27 terms were found starting with the letter b.

Balance of Payments

A country’s financial ledger showing all receipts from other countries and all payments to other countries.

Balance of Payments Deficit

When a country’s total export earnings fall short of its spending on imports.

Balloon Loan

A loan repayment scheme under which repayments in later years (or months) are larger than repayments in earlier years (or months). In some cases, the entire loan may be repaid at maturity.

Barriers to Entry

Restrictions imposed on any new enterprise wishing to start up business in a given field. Such barriers may be legal, bureaucratic, financial, or economic.

Barriers to Trade

Restrictions on international trade such as quotas or tariffs that prevent a firm from making an international purchase or sale.

Barter

The exchange of one good or service directly for another good or service. No money is used in the exchange.

Basic Needs

The basic goods and services (food, clothing, housing, etc.) necessary to achieve some minimum standard of living.

Basis

In economics, the difference between the current cash price and the futures price of a commodity.

Basis Point

Equal to one hundredth of a percentage point (0.01 percent) of yield.

Bear

In economics and finance, someone who thinks market prices will decline.

Beggar-thy-Neighbor Policy

A protectionist trade policy that seeks to increase domestic employment without regard to the fact that any such gain in domestic employment must come at the expense of losses in employment in the country’s trading partners.

Bequest Value

The economic value attached to preserving an environmental or natural resource for future generations.

Best Available Technology/Best Control Technology

In environmental policy, refers to the use of state-of-the-art control and treatment technology to achieve the lowest possible emissions rate.

Best Management Practices (BMPs)

In environmental policy, refers to the use of state-of-the-art management practices to achieve the lowest possible emissions rate.

Bilateral Trade Agreement

A trade agreement that two countries undertake, often to reduce tariffs and quotas on items between themselves. They are free to implement different trade policies with respect to other countries.

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)

A measure of the amount of pollution caused by organic substances in water. (The technical definition is the number of milligrams of oxygen required by microorganisms to oxidize the organics in a liter of water.)

Biodiversity

The diversity of living things in a particular area or region. There are three general kinds of biodiversity: habitat diversity (the variety of places within an area where life exists), genetic diversity (the variety of populations that comprise each species), and species diversity (the number and variety of species).

Biotechnology

A technology that modifies the natural evolution of living systems to develop products for commercial or other purposes.

Black Market

The process of buying and selling a good or service at a price greater than the legal maximum set by the government or lower than the legal minimum set by the government. Also refers to buying or selling a good or service outlawed by the government.

Border Price

The price of an internationally traded good at the country’s border or port of entry.

Borrowing Constraint

A limit imposed by a lender on the amount an individual, household or firm can borrow. Depending on the situation, the constraint may be binding (someone borrows up to their limit) or non-binding (someone borrows less than their limit).

Bound Tariff Rates

Tariff rates resulting from GATT negotiations or accessions that are incorporated as a part of a country’s schedule of concessions. Bound rates are enforceable under GATT. If a GATT party raises a tariff above the bound rate, the affected countries countries have the right to retaliate against an equivalent value of the offending country’s exports or receive compensation, usually in the form of reduced tariffs of other products they export to the offending country.

Brady Bond

A bond created when existing developing country debt is converted into new debt. The new bond typically has worse terms for an investor than the old bond (a smaller face value or a lower interest rate), but the new bond may be viewed as a more secure investment.

Brain Drain

The emigration of highly educated workers from developing countries to developed countries.

Budget Share

The share of an individual’s or household’s income spent on some good or service (e.g., food).

Buffer Stocks

Supplies of a product held by a country or an international organization to moderate fluctuations in the price of some commodity. Stocks are typically sold during periods of high prices and bought during periods of low prices.

Bull

In economics and finance, someone who thinks market prices will rise.

Glossary

27 terms were found starting with the letter a.

Absolute Advantage

The ability of one country to produce a particular good or service using fewer resources (and therefore at lower cost) than another country.

Ad Valorem Tariff

A charge levied on imports, defined in terms of a fixed percentage of value.

