INDEX: A measure of the relative average of a group of items compared to a given base value. Index measures are commonly used in economics to combine and compare diverse measures. One common type of index measure is for prices, such as the Consumer Price Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average of corporate stock prices. Another noted type of index measure is to track macroeconomic activity, especially the index leading economic indicators. Indexes are usually weighted averages rather than simple arithmetic means that are measured relative to a base value or period. The Consumer Price Index, for example, measures the prices of consumer good, weighted by the quantities purchased. The value of a given period is then stated relative to a base year value, which generates a pure, "unitless" number in the range of 100 (give or take).

     See also | Consumer Price Index | Dow Jones averages | Standard & Poor's 500 | NASDAQ | GDP price deflator | leading economic indicator | lagging economic indicator | coincident economic indicator |

INDEX, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2026. [Accessed: March 12, 2026].

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Taxes and transfer payments that depend on the level of aggregate production and income such that they automatically dampen business-cycle instability without the need for discretionary policy action. Automatic stabilizers are a form of nondiscretionary fiscal policy that do not require explicit action by the government sector to address the ups and downs of the business cycle and the problems of unemployment and inflation.

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