Study Skills
Note Making for Economists
- Overview
- General
- Resources
- Supply and demand
- Theory of the Firm
- Utility Theories
- National Income
- Macro Model
- Money
- International
Overview
Note taking is a personal thing. There is no right way or wrong way of summarising information.
Selective use of abbreviations can help. For example:
an increase in price leads to a fall in quantity demanded can be captured as
Here is a checklist of useful abbreviations which you can adapt for your own course:
General
| change in |
| leads to |
| > | greater than | < | less than |
| therefore |
| because |
| decrease |
| increase |
| % | percentage |
| infinity |
| good | x | bad |
Resources
| L | Labour | Ln | Land |
| K | Capital | ||
| r | Interest Rate | W | Wages |
Supply and demand
| D | Demand | QD | Quantity Demanded |
| DD | Demand Curve | Y | Income |
| Ps | Price of a substitute | Pc | Price of a complement |
| S | Supply | QS | Quantity Supplied |
| SS | Supply Curve | U | Unforseen circumstance |
| Js | Joint Supply | Cs | Competitive Supply |
| P | Price | EMP | Equilibrium Market Price |
| Ti | Indirect tax | Su | Subsidy |
| PED | Price Elasticity of Demand | PES | Price Elasticity of Supply |
| YED | Income Elasticity of Demand | XED | Cross Elasticity of Demand |
Theory of the Firm
| MPP | Marginal Physical Product | MRP | Marginal Revenue Product |
| AP | Average Product | TP | TotalProduct |
| TC | Total Cost | FC | Fixed Cost |
| VC | Variable Cost | AC | |
| AFC | Average Fixed Cost | LAC | Long run Average Cost |
| TR | Total Revenue | AR | Average Revenue |
| MR | Marginal Revenue | ||
| Abnormal Profit |
| Normal Profit |
| Subnormal Profit | ||
| EOS | Economies of Scale | DOS | Diseconomies of Scale |
| tp | Time Period | tp + 1 | Next Time Period |
Utility Theories
| TU | Total Utility | MU | Marginal Utility |
| IC | Indifference Curve | MRS | Marginal Rate of Substitution |
| ICC | Income Consumption Curve | PCC | Price Consumption Curve |
| CBA | Cost Benefit Analysis | PDV | Present Discounted Value |
National Income
| NY | National Income | NQ | National Output |
| NEX | National Expenditure | AMD | Aggregate Monetary Demand |
| RNY | Real National Income | MNY | Money National Income |
| GDP | Gross Domestic Product | GNP | Gross National Product |
| NNP | Net National Product |
Macro Model
| C | Consumption | S | Saving |
| I | Investment | ||
| G | Government | T | Taxation |
| X | Exports | M | Imports |
| J | Injections | W | Withdrawals |
| b | Marginal Propensity to Consume | s | Marginal Propensity to Save |
| t | Marginal Rate of Taxation | w | Marginal Propensity to Withdraw |
| m | Marginal Propensity to Import | U | Unemployment |
| P | Rate of Inflation | Pe | Inflationary expectations |
| k | Multiplier | kT | Tax Multiplier |
| NI | Nationalised Industry | ||
| PSBR | Public Sector Borrowing Requirement |
Money
| Ms | Money Supply | MD | Demand for Money |
| BOE | Bank of England | OMO | Open Market Operations |
| Al | Liquid Asset | Ai | Illiquid Asset |
| Reserve Asset Ratio |
| Credit Creation Multiplier |
International
| BOP | Balance of Payments | TOT | Terms of Trade |
| ER | Exchange Rate | $/£ | Sterling exchange rate |
| FEM | Foreign Exchange Market | ||
| DC | Developed Country | LDC | Less Developed Country |