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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Tariff | A tax imposed on the purchase of imports, usually to stimulate more domestic production of the product and meet domestic demand through local production. |
| Taxes | Compulsory government levies collected to pay for public spending, including income, corporate, sales, wealth, payroll, and environmental taxes. Different types of taxes have varying impacts on the economy and different groups within it. |
| Technology | Knowledge collectively possessed by humans regarding how to produce goods and services more efficiently. |
| Terms of Trade | The ratio of the average price of a country’s exports to the average price of its imports. An improvement in terms of trade theoretically raises a country’s real income, depending on how the gains are distributed. |
| Theory of the Firm | Economic theories explaining and predicting the nature, behavior, structure, and relationship of a firm, company, or corporation, including its existence in the market. |
| Thermoeconomics | Also known as biophysical economics, it is a school of heterodox economics applying the laws of statistical mechanics to economic theory. |
| Time Value of Money | The widely accepted concept that receiving a sum of money now is more beneficial than receiving an identical sum later. It is related to the concept of time preference. |
| Total Cost | In economics, the cost function producing the minimum amount of costs associated with producing a vector of outputs. Total cost is the sum of fixed costs and variable costs. |
| Total Surplus | The sum of producer surplus and consumer surplus. |
| Trade | The transfer of goods or services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. A system or network that allows trade is referred to as a market. |
| Tradeable | A product (good or service) is tradeable if its purchaser can buy it far away from the place where it is produced. Most goods and certain services (e.g., tourism, specialized financial, business, and educational services) are considered tradeable. |
| Traditional Economy | An economy in which production and distribution follow long-standing cultural traditions. |
| Transaction Cost | A cost incurred in making any economic trade when participating in a market. |
| Transfer Payments | Government redistribution of a share of tax revenues back to specified groups of individuals through social programs like welfare benefits, unemployment insurance, public pensions, or child benefits. These payments supplement the market income of households receiving them. |
| Transport Economics | A branch of economics dealing with the allocation of resources within the transport sector. |
| Trough | In economics, a trough is a low turning point or a local minimum of a business cycle. It represents a period of low economic activity before a recovery. |