Econ 222 Vocab Chapter 1

The property of society getting the most it can from its scarce resources

The study of how society manages its scarce resources

The limited nature of societies resources

The property of distributing economic prosperity fairly among the members of society

Whatever must be given up to obtain some item

People who systematically and purposefully do the best they can to achieve their objectives

Small, incremental adjustments to a plan of action

Something that induces a person to act

An economy that allocates resources through the decentralized decisions of many firms and households as they interact in markets for goods and services

The ability of an individual to own and exercise control over scarce resources

A situation in which a market left on its own fails to allocate resources efficiently

The impact of one person's actions on the well-being of a bystander

The ability of a single economic actor (or small group of actors) to have a substantial influence on market prices

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

An increase in the overall level of prices in the economy

Fluctuations in economic activity, such as employment and production