50 Economics Ideas You Really Need to Know

List the economics ideas that you think are the most important in the field. These are taken from the book "50 Economics Ideas You Really Need to Know" by Edmund Conway. I tried to allow for different answer variations, but I have only take an introductory economics course, so if there are variations that weren't accepted that you think should of, mention it in the comments and I will consider adding it to the accepted answers (Most of these ones won't have variations though). Note: This is part of the 50 Ideas Quizzes and I do not necessarily agree with the list

Quiz by

Rate:

Last updated: March 18, 2014

You have not attempted this quiz yet.

More quiz info >>

First submitted	March 18, 2014
Times taken	415
Average score	10.0%
Report this quiz	Report

Quiz and answer stats >>

Friends stats >>

8:00

Just type the ideas you think are the most important that were discussed in the book. The descriptions correspond to "condensed ideas". Note: some answers have blank and blank. An example that is not an answer is Banks and savings accounts. The answer CAN be in the hint.

/ 50 guessed

The quiz is paused. You have remaining.

Scoring
You scored / = %

      This beats or equals
      % of test takers
      also scored 100%
      
The average score is 

        Your high score is
        
      
Your fastest time is 
more stats >>
friends stats >>

Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...

	Hint	Answer
1	Self-interest is good for society	The invisible hand
2	Something is perfectly priced when supply equals demand	Supply and demand
3	Beware relentless rises in population	The Malthusian trap
4	Time is money	Opportunity cost
5	People respond to incentives	Incentives
6	Concentrate on your specialities	Division of labor
7	Specialization+free trade=win-win	Comparative advantage
8	The least worst way to run an economy	Capitalism
9	Governments should spend to prevent deep recessions	Keynesianism
10	Control the growth of money	Monetarism
11	An egalitarian, entirely state-run society	Communism
12	Individual human choices are paramount	Individualism
13	Higher taxes mean lower growth	Supply-side economics
14	Rational people think at the margin	The marginal revolution
15	Money is a token of trust	Money
16	Micro for business, macro for countries	Micro and macro
17	The key yardstick of a country's economic performance	Gross Domestic Product
18	Central banks steer economies away from booms and busts	Central banks and interest rates
19	Keep prices rising slowly	Inflation
20	Falling prices can cripple an economy	Debt and deflation
21	As inevitable as death	Taxes
22	Zero unemplyment is impossible	Unemployment
23	The barometer of a country's standing	Currencies and exchange rates
24	The ledger of a country's international economic relations	Balance of payments
25	The irreplaceable foundations of society	Trust and the law
26	Deal with oil shortages through intervention	Energy and oil
27	Bonds are the basis of government financing	Bond markets
28	Banks connect borrowers with lenders	Banks
29	Stock markets sit at the heart of capitalism	Stocks and shares
30	Pass risk to those more willing to take it	Risky business
31	Boom and bust are inevitable	Booms and busts
32	Beware promising money you can't give	Pensions and the welfare state
33	Money markets make the world go round	Money markets
34	Humans are addicted to bubbles	Blowing bubbles
35	Economies seize up as credit drieds up	Credit crunches
36	Companies must adapt or die	Creative destruction
37	House prices go down as well as up	Home-owning and house prices
38	Governments are addicted to debt	Government deficits
39	The wealth gap will destablize nations	Inequality
40	Globalization is the adrenaline of capitalism	Globalization
41	Nations can acheive more by working together	Multilateralism
42	The biggest threat to world peace and prosperity	Protectionism
43	Technology is economic fuel	Technological revolutions
44	Aim to pull the bottom billion out of poverty	Development economics
45	Act now to avoid terrible environmental costs	Environmental economics
46	People are predictably irrational	Behavioural economics
47	People behave differently in games	Game theory
48	Economics can apply to everything	Criminomics
49	Economics is not all about money	Happynomics
50	Intervene when people are not rational	21st-Century economics

Level 32

May 14, 2016

This quiz is dire - there is no way that you can know the answers to any of the hints, as the hints are so vague. For example: "Economics can apply to everything" is in no way an appropriate guideline to reach the answer "Criminomics". There's a reason the average score is so low: the hints are absolutely cretinous.

Level 53

Aug 21, 2016

Sorry, but the hints are pretty bad. But this is the first time I have managed to get an answer that 0% of people have gotten!

Level 69

Dec 6, 2018

Some of the answers are pretty obscure and/or so basic that you would never think of them as an answer. Who but the most boring economic historian talks about Monetarism? I have more of a problem with the hints, though. I was tempted to type "I agree" for the answer to almost every question. Questions 3, 6, 7, 9 are examples of good hints. Many of the others were rather silly.

Level 67

Aug 21, 2023

I think "invisible hand" should be accepted. I did not think to type in the definite article...