Microsoft Word Web glossary doc

 
Private Equity: A form of business in which the company’s entire equity base is owned by one 
or a small group of individual investors. Under the private equity model, the company does not 
issue shares onto the stock market, and hence is not usually required to release public financial 
statements or comply with other securities regulations. Private equity firms are generally 
considered to be more ruthlessly focused on generating shorter-term cash profits from their 
operations than joint stock companies. 
 
Product Markets: The markets where produced goods and services are bought and sold 
(distinguished from markets for factors of production). 

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Production: The process by which human labour (or “work”) is applied, usually with the help 
of tools and other forms of capital, to produce useful goods or services. 
 
Production, for Profit: Under capitalism, most production is undertaken by private companies 
(of various forms), with the goal of generating a profit to the company’s owners. Profit is 
attained when the company’s output is sold, generating revenue that exceeds the costs of 
production (including labour). 
 
Productivity: In general, productivity measures the effectiveness or efficiency of productive 
effort. Productivity can be measured in many different ways. Physical productivity measures 
the actual amount of a good or service produced (eg. tons of steel, or number of haircuts).
Productivity can also be measured in terms of the value of output. Most commonly, productivity 
is measured as the amount of output produced over a certain period of work (eg. output per 
hour); this is considered a measure of labour productivity. But other approaches are also 
possible, including measurements of capital productivity (output relative to the value or physical 
quantity of invested capital) and “total factor productivity” (which is an abstract statistical 
measurement of the overall effectiveness of production).