5 terms were found starting with the letter v.

Value Added

The difference between the cost of materials purchased by a firm and the price for which it sells goods produced using those materials. This difference represents the value added by the productive activities of the firm.

Value-Added Tax (VAT)

A tax imposed on value added, that is, on the difference between the cost of materials purchased by a firm and the price for which it sells goods produced using those materials.

Variable Input

An input whose quantity is treated as variable – open to change by a firm – given the time horizon under consideration.

Variable Levy

A charge levied on imports that is adjusted frequently in response to changes in world prices. Imposed to defend administered domestic prices that are set above world market prices.

Vertical Organization/Vertical Integration

Combining operations in successive stages of production upstream (away from end consumers) and/or downstream (toward final consumers) – for example, a processing firm buys its supplier.

9 terms were found starting with the letter u.

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

An agency of the U.S. government whose primary objective is to assist developing countries in their development efforts while furthering U.S. foreign policy objectives. Economic assistance from USAID typically consists of loans and technical assistance.

United Nations (UN)

A global organization founded in 1944 to promote international cooperation and resolve international conflicts through peaceful means. Currently has 191 member countries. Decisions are made by a General Assembly and by a 15-member Security Council that has five permanent members and 10 rotating members.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

A body of the United Nations that focuses on the protection, welfare, and basic needs of children. Currently working in 161 countries.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

A body of the United Nations set up in 1965 to promote human development in developing countries through poverty alleviation, environmental regeneration, employment creation, and advancement of the status of women. Provides grants to developing countries.

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)

A body of the United Nations created in 1972 to promote environmental concerns within the United Nations.

Uruguay Round Agreement

A major international trade agreement signed in 1994 that led to the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This agreement liberalized international agricultural trade to a greater degree than previous trade agreements. Unlike previous agreements, which covered merchandise trade only, the Uruguay Round Agreement also covers services and intellectual property.

Use Value

An economic value based on the tangible human use of some environmental or natural resource.

Utilitarianism

An ethical framework which posits that all action should be directed toward achieving the greatest utility for the greatest number of people.

Utility

An individual’s well-being, satisfaction or happiness.

18 terms were found starting with the letter t.

Tangency

When one line in a diagram touches, but does not cross, another line. The point at which the two lines touch is the point of tangency.

Tariff

A tax imposed by a nation on an imported good or service that is not imposed on domestic production of that good or service.

Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ)

A method of limiting imports under which imports up to a certain point (the quota) face a lower (in-quota) tariff and imports over that point face a higher (over-quota) tariff.

Tariffication

The process of converting nontariff trade barriers to bound tariffs. This is done under the Uruguay Round agreement in order to improve the transparency of existing agricultural trade barriers and facilitate their proposed reduction.

Technical Change

The increased application of scientific knowledge in the form of new consumer goods and services, new inputs into production, new methods of producing goods and services, or new ways of operating and managing organizations.

Technical Efficiency

Getting the highest level of output possible from any given bundle of inputs, taking the production technology as a given. Occurs when a firm is operating on its production function rather than below it. The degree of technical efficiency is the extent to which a firm comes close to achieving the ideal of technical efficiency.

Terms of Trade

The prices at which a country can sell its exports relative to what it must pay for its imports. It is calculated by taking an index of export prices and dividing this by an index of import prices

Third World

Another name for the low-income countries and middle-income countries as a group, that is, countries with relatively low to middle levels of per capita income.

Total Factor Productivity (TFP)

The quantity of output divided by the amount of all inputs used in production. The amount of all inputs used in production can be calculated in a variety of ways. One common way is to take a geometric-weighted average of the quantities of each of the inputs, where the weight on each input is its share in the total cost of production.

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

The total number of children that would be born alive to a woman entering her childbearing years (usually defined as age 15) if she lived to the end of her childbearing years (usually defined as age 49) and if her fertility during these years was the same as the average woman of childbearing age.

Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)

The maximum allowable amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet established water quality standards.

Tragedy of the Commons

Excessive use of an open access resource to the point where the resource is damaged or destroyed.

Transaction Costs

The costs in money and time incurred in the process of buyer-seller search, negotiation, and contract-enforcement activities.

Transboundary Externality

An externality in which an individual, household or firm in one country is affected by the actions of an individual, household or firm in another country.

Transfer Efficiency

A measure of the amount of benefit provided to some target group for every dollar of cost to others in the economy.

Transfer Price

The price charged on a transaction involving a corporation and its subsidiary or a transaction involving one unit of a corporation and another.

Tropical Forest

Any area located between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer in which at least 10 percent of the area is wooded. Six tropical forest ecosystem types are often defined: rain, most deciduous, hill and montane, dry deciduous, very dry, and desert.

