No Free Lunch: Economics for a Fallen World: Third Edition, Revised

Appendix A Definition Index 489 Subsidy: a payment made by the government to encourage a particular behavior or outcome. (Chapter 13—Flower Power!) Subsistence wages: the lowest wage upon which a worker and his or her family can survive. (Chapter 17—A Short Walk Through Economic History) Substitutes: goods that share similar characteristics such that one good may reasonably replace the other. (Chapter 3—A Deeper Dive into Concepts for Demand) Sunk cost: a past expenditure that cannot be recovered by any action taken in the present. Sunk costs are therefore not part of the decision calculus. (Chapter 4—Supply and Costs) Supply side economics: focuses on the institutions and incentives that lead people to work, save, and invest. (Chapter 17—Macroeconomics Today: Demand vs. Supply Side) T Technologically efficient: A firm is said to be technologically efficient if it cannot increase output without additional resource inputs. (Chapter 7—Profit Maximization) Time preference: the observation that people prefer consumption today over consumption of a similar item at a point in the future. (Chapter 12—Loanable Funds Framework) Total costs: the sum of all fixed and variable costs for a firm. (Chapter 7—Short Run Costs) Total fixed costs: the sum of all a firm’s fixed costs. Fixed costs are those that do not vary as quantity produced changes (such as insurance on a particular facility). (Chapter 7—Short Run Costs) Total revenues: the monetary value of all sales, equal to the price of each sale multiplied by the sales price. If there is only one good and one price, total revenues equals the price multiplied by the quantity sold. (Chapter 3—A Deeper Dive into Concepts for Demand: Elasticity) Trade surplus: This occurs when exports of goods and services produced in a country are greater than imports. (Chapter 15—Balance of Payments) Trade deficit: This occurs when exports of goods and services produced in a country are less than imports. (Chapter 15—Balance of Payments)