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BENEFIT-COST RATIO: The benefit of an activity per dollar of cost. Benefit-cost ratios (or alternatively cost-benefit ratios) are frequently estimated for many forms of government spending, as well as a growing number of business investments. This technique was originally developed to determine if public investment projects, like dams, public parks, highways, etc., were worth doing. The logic is simple -- If benefits are greater than costs, then the project is worthwhile, if they are less, then it isn't.
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AUTOMATIC STABILIZERS: A feature of the federal government's budget that tends to reduce the ups and downs of the business cycle without the need for any special legislative action, that is stabilization policies. The two key automatic stabilizers are income taxes and transfer payments. When our economy drops into a recession, unemployment rises, aggregate output declines, and people have less income. But with less income, they pay fewer income taxes, and thus there's less of a drain on consumption than their might have been. Likewise, many who are unemployed get transfer payments in the form of unemployment compensation, welfare, or Social Security. This lets them consume more than they would have otherwise. During an expansion, both of these go in the other direction. As a result, a recession sees more spending and fewer taxes, while an expansion has less spending and more taxes, all occurring quite automatically. See also | business cycle | stabilization policies | fiscal policy | transfer payment | unemployment compensation | welfare | income tax | business cycle | contraction | expansion | consumption | income | aggregate output |
Recommended Citation:AUTOMATIC STABILIZERS, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: December 14, 2025].
AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia:Additional information on this term can be found at: WEB*pedia: automatic stabilizers
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POSITIVE ECONOMICS The branch of economics that seeks to explain the way the economy actually operates. It is the application of the scientific method and the process of testing hypothesis to economic phenomena. A positive economic statement is one that can be refuted by looking at the real world--that is, by testing a hypothesis.
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BROWN PRAGMATOX
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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time at a going out of business sale hoping to buy either any book written by Isaac Asimov or a how-to book on building remote controlled airplanes. Be on the lookout for cardboard boxes.
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The word "fiscal" is derived from a Latin word meaning "moneybag."
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"In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love." -- Igor Stravinsky, violinist
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SSRN
Social Science Research Network
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