Economics/Glossary

"(more specialised glossaries are available on the Related Articles subpages of other economics articles)

• Adverse selection [r]: a partial market failure that occurs when there are traders who take advantage of asymmetric information, raising uncertainty and leading to a reduction in the value of its products. ^[e]
• Arbitrage [r]: transactions to take advantage of a price differences of a product in different markets by buying where it is cheap and selling where it is dear. The possibility of arbitrage often prevents the occurrence of price differences. ^[e]
• Asymmetric information [r]: a situation in which a seller has information that is not available to potential buyers - or vice-versa. ^[e]
• Automatic stabilisers [r]: the tendency in times of falling economic activity for the government spending to rise, and for tax receipts to fall - and the reverse tendency in times of rising economic activity ^[e]
• "Bad bank" [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Banking panic [r]: A widespread fear of insolvency because of uncertainty concerning the true value of banking assets. ^[e]
•  Base money - see Monetary base
• Basis point [r]: (bp) one hundredth of a percentage point . ^[e]
• Beta [r]: A measure of the degree to which the rate of return of a share tracks that of the equity market as a whole (defined as the covariance between the share's rate of return and the average market rate, divided by the variance of the market rate). If beta = 1 the share's rate of return moves in line with the market rate; if it is negative, it falls when the market rate rises. ^[e]
• Bill (finance) [r]: {a) A loan with a duration of no more than a year (b)a documentary record of short-term indebtedness. ^[e]
• Bill of Exchange [r]: A written order to pay the holder a stated sum of money at a stated date (otherwise known as a "draft", the person who is paid being termed the "drawer"). ^[e]
• Bond (finance) [r]: a fixed-interest security issued by governments, companies, banks and others. ^[e]
• Budget balance [r]: the difference between a central government's revenue and its expenditure in a given financial year. Conventions differ concerning the items that are included, and various cyclical adjustments can be made to identify its discretionary element.. ^[e]
• Budget deficit [r]: the excess of a government's expenditures over its receipts. See also cyclically-adjusted budget deficit ^[e]
• Capital (banking) [r]: A bank's assets minus its liabilities. ^[e]
• Carry trading [r]: the practice of borrowing at a low interest rate in order to invest at a higher interest rate, or of selling the currency of a country that has low interest rates and buying the currency of a country that has high interest rates. ^[e]
•  CDS - see Credit Default Swap
• CDS spread [r]: the annual percentage charge for a credit default swap ^[e]
• Central Bank [r]: A government agency that is responsible for monetary policy and the support of the banking system (for example the Federal Reserve Board and the Bank of England). Usually responsible for controlling a country's monetary policy and preserving the value of its currency. ^[e]
• Commercial paper [r]: unsecured debt_instruments that are issued by corporations to meet short term financing needs (usually repayable after 3 months). ^[e]
• Contagion (banking) [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Consumer surplus [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Corporation [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Cost_of_capital [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Covariance [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Credit crunch [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Credit default swap [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Credit risk [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Crowding out [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Currency board [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Cyclically-adjusted budget deficit [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Debt_instrument [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Debt trap [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Deflation [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Deleveraging [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Derivative [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Discount window [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Discount_rate [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Fallacy of composition (economics) [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Fiat money [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Financial asset [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Financial_Intermediary [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Financial_regulator [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Fiscal gap [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Fiscal stimulus [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Fiscal sustainability [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Freddie Mac [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Full employment deficit [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Generational accounts [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Great moderation [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Hedging [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Herding (banking) [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Insolvency [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Interbank market [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Interest rate risk [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Internal rate of return [r]: Add brief definition or description
• IS-LM model [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Lender of last resort [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Leverage [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Liquidity [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Liquidity trap [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Margin account [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Margin call [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Market risk [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Monetary base [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Monetisation (of public debt) [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Money market [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Money supply [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Moral hazard [r]: Add brief definition or description
• National debt [r]: Add brief definition or description
• National Debt - Maastricht definition [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Net present value [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Option [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Output gap [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Portfolio insurance [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Primary budget deficit [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Prime rate [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Quantitative easing [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Random_walk [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Recession (economics) [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Reserve ratio [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Redemption yield [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Ricardian equivalence [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Risk premium [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Run (banking) [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Securitisation [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Selling short [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Sovereign default [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Sovereign spread [r]: Add brief definition or description
•  Spread - see Yield spread
• Standard deviation [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Standardised budget deficit [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Structured investment vehicle [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Supply-side measures [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Systemic failure (finance) [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Value at risk [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Variance [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Warrant [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Yield spread [r]: Add brief definition or description