Nash equilibrium – An equilibrium where each player takes
the best possible actions based on the action taken by the other player.
National debt – A stock measure. The total amount the federal government
borrowed to make expenditures that exceeds the total revenue received from
taxes. This total is added up every year
and is the sum total of all past government budget surpluses and deficits.
National income – The total income earned by the factors of
production owned by a certain country’s citizens.
Natural monopoly – A monopoly that arises because a single
firm can meet the entire market demand for a good or service at a lower average
total cost than two or more firms could.
Natural rate of unemployment – The unemployment rate that
occurs as a normal part of the economy.
Sometimes taken as the sum of frictional and structural unemployment and
is very difficult to lower with government policy.
Near monies – Close substitutes for transactions money,
including savings and money market accounts.
Needs-tested spending – The act of spending on programs that
entitle qualified people and businesses to receive benefits.
Negative demand shock – An event that causes a negative
shift in consumption or investment that leads to a decrease in exports.
Negative externality – A production or consumption activity
that imposes a cost on a third party not directly involved in the transaction.
Negative relationship – A relationship between two variables
where a decrease in one variable is associated with an increase in the other
variable. Or, they move in opposite
directions (downward sloping on the X Y graph).
Net business transfer payments – Net transfer payments by
businesses to others.
Net domestic product at factor cost – The sum of all wages,
interest, rents, and profits.
Net exports (exports – imports, or X – M) – The difference
between exports (sales to foreign countries) and imports (purchases from
foreign countries). The result may be
positive (trade surplus) or negative (trade deficit).
Net interest – The interest payments made by businesses.
Net investment – Gross investment minus depreciation.
Net national product (NNP) – A nation’s total product minus
what is required to maintain the value
of its capital stock (some capital will
depreciate each year and must be replaced).
Net taxes (T-TR) – Taxes paid by firms and households to the
government minus the transfer payments made to households and firms by the
government.
Nominal GDP – The gross domestic product of a nation
measured in current dollars (or domestic currency).
Nominal wage rate – The wage rate in current dollars (or
domestic currency).
Nondurable goods – The goods that are used quickly, such as
food, toiletries, clothing, and other common household supplied.
Nonlabor income, nonwage income – All income received other
than from working. This includes rents,
dividends, interest, inheritances, transfer payments, welfare, etc.
Nonresidential investment – Expenditures by firms for
physical capital, such as machines, tools, factories, etc.
Nonsynchronization of income and spending – The difference
in timing between when a household earns money and when it spends it on goods
and services.
Normal goods – Goods that you will consume more of when
income rises (an increase in demand), and will consume less of when income
declines (a decrease in demand). Also
see: Inferior goods.
Normal profit – The anticipated return to
entrepreneurship. Normal profit is part
of a firm’s opportunity cost because it is the cost of not working at another
firm.
Normative economics – An approach to economics that analyzes
the outcomes of economic behavior and analyzes them as being either good or
bad. The approach may also suggest
different courses of action and can also be called policy economics.
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – An agreement
signed by the United States, Canada, and Mexico where each country agrees to
establish North America as a free-trade zone.
Not in the labor force – A person who is not actively
looking for work because they do not want a job or have given up in searching
for a job.
