Economic Systems
It's the Feds, Man
Let Freedom Ring
The Basics
The Good Ship Enterprise
This & That
100
This economic system is one in which private individuals are more likely to gain wealth.
What is a market/free market economy?
100
Unemployment compensation is an example of this type of good or service that government provides in order to limit negative economic consequences.
What is a "safety net"?
100
These exist to allow people to buy what they need to consume and sell the specialized goods and services they produce.
What are markets?
100
This is the primary incentive for manufacturers to sell their products.
What is profit?
100
This philosopher explained the concept of laissez-faire capitalism in his book "The Wealth of Nations".
Who was Adam Smith?
100
This country is an example of a mixed economy that favors the free market.
What is the United States?
(Canada and the United Kingdom are also acceptable.)
200
This economic system is one in which the government makes all the decisions.
What is a centrally planned/command economy?
200
This is one way the government affects the physical flow of factors of production and/or goods and services in a mixed economy.
What is purchasing goods and services from firms?
(Purchasing factors of production from households is also acceptable.)
200
This term, which describes a person's own individual gain, is the central motivating factor in a free market economy.
What is self interest?
200
These are the three key economic questions.
200
This is a shared good or service such as national defense, for which it would be impractical to make consumers pay individually and to exclude nonpayers.
What is a public good?
200
The inability of producers of goods and services to respond to consumer signals is one of the major disadvantages of this type of economy.
What is a command (or centrally planned) economy?
300
This economic system is based on agriculture and job roles passed from one generation to the next.
What is a traditional economy?
300
Traditionally, this is the primary role that the federal government plays in regard to the operation of U.S. oil refineries.
What is regulation of pollution?
300
This economic process serves as the primary regulating force in the free market.
What is competition?
300
This term was used by Adam Smith to describe the idea that by pursuing their own self-interest, individuals help the economy grow.
What is the "invisible hand"?
300
In the free enterprise system, the role of these actors is to signal producers concerning what and how much to produce.
What are consumers?
300
Unlike socialism, this free market-based economic system stresses the importance of private ownership of business.
What is capitalism?
400
This economic system is intended to balance the protection of both individual and social rights.
What is a mixed economy?
400
In a free market economy, this is one way the government helps increase economic productivity.
What is encouraging innovation?
400
Converting land, labor, and capital into goods and services is one of the functions of these components of the free market economy.
What are firms?
(Companies or producers are also acceptable.)
400
These four types of resources are sometimes called "the four factors of production".
What are land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship?
400
This term is used to describe a beneficial side effect created by a particular good or service, such as a lower unemployment rate and new small businesses that follow creation of a large manufacturing plant.
What is a positive externality?
400
In a command economy, natural resource extraction is controlled by this organization, which is responsible for answering the basic economic questions of the society.
What is the State or central government?
500
Under Marx's original vision for this centrally planned economic system, all property would collectively belong to the people.
What is communism?
500
Economic policies of the federal government that serve to stimulate a contracting economy or cool a rapidly expanding one are intended to stabilize this economic process.
What is a business cycle?
500
These two groups are the primary beneficiaries of a free market economy.
What are producers and consumers?
500
The key function of an economic system is to ensure that these are produced and distributed.
What are goods and services?
500
In a laissez-faire system, this group is forced to compete for access to resources.
What are producers?
500
This economic goal is one that both communist and socialist systems try to achieve.
What is economic equity?