include sunk costs and past operating profits and losses, except to the extent that these play a part in forming present expectations.
Classical Model: A Fundamental Economic Framework
The Classical Model is an economic theory which assumes that prices, wages, and interest rates are flexible and that markets will always reach equilibrium, resulting in full employment and output growth dependent on factor supply.
Cobweb Model: Economic Fluctuation Theory
The Cobweb Model is used to illustrate situations where a time lag in the response of one variable to changes in another introduces economic fluctuations. It is also known as the hog cycle, and describes patterns observed in markets such as hog prices.
Commodity Fetishism: The Illusion of Economic Relationships
Commodity fetishism describes the perception of social relationships involved in production not as relationships among people, but as economic relationships among money and commodities.
Compensating Variation: Economic Measure of Utility Restoration
The amount of additional income needed to restore an individual's original level of utility following a change in the economic environment. This article provides an in-depth explanation, historical context, formulas, and examples.
Consumer Behaviour: Understanding Consumer Decision-Making
Consumer behaviour explores how individuals choose to use their incomes, balancing utility maximization with satisficing and trial-and-error methods, significantly influenced by advertising and social factors.
Consumer Sovereignty: The Power of Consumer Choice
An in-depth exploration of consumer sovereignty, highlighting the concept that consumers are the best judges of their own interests within the market system.
CORE: Central Regions in Economy and Cooperative Game Theory
Explore the concept of CORE, focusing on its dual definition in economics as central regions and in game theory as a set of feasible allocations. Understand historical context, key events, detailed explanations, models, and its significance.
Cost Curve: An Analysis of Production Costs
A comprehensive examination of cost curves, illustrating the relationship between costs and production quantity. Includes short-run and long-run perspectives, different types of cost curves, and their practical implications in economics.
Cost Schedule: Understanding the Foundations of Cost Analysis
A comprehensive overview of the cost schedule in economic and financial analysis, including historical context, types, key events, detailed explanations, and more.
Cut-Throat Competition: Definition and Impact
Cut-throat competition refers to the intense rivalry between suppliers of goods or services, characterized by aggressive tactics such as price cutting that threaten the survival of some or all competitors.
Debt Deflation: Economic Downturn due to Excessive Debt
Debt deflation is a situation where excessive debt reduces spending and borrowing, leading to a decline in aggregate demand. This phenomenon typically occurs when individuals and firms cut back on spending due to high debt levels, contributing to economic slowdowns.
Debt Neutrality: Ricardian Equivalence
An examination of the economic theory that suggests government borrowing does not affect the level of demand in an economy, as suggested by David Ricardo.
Demand Inflation: Inflation Due to Excess Demand
Demand inflation occurs when inflation is driven by excess demand in the economy. This article provides a detailed overview of demand inflation, including historical context, key events, explanations, mathematical models, examples, and much more.
Derived Demand: An Overview of Input-Driven Demand in Production
Derived demand refers to the demand for an input to a productive process, determined by the output of the good or service being produced. It also depends on the price of the input and the prices of other inputs which can either be substitutes or complements.
Diamond-Mirrlees Production Efficiency Lemma: Ensuring Optimal Tax Policies
An in-depth exploration of the Diamond-Mirrlees Production Efficiency Lemma, its historical context, applications in tax policies, and implications for competitive economies.
Diminishing Marginal Utility: Understanding the Concept
Diminishing Marginal Utility is a fundamental concept in economics that describes the decrease in additional satisfaction or benefit obtained from consuming one more unit of a good or service as its consumption increases.
Distribution: A Multifaceted Concept in Economics and Statistics
Distribution refers to the allocation of income among different sections of society, the process of moving goods from producers to consumers, and probability distributions in statistics.
Dutch Disease: Economic Impact of Resource Booms
Dutch Disease refers to the economic concept where an increase in one type of export, typically natural resources, leads to an appreciating exchange rate, negatively impacting other export sectors and domestic products' competitiveness.
Dynamic Adjustment: The Process of Market Adaptation
Dynamic Adjustment refers to the process through which market prices and quantities adapt over time due to changes in demand and supply. This entry covers definitions, theoretical frameworks, examples, historical context, and common questions.
Economic Costs: An In-Depth Exploration
A comprehensive analysis of economic costs, detailing their significance, components, historical context, models, and applications in various sectors.
Economic Efficiency: Optimal Use of Resources
Exploring the concept of economic efficiency, its historical context, types, key events, and detailed explanations, along with practical examples and related terms.
