Glossary of Terms

• Agriculture: the science or practise of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products.
• Economics: the branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth. It involves making decisions under conditions of scarcity.
• Government: the governing body of a nation, state, or community.
• Incentive: a thing that motivates or encourages one to do something.
• Marginal thinking: consideration of small changes (more or less) rather than total amounts.
• Market: A market is a mechanism that allows buyers and sellers of a specific good or service to interact in order to facilitate an exchange.
• Opportunity costs: the highest value of a choice surrendered.
• Scarcity: a condition when there is not enough to satisfy all wants/needs at a given price.
• Trade: the act of buying and selling products, or exchanging products and services through barter.
• Trade-off: a balance achieved between two desirable but incompatible features; a compromise.

Supplementary Resources

For great topics in economics visit the Freakonomics website: http://freakonomics.com/.

For great reading about how economics can be used to explain everything from car accidents to football, look to Steven Landsburg’s book the Armchair Economist. 

Landsburg, S. E. (2007). The Armchair Economist (revised and updated May 2012): Economics & Everyday Life. Simon and Schuster.