The Blackboard page will be available on August 17th, but I want to give you the opportunity to get an early start. This page gives you links to the Schedule, Syllabus, and Textbook.
This class covers a lot of material, and I highly recommend that you get started early. Get familiar with the syllabus, read a few chapters, and put important due dates in your calendar.
The textbook is free of charge and available online:
You can access the textbook at no charge at this link:
You can e-mail me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
1. Barriers to Entry – Factors that prevent new firms from competing equally with existing firms.
2. Business – An organization that strives for profit by providing goods and services desired by its customers.
3. Business Cycles – The upward and downward changes in the level of economic activity.
4. Capital – Inputs such as tools, machinery, equipment, and buildings used to produce goods and services.
5. Capitalism – An economic system based on competition in the marketplace and private ownership of the factors of production.
6. Circular Flow – The movement of inputs and outputs among households, businesses, and governments.
7. Communism – An economic system characterized by government ownership of virtually all resources.
8. Consumer Price Index (CPI) – An index of the prices of a "market basket" of goods and services purchased by typical urban consumers.
9. Contractionary Policy – The use of monetary policy to tighten the money supply.
10. Cost-Push Inflation – Inflation caused by rising production costs.
11. Costs – Expenses involved in producing and selling goods and services.
12. Crowding Out – Occurs when government spending replaces spending by the private sector.
13. Cyclical Unemployment – Unemployment caused by downturns in the business cycle.
14. Demand – The quantity of a good or service that people are willing to buy at various prices.
15. Demand Curve – A graph showing the quantity of a good or service that people are willing to buy at various prices.
16. Demand-Pull Inflation – Inflation caused when demand exceeds supply.
17. Demography – The study of people’s vital statistics, such as age, gender, and location.
18. Economic Growth – An increase in a nation’s output of goods and services.
19. Economic System – The combination of policies, laws, and choices made by a nation’s government to establish systems for resource allocation.
20. Economics – The study of how a society uses scarce resources to produce and distribute goods and services.
21. Entrepreneurs – People who combine inputs to produce goods or services with the intention of making a profit.
22. Equilibrium – The price at which the quantity of a good demanded equals the quantity supplied.
23. Expansionary Policy – The use of monetary policy to increase the money supply.
24. Factors of Production – The resources used to produce goods and services, including land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship.
25. Federal Budget Deficit – The condition that occurs when the federal government spends more for programs than it collects in taxes.
26. Federal Reserve System (the Fed) – The central bank of the United States, which regulates the banking industry and controls the money supply.
27. Fiscal Policy – Government actions to influence the economy through changes in taxes and spending.
28. Frictional Unemployment – Short-term unemployment unrelated to the business cycle, typically involving people who are temporarily between jobs.
29. Full Employment – The condition when all people who want to work and can work have jobs.
30. Goods – Tangible items manufactured by businesses.
31. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – The total market value of all final goods and services produced within a nation’s borders each year.
32. Inflation – The situation in which the average of all prices of goods and services is rising.
33. Knowledge – The combined talents and skills of the workforce.
34. Knowledge Workers – Workers who create, distribute, and apply knowledge.
35. Macroeconomics – The study of the economy as a whole, focusing on aggregate data for large groups.
36. Market Structure – The number of suppliers in a market.
37. Microeconomics – The study of individual parts of the economy, such as households or firms.
38. Mixed Economies – Economies that combine several economic systems, where the government owns certain industries, but others are privately owned.
39. Monetary Policy – A government's programs for controlling the money supply and interest rates.
40. Monopolistic Competition – A market structure in which many firms offer products that are close substitutes.
41. National Debt – The accumulated total of all the federal government's annual budget deficits.
42. Not-for-Profit Organization – An organization that exists to achieve a goal other than profit.
43. Oligopoly – A market structure where a few firms produce most or all of the output.
44. Perfect (Pure) Competition – A market structure in which a large number of small firms sell similar products.
45. Producer Price Index (PPI) – An index of the prices paid by producers for various commodities.
46. Productivity – The amount of goods and services one worker can produce.
47. Profit – The money left over after all costs are paid.
48. Purchasing Power – The value of what money can buy.
49. Pure Monopoly – A market structure where a single firm accounts for all sales of a particular good.
50. Quality of Life – The general level of human happiness, based on factors like life expectancy and educational standards.
51. Recession – A decline in GDP that lasts for at least two consecutive quarters.
52. Relationship Management – The practice of building and maintaining partnerships with customers.
53. Revenue – The money a company receives from selling goods or services.
54. Risk – The potential to lose time and money or fail to accomplish goals.
55. Savings Bonds – Government bonds issued in relatively small denominations.
56. Seasonal Unemployment – Unemployment that occurs during specific seasons in certain industries.
57. Services – Intangible offerings provided by businesses.
58. Socialism – An economic system in which the basic industries are owned by the government or by the private sector under strong government control.
59. Standard of Living – The general well-being of individuals, measured by income, employment, and access to goods and services.
60. Strategic Alliance – A partnership between companies formed to achieve specific objectives.
61. Structural Unemployment – Unemployment caused by a mismatch between available jobs and the skills of workers.
62. Supply – The quantity of a good or service that businesses will make available at various prices.
63. Supply Curve – A graph showing the quantity of a good or service that businesses will make available at various prices.
