A demand curve shows the relationship between an item’s price and the quantity of the item demanded, either by an individual or by all participants in the market. Demand curves are downward-sloping for most items as greater quantities are demanded at lower prices.

The law of diminishing marginal returns states that as the input of a factor of production increases ceteris paribus, the additional output from the last unit of input decreases.

A deadweight loss is the irrecoverable reduction in economic efficiency that occurs when a free-market equilibrium is disturbed by a market intervention or other shock to supply and/or demand. In economic theory, free markets are beneficial to society because they allow consumers and producers to exchange goods and services for money and both sides of the market gain at the equilibrium price in terms of consumer surplus and producer surplus. In a simple economy with just one

One of the most fundamental tenets of economics. Supply refers to the quantity of a product being produced, and demand the quantity consumers wish to buy. In its most basic form, it refers to the theory that the price for a good or service will eventually settle at a point when its demand and its quantity are equal (assuming all other factors remain equal). This is referred to as the equilibrium.

In its simplest form, opportunity cost refers to the loss of the positive results of a decision when an alternative decision is made. It refers to the actual loss incurred by not choosing one option when another is selected. This cost does not only refer to money, but any lost benefits which may result in choice. A simple example of this would be that the opportunity cost of using a machine to make one product is the production of another product. That is, the second product cannot be produced, and its not being produced is an opportunity cost.

In capital markets, capital is exchanged between investors (who supply it from their assets) and investees (who need it to fund projects and ventures).  The investment horizon is usually at least one year.

A problem of adverse selection occurs in the case of asymmetric information  whenever a better informed market player uses information to take advantage of another player in the market who does not hold that information.  In turn, this adversely affects participation in the market.

The cross elasticity of demand (or cross-price elasticity of demand)  ϵAB refers to the sensitivity of the demand for item A  qA  to changes in the price of item B&n

An antitrust policy is a law or other government regulation that limits the dominance of large firms and promotes competition in the market.

If market players have different levels of information about each other’s valuations of the market then the information is asymmetric, or asymmetrically distributed. In classical economic theory, information is assumed to be complete and evenly distributed among market players: each player knows how the other players value the items being traded in the market. This simplifies the analysis of the market because the players’ actions will be certain and predictable. Market outcomes (prices and quantities) can then be easily calculated.

Consumer surplus is the gain made by consumers when they purchase an item at the competitive market price rather than the (highest) price that they would have been willing to pay for it.  Analogously, producer surplus is the gain made by producers when they sell an item at the market price rather than the (lowest) price that they would also have accepted for it.

When economists say “ceteris paribus” they are talking about the direct effect of X on Y while assuming that the rest of the world stands still. Ceteris is Latin for “other things” and paribus means “equal” so the literal translation is “other things being equal” but in economics it is generally understood to mean that all other things remain equal or constant (while dealing with the issue at hand).

Game theory refers to the study of the choices actors make which produce outcomes based on their preferences. In short, it's a way of predicting how economic agents are going to act, which has real-world application, meaning the results of releasing products or competing in business can be more accurately predicted. It is assumed in game theory that actors act rationally, that is, that they act in order to maximise benefits to themselves.

This subdiscipline of economics studies how the economic decisions made by individuals and institutions are influenced by psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural, and social factors. Specifically, it busies itself with looking at rational decision making - and its boundaries - in contrast to how decision making is seen in classical economics.

Elasticity refers, in its most basic form, to how much an individual, a business, a producer or a consumer changes its demand, or amount of goods supplied, as a result of price and income fluctuation. It is a core economic concept and provides answers to some central questions, such as how much more or less a product will sell if the price is raised or lowered or how much these price changes will affect the sales of other products.

Also known as consumer choice, this term refers to the study of how and why people spend their money based on their preferences, and how they maximise the utility of their purchases while working within budget restraints. Some of the basic ideas of consumer theory state firstly that people try to make rational decisions which bring them the greatest utility; secondly, that people will always make multiple shopping trips, one not sufficing; and thirdly, that the more you use a product, the less you want it.

Having the comparative advantage (if, for example, you are a business) means that you can produce a good or service at a relatively lower cost than that of your competitors. Having the comparative advantage means you will be able to sell your goods for a lower cost than your competitors and potentially perform better.

An asset is ANY resource that produces positive economic value for its owner - its owner being its owner as a result of a past event, most likely a transaction. There are two classes of assets, tangible and intangible, which are themselves made up of subclasses. Of the tangible variety, most commonly you’ll hear about current and fixed assets. Current assets refer to things that can be consumed, exhausted or sold, such as cash, stock, and marketable securities.

Standing in contrast to macroeconomics, microeconomics looks at the choices made by economic actors - be they people, firms, or whole industries -  and how they affect the allocation of scarce resources. Primarily, this involves investigation into why goods and services assume different values and understanding how changing economic conditions can alter the decision-making of economic actors. 

Well, capital is a catch-all term that refers to a person’s assets, which means something useful a person has which can create wealth - and it can be extremely broad and be interpreted in many ways. On the face of it, capital is one of if not the most important thing in an economic system. The financing and investing of capital helps to define if and how the economy grows and also how people experience their returns on investment. To this end, capital is a good measurement of wealth, and also a means of creating wealth through the investment of capital.

Pioneered by Ragnar Frisch, Lawrence Klein and Simon Kuznets, econometrics is the application of statistical models to economic data to develop both new theories and test existing hypotheses - a division which demarcates its two main branches: theoretical and applied. Its aim is the quantitative analysis of economic phenomena; giving empirical content to economic relationships. Or in other words, analysing economic history and making forecasts.

You’ve all heard the term before, countless times no doubt. But what does it really mean? Well, the biggest clue is in the title. MACROeconomics is a branch of economics that looks at the economy as a whole, specifically, at its structure, performance, and behaviour. It does so by considering aggregate changes to phenomena like gross domestic product (GDP), inflation, price indices, national income and unemployment rates.