宏经名词解释

1 Macroeconomics: the study of the economy as a whole, attempts to answer these and many related

questions. Gross domestic product (GDP):is the total market value of all final goods and services produced in an economy (within a country) in a given (usually one-year) period of time. Value added: The value of a firm’s output minus the value of the intermediate goods the firm

purchased. Real GDP: is the value of goods and services measured using a constant set of prices.

GDP deflator: The ratio of nominal GDP to real GDP; a measure of the overall level of prices that

shows the cost of the currently produced basket of goods relative to the cost of that basket in a base year. Consumer price index (CPI): A measure of the overall level of prices that shows the cost of a fixed

basket of consumer goods relative to the cost of the same basket in a base year. Unemployment rate: The percentage of those in the labor force who do not have jobs. Labor-force participation rate: The percentage of the adult population in the labor force. Disposable income: Income remaining after the payment of taxes.

Marginal propensity to consume(MPC): The increase in consumption resulting from a one-dollar

increase in disposable income. Real interest rate: The return to saving and the cost of borrowing after adjustment for inflation. (Cf.

nominal interest rate.) Inflation: An increase in the overall level of prices. (Cf. deflation, disinflation.) Hyperinflation: Extremely high inflation. Money: The stock of assets used for transactions. (Cf. commodity money, fiat money.)

Fiat money: Money that is not intrinsically useful and is valued only because it is used as money. (Cf.

commodity money, money.) Commodity money: Money that is intrinsically useful and would be valued even if it did not serve as

money. (Cf. fiat money, money.) Money supply: The quantity of money available in an economy is called the money supply.

Quantity equation: The identity stating that the product of the money supply and the velocity of

money equals nominal expenditure (MV _ PY ); coupled with the assumption of stable velocity, an explanation of nominal expenditure called the quantity theory of money. Income velocity of money: the number of times a dollar bill enters someone’s income in a given

period of time. Real money balances: The quantity of money expressed in terms of the quantity of goods and

services it can buy; the quantity of money divided by the price level (M/P). Seigniorage: The revenue raised by the government through the creation of money; also called the

inflation tax. Fisher equation: The equation stating that the nominal interest rate is the sum of the real interest

rate and expected inflation (i = r + Eπ). Fisher effect: The one-for-one influence of expected inflation on the nominal interest rate.

Shoeleather costs: The cost of inflation from reducing real money balances, such as the

inconvenience of needing to make more frequent trips to the bank. Menu costs: The cost of changing a price. Classical dichotomy: The theoretical separation of real and nominal variables in the classical model,

which implies that nominal variables do not influence real variables. (Cf. neutrality of money.) 2

Monetary neutrality: The property that a change in the money supply does not influence real

variables. (Cf. classical dichotomy.) Natural rate of unemployment: The steady-state rate of unemployment; the rate of

unemployment toward which the economy gravitates in the long run. Frictional unemployment: The unemployment that results because it takes time for workers to

search for the jobs that best suit their skills and tastes. (Cf. structural unemployment.) Wage rigidity: The failure of wages to adjust to equilibrate labor supply and labor demand. Structural unemployment: The unemployment resulting from wage rigidity and job rationing. (Cf.

frictional unemployment.) Efficiency wages: high wages make workers more productive.

Steady state: A condition in which key variables are not changing. Golden Rule level of capital: The steady-state value of k that maximizes consumption. Okun’s law: The negative relationship between unemployment and real GDP, according to which a

decrease in unemployment of 1 percentage point is associated with additional growth in real GDP of approximately 2 percent. Aggregate demand：is the relationship between the quantity of output demanded and the

aggregate price level. Aggregate supply：is the relationship between the quantity of goods and services supplied and the