Economic Glossary

Borders are open if  people, goods, services and money can move from one place to another without costs or restrictions.

How open or closed a border is has got a lot to do with the economy. Big areas of economics are about things and people crossing borders, including trade, immigration, tourism and the international financial system.

Property is anything that can be owned. It can be physical (houses, cars, fountain pens, guinea pigs etc.) or intellectual (copyrights, patents etc.). Usually, the ownership of a piece of property can be transferred, sold or shared. Property therefore underpins many economic transactions. Getting on the housing ladder, depositing cash in your savings account or gifting your partner a puppy are all economic events that rely on an assumption that houses, money and dogs are property which can be owned.

A market is free if people can buy and sell whatever they want without any interference from a government, and if prices are set by supply and demand. Supply is how much of a product is being sold. Demand is how much of that product is being bought.

A green belt is an section of undeveloped land which encircles a city. Building on it is forbidden or severely restricted. Their purpose is to give town-dwellers easy access to large natural spaces, protect the environment and prevent urban sprawl.

The word “local” is an odd one. We all think we know what it means, yet when we try to define it it becomes clear that the term’s a little more slippery than it first appears. It conjures up the idea of something – or someone – that is tied to a particular area, but it is often also used as a shorthand for deep-rooted connections to a place that go beyond mere location. 

A black market is when people buy and sell things without informing their government or following their government’s rules. The terms ‘shadow economy’ and ‘underground economy’ mean the same thing: all three phrases are used interchangeably.

The tragedy of the commons is a theory that if lots of people have unlimited access to some shared resource, they’ll quickly use it all up and leave everybody worse off. It has been used as an argument for establishing (or increasing) property rights, privatisation, and government regulation.