Marginal Propensity to Consume: The proportion of each additional dollar of household income that is used for consumption expenditures. Or alternatively, this is the change in consumption expenditures due to a change in disposable income. Abbreviated MPC, the marginal propensity to consume is the slope of the consumption or propensity-to-consume line that forms the foundation for Keynesian economics. As such, it also takes center stage for the slope of the aggregate expenditure line and the multiplier effect. The sum of the marginal propensity to consume and the related concept, the marginal propensity to save, is equal to one.
Misery Index: The sum of the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. For example, a 5 percent unemployment rate and a 3 percent inflation rate gives us a misery index of 8. This index was developed during the 1970s when inflation and unemployment were both moving in the upward direction.
Money Illusion: The erroneous perception that a change in nominal wages or income results in an equal change in real wages or income. Money illusion occurs due to a difference between the actual prices and perceived prices. In particular, people usually have better information about nominal wages or income received than the prices paid for goods and services. For example, a worker might receive a 10 percent increase in nominal wages view this as a 10 percent increase in real wages (and living standard) by failing to recognize that the price level in the economy has also increased by 10 percent. Money illusion is one reason underlying the positive slope of the short-run aggregate supply curve.
Moral Suasion: Government policy in which policy makers or leaders encourage or discourage particular behavior using information requests of consumers, business, and others, without formal actions such as laws or regulations. The use of moral suasion can be somewhat effective during short-term crises situations, such as wars, energy shortages, or financial instability. Moral suasion is occasionally used for monetary policy when the Federal Reserve System doesn’t want to, or have the time to, use other monetary policy tools.
Multiplier:The cumulatively reinforcing interaction between consumption and production that amplifies changes in investment, government spending, or exports. In other words, if businesses decide to increase investment expenditures on capital goods or if government decides to expand the size of the already bloated federal deficit by spending more on national defense, then our economy’s production and income are likely to increase by some multiple of this spending. The amplified increase in production and income, usually from 2 to 5 times, is what gives us the term "multiplier." The process is based on the circular flow idea the people receive income by producing goods and then spend this income on additional production.
All definitions are provided by AmosWeb.
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