Economic Man: Rational Decision-Maker
Economic Man refers to an idealized individual who makes rational decisions to maximize personal benefit under constraints. This concept is pivotal in economic theories and models.
Economic Theory: Foundations and Developments
Economic Theory is the cornerstone of economic research, focusing on the construction of economic models and development of mathematical methods for their analysis.
Effective Demand: Understanding Ex Ante Spending and Its Economic Implications
An in-depth exploration of effective demand, contrasting it with notional demand, and examining its significance in economics, its historical context, applications, and associated concepts.
Elastic Supply: A Highly Responsive Supply Situation
Elastic Supply refers to a condition in which the quantity supplied of a good or service significantly changes in response to variations in its market price.
Elasticity of Intertemporal Substitution: Understanding Consumer Preferences Over Time
A comprehensive look into the measure of a consumer's willingness to shift consumption between different time periods, known as the Elasticity of Intertemporal Substitution (ε_s).
Endogenous Growth: Understanding the Dynamics of Internal Economic Progress
A comprehensive examination of endogenous growth theory, its principles, historical context, categories, key events, mathematical models, and practical implications in economic growth driven by internal factors.
Endogenous Variable: Understanding and Application in Economics
An in-depth exploration of endogenous variables, including their definitions, applications in econometrics, and related concepts such as endogeneity problems.
Envelope Theorem: Mathematical Tool for Analyzing Optimization Problems
A comprehensive explanation of the Envelope Theorem, including historical context, key concepts, mathematical formulations, practical applications, examples, related terms, and more.
Excess Burden: The Hidden Cost of Inefficiency
An in-depth examination of the excess burden (deadweight loss), its historical context, key concepts, examples, and significance in economics.
External Diseconomies of Scale: Causes and Effects
An in-depth exploration of how the entry of new firms into an industry can drive up input prices and increase the minimum average total cost for all firms, leading to an upward-sloping long-run supply curve.
Factor Price Equalization: Theoretical Insights into International Trade and Factor Prices
A comprehensive look at the Factor Price Equalization theorem within the Heckscher–Ohlin model, detailing how international trade impacts factor prices across countries and aiming for an equalization in an ideal scenario.
Firm: The Basic Unit of Economic Organization
A comprehensive exploration of the firm as the fundamental unit in economic theory, its behavior, structure, and various types, alongside theoretical models and practical applications.
Fiscal Illusion: Understanding the Misperception of Tax Burden
Fiscal Illusion refers to a systematic misperception of the tax burden by taxpayers when government revenues are unobserved or not fully observed, which may distort democratic decisions on fiscal issues.
Fisher Effect: A Detailed Examination
An in-depth look into the Fisher Effect, its historical context, mathematical formulas, importance in economics, and real-world applications.
Flexible Wages: The Dynamics of Labor Market Adjustments
An in-depth analysis of flexible wages, how they adjust in response to economic changes to balance supply and demand for labor, and their implications in economic theories.
Free Entry: The Absence of Market Entry Obstacles
A comprehensive exploration of the concept of Free Entry, its implications, historical context, importance in economics, key considerations, related terms, and more.
Full Cost Pricing: Understanding the Comprehensive Pricing Strategy
An in-depth exploration of full cost pricing, a practice of setting prices to cover average costs at a normal production rate plus a conventional mark-up, its historical context, key events, models, importance, and applicability.
Fundamental Theorems of Welfare Economics: Efficiency in Competitive Equilibrium
An in-depth exploration of the two fundamental theorems of welfare economics, which outline the efficiency properties of competitive equilibria, the conditions for decentralization, and their implications in economics.
Gains from Trade: Comprehensive Analysis
An in-depth exploration of the concept of gains from trade, its historical context, types, key events, mathematical models, and more.
General Equilibrium: Comprehensive Economic Analysis
General equilibrium is an approach in economics for analyzing simultaneous equilibrium in all markets within an economy. This article delves into the historical context, key models, importance, applicability, and related concepts.
Golden Rule: Economic and Political Principles
In economic theory, the Golden Rule refers to the optimal relationship between the capital-labour ratio and population growth rate to maximize consumption per capita. In British politics, it refers to a fiscal policy implemented in 1997 under Gordon Brown.
Gradualism: The Belief in Incremental Change
Gradualism is the belief that it is preferable to make a series of small changes in economic policy rather than a single large change. This approach is utilized to manage economic transitions smoothly and avoid potential disruptions.
