| A | B |
|---|
| business | Activity that provides goods or services to consumers for the purpose of making a profit. |
| profit | Difference between the revenue that a company brings in from selling goods and services and the costs of generating this revenue. |
| not-for-profit (or nonprofit) organization | Organization that has a purpose other than returning profits to owners. |
| management | Process of planning for, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling a company’s resources so that it can achieve its goals. |
| operations manager | Person who designs and oversees the process that converts resources into goods or services. |
| marketing | All of the organizational activities involved in identifying customers’ needs and in designing, pricing, promoting and delivering products to meet those needs. |
| accountant | Financial advisor responsible for measuring, summarizing, and communicating financial and managerial information. |
| finance | Activities involved in planning for, obtaining, and managing a company’s funds. |
| economics | Study of how scarce resources are used to produce outputs—goods and services—that are distributed among people. |
| resources | Inputs used to produce outputs. |
| factors of production | Resources consisting of land, labor, capital (money, buildings, equipment), and entrepreneurial skills combined to produce goods and services. |
| economic system | Means by which a society makes decisions about allocating resources to produce and distribute products. |
| communism | Economic system featuring the highest level of government control over allocation and distribution. |
| socialism | Economic system falling between communism and capitalism in terms of government control over allocation and distribution. |
| free market system | Economic system in which most businesses are owned and operated by individuals. |
| capitalism | Economic system featuring the lowest level of government control over allocation and distribution. |
| mixed market economy | Economic system that relies on both markets and government to allocate resources. |
| privatization | Process of converting government-owned businesses to private ownership. |
| perfect competition | Market in which many consumers buy standardized products from numerous small businesses. |
| demand | Quantity of a product that buyers are willing to purchase at various prices. |
| demand curve | Graph showing the quantity of a product that will be bought at certain prices. |
| supply | Quantity of a product that sellers are willing to sell at various prices. |
| supply curve | Graph showing the quantity of a product that will be offered for sale at certain prices. |
| equilibrium price | Price at which buyers are willing to buy exactly the amount that sellers are willing to sell. |
| monopolistic competition | Market in which many sellers supply differentiated products. |
| oligopoly | Market in which a few sellers supply a large portion of all the products sold in the marketplace. |
| monopoly | Market in which there is only one seller supplying products at regulated prices. |
| natural monopoly | Monopoly, in which, because of the industry’s importance to society, one seller is permitted to supply products without competition. |
| legal monopoly | Monopoly in which one seller supplies a product or technology to which it holds a patent. |
| gross domestic product (GDP) | Measure of the market value of all goods and services produced by a nation’s economy in a given year. |
| business cycle | Pattern of expansion and contraction in an economy. |
| recession | Economic slowdown measured by a decline in gross domestic productivity. |
| depression | Severe, long-lasting recession. |
| full employment | Condition under which about 95% of those who want to work are employed. |
| unemployment rate | Percentage of the total labor force that’s currently unemployed and actively seeking work. |
| price stability | Conditions under which the prices for products remain fairly constant. |
| inflation | Rise in the overall price level. |
| deflation | Decrease in overall price level. |
| consumer price index (CPI) | Index that measures inflation by measuring the prices of goods purchased by a typical consumer. |
| economic indicator | Statistic that provides information about trends in the economy. |
| lagging economic indicator | Statistical data that measure economic trends after the overall economy has changed. |
| leading economic indicator | Statistical data that predict the status of the economy three to twelve months in the future. |
| consumer confidence index | Measure of optimism that consumers express about the economy as they go about their everyday lives. |
| monetary policy | Efforts exerted by the Federal Reserve System ("the Fed") to regulate the nation's money supply. |
| fiscal policy | Governmental use of taxation and spending to influence economic conditions. |
| national debt | Total amount of money owed by the federal government. |
