Economics

Economics

basics of economics

Contributors in Economics

Economics

Opposition to free trade. Although intended to protect a country's economy from foreign competitors, it usually makes the protected country worse off than if it allowed international trade to proceed ...

Prospect theory

Economy; Economics

A theory of "irrational" economic behavior. Prospect theory holds that there are recurring biases driven by psychological factors that influence people's choices under uncertainty. In particular, it ...

Property rights

Economy; Economics

Essential to any market economy. To trade, it is essential to know that the person selling a good or service owns it and that ownership will pass to the buyer. The stronger and clearer property ...

Propensity

Economy; Economics

Economics abounds with propensities to do various things: consume, save, invest, import, and so on. In each case, it is important to distinguish between the average propensity and the marginal one. ...

Progressive taxation

Economy; Economics

Taxation that takes a larger proportion of a taxpayer's income the higher the income is. (See vertical equity. )

Probability

Economy; Economics

How likely something is to happen, usually expressed as the ratio of the number of ways the outcome may occur to the number of total possible outcomes for the event. For instance, each time you throw ...

Privatisation

Economy; Economics

Selling state-owned businesses to private investors. This policy was associated initially with Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s, which privatised numerous companies, including public ...