Administered Price

A price fixed by policy makers in order to determine, directly or indirectly, domestic market or producer prices. All administered price schemes set a minimum guaranteed support price or a target price for a commodity which is maintained by various policy measures.

Adverse Selection

A transaction in which the seller has relevant information that the buyer does not have, or vice versa. Also refers to the tendency for buyers or sellers to exploit these asymmetries in information to their own advantage. For example, someone with a dangerous occupation or hobby may be more likely to apply for life insurance.

Advertising to Sales Ratio

A firm’s or industry’s advertising expenditure expressed as a percent of its sales. It is a measure of the importance of advertising to the firm’s or industry’s marketing effort.

Age-Adjusted Birth Rate

The crude birth rate adjusted to account for the fact that the age distribution of a country may differ from the age distribution of the average country. For example, a country could have a high birth rate simply because a relatively high percentage of its women were in their child-bearing years (typically defined as ages 15-44 or 15-49).

Age-Adjusted Death Rate

The death rate adjusted to account for the fact that the age distribution of a country may differ from the age distribution of the average country. For example, a country could have a high death rate simply because a relatively high percentage of its citizens were very old.

Agglomeration Economies

Economies of scale resulting from the concentration of people and production in urban areas.

Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS)

An index that measures the monetary value of the extent of government support to a sector. The AMS, as defined in the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, includes both budgetary outlays as well as revenue transfers from consumers to producers as a result of policies that distort market prices.

Agreement on Agriculture

Part of the Uruguay Round trade agreement covering issues related to agriculture (e.g., market access, export subsidies, and internal support).

Agricultural Extension

The provision of information to farmers on agricultural production technologies designed to increase production, protect natural resources and the environment, or achieve some other objective.

Agricultural Research

The application of scientific theories and techniques to agriculture in order to develop new technologies that can increase production, protect natural resources and the environment, or achieve some other objective.

Agricultural Sector

The part of the economy consisting of agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing.

Allocative Efficiency

A firm is allocatively efficient if it chooses the quantities of inputs into production in order to maximize profits, taking the production technology and degree of technical efficiency as given. The degree of allocative efficiency is the extent to which a firm comes close to achieving the ideal of allocative efficiency.

Altruistic Value

The economic value attached by one person to another person’s use or enjoyment of an environmental or natural resource.

Announcement Effect

A change in a market price or other economic variable that occurs following the announcement of some future action or event. For example, if the USDA announces that the soybean harvest this year will be larger than expected, market and futures prices of soybeans will fall.

Anti-Dumping Laws

Laws enacted to prevent dumping, which is defined as selling a good in another country at a price below which the same good is sold in the home market or selling a good below the cost of production and distribution.

Appropriate Technology

Technology appropriate for the factor endowment in a particular country. For example, developing countries usually have a relatively large labor force and relatively little investment capital, so that labor-intensive technologies are usually the most appropriate for them.

Arbitrage

The simultaneous purchase and sale of similar commodities to take advantage of price discrepancies between markets.

Arbitration

The procedure of settling disputes between two or more parties.

Asian Development Bank (ADB)

A regional development bank established in 1966 to promote economic and social development in Asian and Pacific countries through loans and technical assistance. Currently has 61 member countries.

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

An economic affiliation of 21 Asia-Pacific countries, including the U.S., Japan, and China. APEC is a forum for facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade, and investment in the Asia-Pacific region.

Autarky

A policy of complete economic self-reliance – no trade or investment activities with the rest of the world.

Average Cost

Usually refers to average total cost, which is the total cost of production of a good or service (including the costs of fixed inputs and variable inputs) divided by the quantity produced.

Average Product

The total quantity of output divided the total quantity of some input. For example, the average product of labor in wheat production is the total output of wheat divided by the number of hours of labor used to produce wheat.

Average Total Cost

The total cost of production of a good or service (including the costs of fixed inputs and variable inputs) divided by the quantity produced.

Average Variable Cost

The cost of production of a good or service, taking into account the costs of all variable inputs but not the costs of any fixed inputs, divided by the quantity produced.

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