Meaning & use
disequilibrium economics
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Meanings
noununcountabletechnicalfinance
The branch of economics that studies markets when supply and demand do not settle at one stable price.
Grammar: Uncountable: use it with no article, as in "Disequilibrium economics explains why prices can jump around."
Patterns
- disequilibrium economics explains something
- a model of disequilibrium economics
- in disequilibrium economics
Disequilibrium economics asks what happens when buyers and sellers never agree on a single price.
Her textbook on disequilibrium economics spends three chapters on stubborn unemployment.
In disequilibrium economics, wages may stay high even when many workers cannot find jobs.
noununcountabletechnical
A way of analyzing an economy in which prices or quantities are prevented from adjusting to their market-clearing level.
Grammar: Often used after "a" when a particular style of analysis is meant: "a disequilibrium economics of fixed prices."
Patterns
- a disequilibrium economics of something
- disequilibrium economics assumes something
A disequilibrium economics of fixed prices can explain long queues for goods.
The paper builds a disequilibrium economics in which rents are set by law.
Critics say this disequilibrium economics ignores how quickly firms can change what they charge.
Common combinations
- disequilibrium economics model
- The disequilibrium economics model shows prices stuck above the level that clears the market.
- the theory of disequilibrium economics
- The theory of disequilibrium economics grew out of work on fixed prices in planned economies.
- disequilibrium economics approach
- Their disequilibrium economics approach treats slow price changes as the normal case.
- study disequilibrium economics
- Graduate students often study disequilibrium economics alongside general equilibrium theory.
- disequilibrium economics literature
- The disequilibrium economics literature of the 1970s focused on rationing.
Synonyms and how they differ
- non-market-clearing theory
- A broader label for models where supply and demand are not equal; it covers more than the fixed-price case that disequilibrium economics usually stresses.
- disequilibrium theory
- A shorter phrase with much the same meaning; it can also apply to single markets rather than the whole field.
Opposites
Word family
- disequilibrium noun
- A state in which supply and demand, or any two forces, are not balanced.
- equilibrium noun
- A state of balance in which opposing forces or amounts are equal.
- disequilibrium price noun
- A price at which the amount offered does not equal the amount wanted.
- economist noun
- A person who studies or works with economics.
- economic adjective
- Relating to trade, industry, money and the production of goods.
Commonly confused: disequilibrium economics or equilibrium economics? disequilibrium economics or disequilibrium?
disequilibrium economics vs equilibrium economics
This is the opposite field: it studies markets that do settle at a stable price. Do not drop the prefix dis- if you mean the unbalanced case.
disequilibrium economics vs disequilibrium
The single word names a state of imbalance; the longer phrase names the academic subject that studies such states.
Practice
Which sentence uses "disequilibrium economics" correctly?
Choose one answer.
The term is uncountable and names a subject, so it takes a singular verb and no article: "Disequilibrium economics is useful..." Option A has a plural verb, and options B and D wrongly treat it as a countable object you can write or buy.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “disequilibrium economics”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.