Turbidity

The decreased clarity in a body of water due to the suspension of silt or sedimentary material.

30 terms were found starting with the letter s.

Scenario

A story about the future told with numbers and words. Scenarios are not predictions or forecasts of what will happen. Rather, they suggest what might happen.

Second Best

A situation in which a Pareto optimum is not attainable due to constraints on what firms, households, or the government can do.

Seigniorage

The difference between the face value of money and the cost of printing or minting the money. Seigniorage represents a benefit to the government that comes from its authority to create money.

Settled Agriculture

A type of farming system in which land is used continuously (subject to occasional years where fields are left fallow) in crop and/or livestock production.

Shadow Price

A “price” used in economic analysis to represent a cost or benefit from a good when the market price is a poor indicator of economic value or there is no market at all for that good.

Shifting Cultivation

A type of farming system in which a parcel of agricultural land is cultivated until its productivity has been depleted, after which a new parcel is cultivated. The original parcel is in many cases cultivated again after its productivity has been restored.

Short Run

A time horizon over which at least one input into production is fixed.

Slash-and-Burn Agriculture

The practice of cutting and burning a forested area to make way for agriculture, and then moving to another forested area after the previous area’s agricultural productivity has been depleted. Historically, forests were permitted to regrow on the depleted land, after which the land was often cut and burned again. Is a type of shifting cultivation.

Small Country

In economics, a country that is so small economically that its international transactions do not have a significant impact on world prices. A small country is essentially a price taker in world markets.

Social Benefit

The benefit of an activity to society at large, taking into account not only the benefit to the individual, household, firm or government undertaking the activity but also the benefits to all other members of society.

Social Capital

The value of social networks that people can draw on to solve common problems. The benefits of social capital flow from the trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation associated with social networks.

Social Cost

The cost of an activity to society at large, taking into account not only the cost to the individual, household, firm or government undertaking the activity but also the costs to all other members of society.

Social Rate of Time Preference (SRTP)

A rate for discounting future benefits and costs that is based on comparisons of utility across different points in time or different generations. It consists of two components: (1) a component to reflect the fact that people tend to discount future benefits and costs, whether to themselves or to their children; and (2) a component to adjust for differences over time in living standards.

South

Another name for the low-income countries and middle-income countries as a group.

Special and Differential Treatment

A trade provision allowing exports from developing countries to receive preferential access to developed-country markets.

Specific Rate Tariff

A charge levied on imports defined in terms of a specific money amount per unit.

Spillover

A special type of beneficial externality. A spillover occurs when one person’s investments in human capital increase the productivity of other people. Some types of spillovers also increase the rate of return to investments by others in their own human capital.

Stabilization Policies

In a developing country context, measures recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to restore stability to a country’s finances. These measures typically involve a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.

Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Codes

A classification system developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce to categorize business activities. SIC codes have been replaced by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

State Trading Enterprise (STE)

An enterprise authorized to engage in trade that is owned, sanctioned, or otherwise supported by the government. Many STEs have monopoly control over imports or exports.

Steady State

A situation in which the variables in an economic model (e.g., population, the labor force, output, per capita income, the capital stock, etc.) change at constant percentage rates over time. The rates of change may differ from one variable to another, but they must be consistent with each other within the confines of the model. These rates of change may be positive, zero or negative.

Stolper-Samuelson Effect

The tendency for an increase in the price of one good A relative to the price of another good B to increase the prices of factors of production that are used relatively intensively in the production of A, and to decrease the prices of factors that are used relatively intensively in the production of B.

Stunting

When a child has a very low height compared to other children of the same age. (The technical definition is two standard deviations or more below the median height for age of the reference population.) Stunting is an indicator of long-term or chronic malnutrition.

Subsidy

Financial assistance (often from the government) to a specific group of producers or consumers.

Subsistence Crop

A crop produced primarily or exclusively for home consumption rather than for sale on the market.

Sunk Costs

Expenditures that, once made, cannot be recovered.

Superior Good

A good whose income elasticity of demand is greater than one, so that a 1% increase in income leads to more than a 1% increase in consumption of that good. All superior goods are also normal goods, but not all normal goods are superior goods.

Supply Curve

A diagrammatic representation of the relationship between the supply of a good and its price, usually with price on the vertical axis and quantity supplied on the horizontal axis.

Support Price

A price above the market equilibrium price. Support prices are generally used by governments to increase producer incomes.

Sustainable Development

Economic development that (1) takes full account of negative and positive environmental impacts occurring during the development process, and (2) places appropriate weight on the well-being of not only the current generation but also future generations.