| Gacha | A Japanese word for a common monetization method in free to play video games. It allows players to spend money in order to receive a random item, power |
| Gains from exchange | The benefits that each party gains from a transaction compared to how they would have fared without the exchange. Also known as: gains from trade. See also: economic rent. |
| Galapagos syndrome | A reference to Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. It refers to the independent development of functionality within isolated markets. |
| Game | A model of strategic interaction that describes the players, the feasible strategies, the information that the players have, and their payoffs. See also: game theory. |
| Game theory | A branch of mathematics that studies strategic interactions, meaning situations in which each actor knows that the benefits they receive depend on the actions taken by all. See also: game. |
| Gatekeeping | The prevention of use or purchase of a given good. Some vendors perform this behavior to increase an item’s exclusivity or prevent association with parties who share undesirable characteristics. |
| Gdp deflator | A measure of the level of prices for domestically produced output. This is the ratio of nominal (or current price) GDP to real (or constant price) GDP. |
| General partnership | A business that is owned by two or more persons. |
| General-purpose technologies | Technological advances that can be applied to many sectors, and spawn further innovations. Information and communications technology (ICT), and electricity are two common examples. |
| Geocoding | A system for assigning a census code to any name and address. Once a file is geocoded, you can append census data (income, race, etc.) to the records and assign cluster codes. |
| Geodemographics | Census data that can be appended to a household file once it has been geocoded. Includes such factors as income, education, home type, etc. Derived from the neighborhood of the household. Same as Demographics. |
| Geographic Information System (GIS) | Software that displays data on a computer generated map. |
| Gigabyte | A billion bytes (characters). A measure of the size of mainframe disk storage. A typical mainframe shop will have 100 gigabytes or more. “Her database used over 35 gig!” |
| Gini coefficient | A measure of inequality of any quantity such as income or wealth, varying from a value of zero (if there is no inequality) to one (if a single individual receives all of it). |
| Global financial crisis | This began in 2007 with the collapse of house prices in the US, leading to the fall in prices of assets based on subprime mortgages and to widespread uncertainty about the solvency of banks in the US and Europe, which had borrowed to purchase such assets. The ramifications were felt around the world, as global trade was cut back sharply. Goverments and central banks responded aggressively with stabilization policies. |
| Global greenhouse gas abatement cost curve | This shows the total cost of abating greenhouse gas emissions using abatement policies ranked from the most cost-effective to the least. See also: abatement policy. |
| Globalization | A process by which the economies of the world become increasingly integrated by the freer flow across national boundaries of goods, investment, finance, and to a lesser extent, labour. The term is sometimes applied more broadly to include ideas, culture, and even the spread of epidemic diseases. |
| Globalization I and ii | Two separate periods of increasing global economic integration: the first extended from before 1870 until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, and the second extended from the end of the Second World War into the twenty-first century. See also: globalization. |
| Goal setting | Goal setting is a process that starts with careful consideration of what you want to achieve, and ends with a lot of hard work to actually do it. In between, there are some very well-defined steps that transcend the specifics of each goal. Knowing these steps will allow you to formulate goals that you can accomplish. |
| Going rate | The typical price for a commodity good. |
| Gold standard | The system of fixed exchange rates, abandoned in the Great Depression, by which the value of a currency was defined in terms of gold, for which the currency could be exchanged. See also: Great Depression. |
| Goldbricking | Producing less value than one is capable, while simultaneously appearing as though one is working diligently. |
| Golden age (of capitalism) | The period of high productivity growth, high employment, and low and stable inflation extending from the end of the Second World War to the early 1970s. |
| Golden hello | An attractive package (typically a bonus, or stock options) that are offered to a senior employee as an incentive to join the company. |
| Golden share | A golden share in a company is able to outvote all other shares in a specified circumstance. |
| Goods market equilibrium | The point at which output equals the aggregate demand for goods produced in the home economy. The economy will continue producing at this output level unless something changes spending behaviour. See also: aggregate demand. |
| Goodwill | The portion of the value that a firm possesses but is not attributable to a tangible good. Such measures are difficult to prove and are frequently used to inflate asset prices. Nevertheless, they can be a real, important, and overlooked source of business value. |