64. Technology – The application of science and engineering to solve production and organizational problems.
65. Unemployment Rate – The percentage of the total labor force that is not working but is actively looking for work.
Code of Ethics – A set of guidelines prepared by a firm to provide its employees with the knowledge of what the firm expects in terms of their responsibilities and behavior toward fellow employees, customers, and suppliers.
Corporate Philanthropy – The practice of charitable giving by corporations; includes contributing cash, donating equipment and products, and supporting the volunteer efforts of company employees.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – The concern of businesses for the welfare of society as a whole; consists of obligations beyond those required by law or contracts.
Deontology – A philosophy in which a person follows obligations to an individual or society because upholding one’s duty is ethically correct.
Ethical Issue – A situation where a person must choose from a set of actions that may be ethical or unethical.
Ethics – A set of moral standards for judging whether something is right or wrong.
Justice – What is considered fair according to the prevailing standards of society; an equitable distribution of the burdens and rewards that society has to offer.
Social Investing – The practice of limiting investments to securities of companies that behave in accordance with the investor’s beliefs about ethical and social responsibility to encourage businesses to be more socially responsible.
Stakeholders – Individuals or groups to whom a business has a responsibility; include employees, customers, the general public, and investors.
Strategic Giving – The practice of tying philanthropy and corporate social responsibility efforts closely to a company’s mission or goals and targeting donations to the communities where a company does business.
Utilitarianism – A philosophy that focuses on the consequences of an action to determine whether it is right or wrong; holds that an action that affects the majority adversely is morally wrong.
1. Absolute Advantage – The ability of a country to produce a good at a lower cost than any other country.
2. Balance of Payments – A summary of a country’s international financial transactions, showing the difference between total payments and receipts.
3. Balance of Trade – The difference between the value of a country's exports and the value of its imports during a specific period.
4. Buy-National Regulations – Government rules that give special privileges to domestic manufacturers and retailers.
5. Contract Manufacturing – The practice in which a foreign firm manufactures private-label goods under a domestic firm's brand name.
6. Countertrade – A form of international trade in which part or all of the payment for goods or services is in the form of other goods and services.
7. Devaluation – A lowering of the value of a nation's currency relative to other currencies.
8. Direct Foreign Investment – Active ownership of a foreign company or of manufacturing or marketing facilities in a foreign country.
9. Dumping – The practice of charging a lower price for a product in foreign markets than in the firm's home market.
10. Embargo – A total ban on imports or exports of a product.
11. European Integration – The delegation of limited sovereignty by European Union member states to the EU so that common laws and policies can be created at the European level.
12. European Union (EU) – A trade agreement among 28 European nations that allows free trade among member nations.
13. Exchange Controls – Laws that require a company earning foreign exchange to sell it to a control agency, such as a central bank.
14. Exporting – The practice of selling domestically produced goods to buyers in other countries.
15. Exports – Goods and services produced in one country and sold to other countries.
16. Floating Exchange Rates – A system in which prices of currencies move up and down based upon the demand for and supply of the various currencies.
17. Free Trade – The policy of permitting the people and businesses of a country to buy and sell where they please without restrictions.
18. Free-Trade Zone – An area where the nations allow free, or almost free, trade among each other while imposing tariffs on goods from nations outside the zone.
19. G20 – An informal group of 19 countries and the European Union, representing the world’s largest economies.
20. Global Vision – The ability to recognize and react to international business opportunities, be aware of threats from foreign competition, and effectively use international distribution networks.
21. Import Quota – A limit on the quantity of a certain good that can be imported.
22. Imports – Goods and services that are bought from other countries.
23. Infrastructure – The basic institutions and public facilities upon which an economy’s development depends.
24. International Monetary Fund (IMF) – An international organization founded in 1945 that promotes trade, makes short-term loans to member nations, and acts as a lender of last resort for troubled nations.
25. Joint Venture – An agreement in which a domestic firm buys part of a foreign firm or joins with a foreign firm to create a new entity.
26. Licensing – The legal process whereby a firm agrees to allow another firm to use a manufacturing process, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other proprietary knowledge in exchange for the payment of a royalty.
27. Mercosur – A trade agreement between Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
28. Multinational Corporations (MNCs) – Corporations that move resources, goods, services, and skills across national boundaries without regard to the country in which their headquarters are located.
29. Nationalism – A sense of national consciousness that boosts the culture and interests of one country over those of all other countries.
30. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – A 1993 agreement creating a free-trade zone including Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
31. Outsourcing – The practice of sending work functions to another country, resulting in domestic workers losing their jobs.
32. Preferential Tariff – A tariff that is lower for some nations than for others.
33. Principle of Comparative Advantage – The concept that each country should specialize in the products that it can produce most readily and cheaply and trade those products for those that other countries can produce most readily and cheaply.
34. Protectionism – The policy of protecting home industries from outside competition by establishing artificial barriers such as tariffs and quotas.
35. Protective Tariffs – Tariffs imposed to make imports less attractive to buyers than domestic products.
36. Tariff – A tax imposed on imported goods.
37. Trade Deficit – An unfavorable balance of trade that occurs when a country imports more than it exports.
38. Trade Surplus – A favorable balance of trade that occurs when a country exports more than it imports.
39. Uruguay Round – A 1994 agreement originally signed by 117 nations to lower trade barriers worldwide.
40. World Bank – An international bank that offers low-interest loans, as well as advice and information, to developing nations.
41. World Trade Organization (WTO) – An organization established by the Uruguay Round in 1994 to oversee international trade, reduce trade barriers, and resolve disputes among member nations.