AG EC 450 - Glossary

AG EC 450 - International Development, Renewable Resources, and the Environment

30 terms were found starting with the letter a.

Absolute Advantage: The ability of one country to produce a particular good or service using fewer resources (and therefore at lower cost) than another country.
Ad Valorem Tariff: A charge levied on imports, defined in terms of a fixed percentage of value.
Adaptability: As used in the climate change literature, the degree to which adjustments are possible in the practices, processes or structure of a system (e.g., an ecosystem or an economic system) in response to climate change.
Administered Price: A price fixed by policy makers in order to determine, directly or indirectly, domestic market or producer prices.
Adverse Selection: A transaction in which the seller has relevant information that the buyer does not have, or vice versa. Also refers to the tendency for buyers or sellers to exploit these asymmetries in information to their own advantage. For example, someone with a dangerous occupation or hobby may be more likely to apply for life insurance.
Advertising to Sales Ratio: A firm's or industry's advertising expenditure expressed as a percent of its sales. It is a measure of the importance of advertising to the firm's or industry's marketing effort.
Afforestation: The establishment of a forest in an area not previously forested, or on land on which forest cover has long been absent.
Age-Adjusted Birth Rate: The crude birth rate adjusted to account for the fact that the age distribution of a country may differ from the age distribution of the average country. For example, a country could have a high birth rate simply because a relatively high percentage of its women were in their child-bearing years (typically defined as ages 15-44 or 15-49).
Age-Adjusted Death Rate: The death rate adjusted to account for the fact that the age distribution of a country may differ from the age distribution of the average country. For example, a country could have a high death rate simply because a relatively high percentage of its citizens were very old.
Agglomeration Economies: Economies of scale resulting from the concentration of people and production in urban areas.
Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS): An index that measures the monetary value of the extent of government support to a sector. The AMS, as defined in the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, includes both budgetary outlays as well as revenue transfers from consumers to producers as a result of policies that distort market prices.
Agreement on Agriculture: Part of the Uruguay Round trade agreement covering issues related to agriculture (e.g., market access, export subsidies, and internal support).
Agricultural Experiment Station: A center or station at which scientists conduct agricultural research. The College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State is an example of an agricultural experiment station.
Agricultural Extension: The provision of information to farmers on agricultural production technologies designed to increase production, protect natural resources and the environment, or achieve some other objective.
Agricultural Research: The application of scientific theories and techniques to agriculture in order to develop new technologies that can increase production, protect natural resources and the environment, or achieve some other objective.
Agricultural Sector: The part of the economy consisting of agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing.
Allocative Efficiency: A firm is allocatively efficient if it chooses the quantities of inputs into production in order to maximize profits, taking the production technology and degree of technical efficiency as given. The degree of allocative efficiency is the extent to which a firm comes close to achieving the ideal of allocative efficiency.
Altruism: In economics, when one person's utility depends on the utility of another person. Unlike someone who is paternalistic, an altruistic person does not dispute another person's choices or question why another person derives utility from the consumption of particular goods or services.
Altruistic Value: The economic value attached by one person to another person's use or enjoyment of an environmental or natural resource.
Announcement Effect: A change in a market price or other economic variable that occurs following the announcement of some future action or event. For example, if the USDA announces that the soybean harvest this year will be larger than expected, market and futures prices of soybeans will fall.
Anthropogenic: Of human origin.
Appropriate Technology: Technology appropriate for the factor endowment in a particular country. For example, developing countries usually have a relatively large labor force and relatively little investment capital, so that labor-intensive technologies are usually the most appropriate for them.
Arbitrage: The simultaneous purchase and sale of similar commodities to take advantage of price discrepancies between markets.
Arbitration: The procedure of settling disputes between two or more parties.
Asian Development Bank (ADB): A regional development bank established in 1966 to promote economic and social development in Asian and Pacific countries through loans and technical assistance. Currently has 67 member countries.
Autarky: A policy of complete economic self-reliance - no trade or investment activities with the rest of the world.
Average Cost: Usually refers to average total cost, which is the total cost of production of a good or service (including the costs of fixed inputs and variable inputs) divided by the quantity produced.
Average Product: The total quantity of output divided the total quantity of some input. For example, the average product of labor in wheat production is the total output of wheat divided by the number of hours of labor used to produce wheat.
Average Total Cost: The total cost of production of a good or service (including the costs of fixed inputs and variable inputs) divided by the quantity produced.
Average Variable Cost: The cost of production of a good or service, taking into account the costs of all variable inputs but not the costs of any fixed inputs, divided by the quantity produced.