| Gossan’s first law | Marginal utility trends lower as quantity increases. |
| Gossan’s second law | Consumers will spend such that the marginal utility (relative to price) of each item purchased will be equal. |
| Gossan’s third law | An item cannot have economic value unless it is scarce. |
| Governing elite | Top government officials such as the president, cabinet officials, and legislative leaders, unified by a common interest such as membership in a particular party. |
| Government | Within a given territory, the only body that can dictate what people must do or not do, and can legitimately use force and restraints on an individual’s freedom to achieve that end. Also known as: state. |
| Government bond | A financial instrument issued by governments that promises to pay flows of money at specific intervals. |
| Government budget balance | The difference between government tax revenue and government spending (including government purchases of goods and services, investment spending, and spending on transfers such as pensions and unemployment benefits). See also: government budget deficit, government budget surplus. |
| Government budget deficit | When the government budget balance is negative. See also: government budget balance, government budget surplus. |
| Government budget surplus | When the government budget balance is positive. See also: government budget balance, government budget deficit. |
| Government debt | The total amount of money owed by the government at a specific point in time. |
| Government failure | A failure of political accountability. (This term is widely used in a variety of ways, none of them strictly analogous to market failure, for which the criterion is simply Pareto inefficiency). |
| Government spending (g) | Expenditure by the government to purchase goods and services. When used as a component of aggregate demand, this does not include spending on transfers such as pensions and unemployment benefits. See also: government transfers |
| Government transfers | Spending by the government in the form of payments to households or individuals. Unemployment benefits and pensions are examples. Transfers are not included in government spending (G) in the national accounts. See also: government spending (G) |
| Grandfather | Permission for existing customers to continue paying for an offering according to their original price structure. |
| Graphical User Interface (GUI) | Software that permits users to access their data by manipulating a mouse. |
| Great depression | The period of a sharp fall in output and employment in many countries in the 1930s. |
| Great moderation | Period of low volatility in aggregate output in advanced economies between the 1980s and the 2008 financial crisis. The name was suggested by James Stock and Mark Watson, the economists, and popularized by Ben Bernanke, then chairman of the Federal Reserve. |
| Great recession | The prolonged recession that followed the global financial crisis of 2008. |
| Greater fool theory | The pricing of an asset based upon what a future buyer will pay. |
| Green adjustment | Accounting adjustment made to conventional measures of national income to include the value of natural capital. |
| Greenhouse gas | Gases—mainly water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and ozone—released in the earth’s atmosphere that lead to increases in atmospheric temperature and changes in climate. |
| Gresham’s law | A law that states that undervalued forms of money will not be used in the marketplace, but overvalued forms will. |
| Grey knight | During a business takeover, this is a bidder who has no clearly stated intentions. |
| Gross | The total amount of money you have earned in a period of time before deductions such as taxes. |
| Gross domestic product (gdp) | GDP is the sum of all goods and services produced in the country’s economy. If it is up on the previous three months, the economy is growing. If GDP is down, the economy is contracting. |
| Gross income | Income net of taxes paid. Includes depreciation. See also: income, net income. |
| Gross margin | Gross margin is a broader term that business owners use to track money spent against money earned. It refers to the percentage of your total revenue that ends up as net income (what’s left when you subtract the direct costs) over a certain time. For example, if your company’s revenue is $100,000 in one quarter and your gross margin is 25 percent, then your net income is $25,000. The higher your gross margin, the more of each dollar in sales you can spend on overhead or keep as profit. |
| Gross profit | The sum of a company’s earnings, not taking into consideration expenses; Profits excluding taxes and operating costs. (Also see Net Profit) |
| Gross unemployment benefit replacement rate | The proportion of a worker’s previous gross (pre-tax) wage that is received (gross of taxation) when unemployed. |
| Group buy | A purchase that delivers a discount to buyers who combine their orders with those of other buyers. This discount may be intentionally offered by the vendor or (as is often seen in SAAS sales) a result of multiple buyers illicitly sharing a single account. |
| Group rate | A discounted price offered to buyers who collectively place a single order. |
| Growth capital | Funding that allows a company to accelerate its growth. For startups, this is the second stage of funding after seed money. |
