a priori
An exploration of the economic term 'a priori', which refers to claims considered true based on earlier reasoning rather than empirical evidence.
A-share
An ordinary share in a company with no voting rights for the holder, typically traded at a lower price than voting shares.
AAA Rating
An in-depth exploration of the AAA credit rating, its significance, and its role in economics.
Abatement
Reduction in amount, degree, or intensity of an activity, particularly in reference to emissions and pollutants.
Abatement Cost
The cost associated with reducing pollution levels from both production and consumption activities.
Ability and Earnings
The relationship between an individual's inherent abilities and their earnings potential.
Ability to Pay
The principle that tax should fall on those who can afford to pay, where tax payments increase with income or assets of taxpayers.
Abnormal Obsolescence
Loss of value of an asset, capital equipment, or property due to unforeseen changes in techniques, tastes, or circumstances.
Abnormal Profit
A detailed examination of the concept of abnormal profit in economics.
Absolute Advantage
The ability to produce an output using fewer inputs than other producers.
Absorption
An in-depth look into the term 'absorption' within the context of national accounts and economic analysis.
Abstinence
Abstinence in economic context refers to refraining from or postponing consumption.
Abuse of Dominant Position
A comprehensive analysis of the term 'abuse of dominant position' within economics, mainly concerning anti-competitive business practices by market-dominant firms.
Accelerated Depreciation
An economic concept enabling firms to write down capital goods for tax purposes at a faster rate than normal depreciation, encouraging investment and allowing tax deferral.
Accelerator
A macro idea linking investment to changes in output: rising output raises desired capital and therefore investment.
Acceptance
Exploring the meaning and implications of acceptance in the context of a bill of exchange.
Acceptance Region
A key concept in statistical inference defining the range where a test statistic is likely to fall if the null hypothesis is true
Accepting House
A financial firm that guarantees the payment of bills of exchange on their due date.
Accession Criteria
The conditions a candidate country must satisfy to become a member of the European Union, including political, economic, administrative, and institutional requirements.
Accommodatory Monetary Policy
A policy of allowing the supply of money to expand in line with the demand for it, balancing economic growth and inflation.
Accounting
How accounting measures financial position and performance, why it matters for contracts and incentives, and how it differs from national accounting.
Accounting Period
The period of time, normally a year, to which a set of company accounts refers.
Accounting Profit
Accounting profit is the level of profit calculated using standard accounting principles.
Accounts
How accounts summarize financial activity and why accountability matters in economics and governance.
Accounts Payable
An entry describing the concept of Accounts Payable, its meaning, and relevance in economics.
Accounts Receivable
Money owed to a firm by customers for goods/services already delivered; a key working-capital item tied to trade credit.
Accrual Rate
The accrual rate is the rate at which benefits are earned in a pension plan, typically expressed as a percentage of salary.
Accrual Rate
The fraction used to express the rate of increase of the pension entitlement in a final salary scheme.
Acquisition
Expansion of a company through the purchase of another business, including the outlined terms and governing rules.
Acquisitions Approach
An approach to the construction of a consumer price index focusing on the acquisition of consumption goods and services.
Active Labour Market Policies
Government interventions aimed at assisting the unemployed to find work, including job centres, training schemes, and employment subsidies.
Actuarial Assumption
An estimate of a random variable used in financial calculations, prominently in insurance, determining premiums or benefits using statistical data.
Actuarially Fair Odds
A detailed look at actuarially fair odds within the context of economics, providing comprehensive definitions and discussions across various theoretical frameworks.
Actuary
A risk professional who uses probability, statistics, and finance to price, reserve, and manage long-term contingent liabilities.
Ad Valorem Tax
Definition and meaning of ad valorem tax, a tax proportional to the price of the object being taxed.
Adaptation
Policies and actions to prevent or reduce the adverse effects of climate change.
Adaptive Expectations
An entry explaining the principle of adaptive expectations in economics.
Adjustable Long-term Putable Security
An advanced financial instrument combining features of a dual currency bond, a floating interest rate, and a put option.
Adjustable Peg
A system where countries stabilize their exchange rates around par values with the right to change these values when necessary.
Adjusted R-squared
A refined version of the coefficient of determination (R-squared), adjusted for the degrees of freedom in a regression analysis.
Adjustment
Exploration of the term 'Adjustment' in economics, its definitions, applications, and contrasting perspectives.
Adjustment Costs
The costs associated with making changes in economic variables controlled by economic agents.
Adjustment Programme
A package of policy measures designed to cure balance-of-payments problems.
Administered Price
Administered price is a pricing mechanism where prices are established by an administrative entity rather than by market forces.
Administration (Insolvency)
A legal process (notably in the UK) where an administrator takes control of a distressed company to rescue it or maximize value for creditors.
Adoption
The take-up of new technology by firms or consumers linked to economic growth.
Advance Corporation Tax
Definition and meaning of Advance Corporation Tax (ACT) in the context of the UK taxation system and its impact on dividend distribution and corporate tax liability.
Advanced Economies
How economists and institutions classify advanced economies and what typically distinguishes them from emerging and developing economies.
Advances
Detailed exploration of bank advances, their definitions, types, and implications in the context of economic lending practices.
Advantage
Understanding the nuances of 'Advantage' in economic frameworks, including absolute and comparative advantage.
Adverse Selection
An economics term defined as the tendency for a contract to attract the types of agent that are least profitable for the issuer, often due to asymmetric information.
Adverse Supply Shock
An unexpected shift of the supply curve to the left, indicating a reduction in the quantity supplied for any given price.
