Economic Concepts

4. Utility Something’s usefulness and the degree to which wants are satisfied.
7. Want Desire for goods, services or intangible items that can only be acquired by spending money – items like a car, or a haircut, or a patent.
8. Cost The loss of potential gain from among other alternatives, when one alternative is chosen.
10. Economics is the study of how individuals and societies make decisions about resources, production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods and services, given unlimited and competing wants, and given the scarcity of resources.
12. One who actually uses the product or service (also called the final user, or final customer).
15. The decrease in the general level of prices in an economy.
16. Good A good or service that has a benefit (or utility) to society, has value and therefore can be traded and exchanged using money, and has some degree of scarcity.
17. Consumption The total amount of goods and services used by an economy.
18. Choosing between two things that can’t be had or done at the same time; so it’s giving up something you want in exchange for something else you want, often as a compromise.
20. Want Desires that don’t require money to be obtained, like talking to a friend.

1. The using of goods and services by people or by the economy in general.
2. The study of the behavior, performance, structure, and decision-making of an economy as a whole.
3. The study of behavior and decision-making of individuals and businesses in an economy.
5. Goods The physical assets used to produce goods and services, including machinery, equipment, buildings, and tools.
6. Reducing the amount of money spent in order to save money.
9. The increase in the general level of prices in an economy.
11. The making of products from raw materials and other inputs like labor, machinery, and tools.
13. Resources Materials and substances found in nature that are used for economic gain, including air, water, sun, fertile land, plants, timber, fossil fuels, and minerals.
14. The reality that people’s wants always exceed the resources available to fulfill those wants.
15. To categorize, sort, and transport goods to all their final destinations as efficiently, inexpensively, and carefully as possible.
19. All the components needed for production including natural resources, labor, capital goods, and expertise.