Growth Cycles: Understanding Economic Fluctuations
Explore the dynamics of growth cycles, the process of repeated shifts between periods of high and low growth rates. This article covers historical context, key events, types, detailed explanations, mathematical models, charts, and practical examples.
Homo Economicus: The Rational Economic Man
An in-depth analysis of the concept of Homo Economicus, a theoretical figure representing the rational and self-interested decision-maker in classical economics.
Human Capital: Understanding Its Role and Impact
Human capital refers to the skills, knowledge, and experience possessed by an individual, viewed in terms of their value or cost to an organization. The concept was popularized by Gary Becker in the 1960s to explain wage variations and labor market dynamics.
Input-Output Analysis: Study of Economic Flows
Detailed exploration of the flows of goods and services between different sectors of the economy through input-output analysis, examining the assumptions, applications, and implications of the model.
Interest-Elasticity of the Demand for Money: Understanding Responsiveness of Monetary Demand to Interest Rates
Interest-Elasticity of the Demand for Money measures the responsiveness of the quantity of money demanded to changes in interest rates. It plays a critical role in economics and finance, aiding in policy formulation and economic analysis.
Internalizing Externalities: Adjusting Market Activities to Include External Costs
A comprehensive exploration of the concept of internalizing externalities, focusing on how external costs are incorporated into market activities through various mechanisms such as taxes or regulations.
Invisible Hand: The Unseen Force in Economics
The concept of the 'Invisible Hand' introduced by Adam Smith highlights how self-interest in a free-market economy leads to economic prosperity and efficient resource allocation, without the need for central coordination.
Involuntary Unemployment: An In-Depth Exploration
An exploration of involuntary unemployment, examining its causes, historical context, key theories, implications, and related economic concepts.
Job Acceptance Schedule: An In-depth Understanding
Comprehensive insight into the Job Acceptance Schedule, its components, key factors influencing it, and its implications in the job market.
John Maynard Keynes: Pioneer of Modern Macroeconomics
Explore the significant contributions of John Maynard Keynes to modern macroeconomics, including his revolutionary ideas on government intervention and economic stabilization.
Keynesian Consumption Theory: Emphasizing Current Income as the Main Driver of Consumption
A comprehensive overview of Keynesian Consumption Theory, which posits that current income is the primary determinant of consumer spending. This theory, rooted in the economic ideas of John Maynard Keynes, explores consumption patterns, economic implications, and critical perspectives.
Knock-On Effect: Chain Reactions in Economics
Understanding the Knock-On Effect in Economics: An in-depth exploration of how one action or event can have secondary or indirect consequences, impacting the entire economic system until a new equilibrium is reached.
Kondratieff Cycle: Long Economic Cycles
An exploration of the Kondratieff Cycle, a supposed long cycle in economic activity spanning approximately 60 years, its historical context, theories, evidence, and significance.
Labour Market: The Exchange of Labour for Wages
An in-depth examination of the labour market, its components, historical context, and significance in economic systems.
Laffer Curve: Understanding Taxation and Revenue
Explore the Laffer Curve, its historical context, key events, mathematical models, and its importance in economic theory. Learn about its applicability, examples, and related terms.
Locomotive Principle: Economic Growth Driven by Leading Sectors or Countries
The Locomotive Principle is an economic theory positing that growth in an economy, or the global economy, is driven by the expansion of leading sectors or countries.
Long Run: Comprehensive Overview
The long run refers to a period sufficiently long that all variables can be changed, allowing firms and economies to make significant adjustments that are impossible in the short run.
Long-Run Marginal Cost: An In-depth Analysis
A comprehensive guide to understanding Long-Run Marginal Cost (LRMC), including its historical context, importance in economics, applicability, formulas, examples, and related terms.
Lumpiness: Understanding Indivisibility
A comprehensive exploration of lumpiness in economics, finance, and other fields, emphasizing its implications and applications.
Mainstream Economics: Dominant Approaches Like Neoclassical and Keynesian Economics
Mainstream Economics, also known as orthodox economics, refers to the dominant approaches including neoclassical and Keynesian economics that shape contemporary economic thought and policy.
Malthusian Problem: Analysis of Population and Resource Dynamics
A comprehensive examination of the Malthusian Problem, developed by economist Thomas Malthus, which addresses the inherent tension between exponential population growth and linear resource supply.
Malthusian Trap: Population Growth and Agricultural Constraints
The Malthusian Trap is a theory that suggests population growth tends to outpace agricultural production, resulting in periodic adjustments in wages and living standards. This concept shows how agricultural limitations can restrict sustainable population growth over time.

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