Advertising
Activity designed to attract attention, inform, and persuade potential customers to buy products or services
Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS)
A UK public body providing workplace advice and dispute resolution services (conciliation, mediation, arbitration).
Affirmative Action
Policies that expand access for historically disadvantaged groups in education, hiring, and contracting, often via targeted outreach or preference rules.
After-Sales Service
Services provided after purchase (support, repairs, warranties, updates) that affect product value, competition, and repeat demand.
After-Tax Income
An in-depth look into after-tax income, including its meaning, historical context, and analytical frameworks.
Age-Dependency Ratio
A ratio that measures the number of dependents in the population relative to the number of economically active individuals.
Age-Earnings Profile
The relationship between age and the mean earnings of workers of that age.
Agency Cost
An analysis of the agency costs in economic theory, their implications, and associated frameworks.
Agency Problem
An examination of the agency problem, defined as the difficulties encountered when a principal delegates a task to an agent, highlighting issues of asymmetric information and incomplete contracts.
Agency Theory
An exploration of agency theory, focusing on the contractual relationship between a principal and an agent, asymmetric information, and incentive mechanisms.
Agent-Based Modelling
The use of computational models to simulate the decisions and interaction of individual agents within an economic environment.
Agglomeration Economies
Explanation of agglomeration economies, their historical relevance, analytical frameworks, and case studies.
Aggregate Data
Data formed by combining many observations into totals, averages, or rates (for example GDP, inflation, unemployment).
Aggregate Demand
An in-depth explanation of aggregate demand, its components, and significance in both closed and open economies.
Aggregate Demand Schedule
A comprehensive entry exploring the concept of aggregate demand schedule in economics, including definitions, historical context, and analytical frameworks.
Aggregate Production Function
An Overview of the Aggregate Production Function in Economics
Aggregate Supply
The total amount of real goods and services that enterprises in an economy are willing to provide at any given ratio of prices to wages.
Aggregation
The process of summing individual values into a total value, used in various economic contexts such as aggregate demand and aggregate capital stock.
Aggregation Problem
An exploration of the conceptual difficulties inherent in using aggregate values to represent the total of individual values in economic analysis.
Agricultural Protection
Exploring the mechanics and implications of governmental tariffs and trade controls aimed at supporting domestic farming sectors.
Agroecosystem
An agricultural system viewed as an ecosystem: production plus ecological processes, externalities, and management choices affecting sustainability.
Aid
Economic aid: transfers (cash, goods, services) intended to reduce suffering, finance public goods, or support development—often with tradeoffs around incentives, governance, and effectiveness.
Aid to Families with Dependent Children
A federal welfare programme established in the United States in 1935 to provide financial support for poor children, which was replaced in 1996 by the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program.
Aid-in-Kind
Aid provided in the form of goods or services rather than in the form of money.
Aitken Estimator
An exploration of the Aitken estimator, commonly known as the generalized least squares estimator, and its applications within various economic frameworks.
Allais Paradox
A choice pattern that violates expected utility’s independence axiom, highlighting the certainty effect and probability weighting.
Allais Paradox
A phenomenon in decision theory where people's choices under uncertainty violate the axioms of expected utility theory, first identified by Maurice Allais.
Almon Distributed Lag
A comprehensive explanation of the Almon distributed lag model in econometrics.
Almost Sure Convergence
An In-depth Exploration of Almost Sure Convergence in the Field of Economics
Alpha Stocks
A London Stock Exchange SEAQ classification for the most actively traded securities (not the same as 'alpha' in asset pricing).
Altruism
How economists model other-regarding preferences (altruism, warm glow, reciprocity) and why they matter for public goods and policy.
Amalgamation
A corporate combination where two or more firms are consolidated, often into a new legal entity, with implications for synergies, market power, and regulation.
Ambiguity
A situation where a decision-maker knows possible events but not their exact probabilities.
Ambiguity Rule
Doctrine (often in insurance) that construes genuinely ambiguous terms against the drafter, typically benefiting the insured.
American Economic Association
A professional association for economists that publishes leading journals and organizes the annual economics conference and job market infrastructure.
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
A major U.S. labor federation (AFL + CIO, merged 1955) that coordinates affiliated unions and engages heavily in policy advocacy and organizing.
Amortization
Explanation of amortization—the gradual buildup of a fund to replace an asset or repay a loan over a period.
Analysis of Variance
A statistical technique to decompose total population variance into parts to test significance of differences among groups.
Animal Spirits
Keynes’s term for confidence, fear, and narratives that move spending and investment under uncertainty.
Announcement Effect
Behavioral and price changes triggered by credible news of a future policy/action, before implementation.
Annual General Meeting (AGM)
A comprehensive entry explaining the concept of an Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the context of company shareholders and association members.
Annual Population Survey
Definition and Meaning of Annual Population Survey
Annual Report and Accounts
A yearly package of narrative disclosures and audited financial statements that reduces information asymmetry between managers and stakeholders.
Annualized Growth Rate
A way to express short-period growth (monthly/quarterly) as an equivalent yearly rate using compounding.
Annualized Percentage Rate (APR) of Interest
A standardized annual cost of borrowing that includes interest plus certain fees, designed to make credit offers comparable.
Annuity
A contract that converts a lump sum into a stream of payments (term-certain or life-contingent), often used to insure longevity risk.
Annuity Factor
The present value of a unit payment stream; used to convert between a lump sum and equal periodic payments.
Annuity Rate
The payout rate that converts an annuity premium into annual income; depends on interest rates, longevity assumptions, fees, and options.