Microsoft Word Web glossary doc

 
Poverty: A state of having inadequate income or other resources to support a household or 
group of households at a basic standard of living. Poverty can be measured in absolute or 
relative terms. 
 
Poverty Rate: The proportion of individuals or households in a jurisdiction which are defined 
as poor, according to either absolute or relative definitions of poverty. 
 
Pre-Funded Pension: A pension plan in which funds are accumulated and invested throughout 
an individual’s working life in order to pay for the subsequent disbursement of pension benefits 
after that person has retired. Pre-funded pensions can be individual or collective (ie. pooled) in 
nature; individual pre-funded pensions are similar to individual savings accounts. 
 
Preferences: According to neoclassical economic theory, individuals’ preferences regarding the 
sorts of consumer goods they most enjoy will exercise an ultimate influence on both the 
composition of output in the economy, and the prices paid for final products and factors of 
production. 
 
Price Level: The overall average level of nominal prices in the economy can be calculated, 
most often as a weighted average of the prices of individual goods and services (with weightings 
reflecting the importance of each product in overall spending or output). Price levels can be 
calculated for consumer spending, for wholesale trade, for producer inputs, or for any other 
category of production. The most common measures of the overall price level are the consumer 
price index and the gross domestic product deflator. 
 
Primary Products: Products which are harvested directly from the natural environment, with 
minimal subsequent processing, are considered primary products. These typically include 
agricultural, fishing, forestry, mineral, and energy products.