| Wage inflation | An increase in the nominal wage. Usually measured over a year. See also: nominal wage. |
| Wage labour | A system in which producers are paid for the time they work for their employers. |
| Wage labour contract | See also: wage labour, contract. |
| Wage-price spiral | This occurs if an initial increase in wages in the economy is followed by an increase in the price level, which is followed by an increase in wages and so on. It can also begin with an initial increase in the price level. |
| Wage-setting curve | The curve that gives the real wage necessary at each level of economy-wide employment to provide workers with incentives to work hard and well. |
| WATS | Wide area telephone service. An “800” number whereby the call is free to the caller. |
| Weakness of will | The inability to commit to a course of action (dieting or foregoing some other present pleasure, for example) that one will regret later. It differs from impatience, which may also lead a person to favour pleasures in the present, but not necessarily act in a way that one regrets. |
| Wealth | Stock of things owned or value of that stock. It includes the market value of a home, car, any land, buildings, machinery or other capital goods that a person may own, and any financial assets such as shares or bonds. Debts are subtracted—for example, the mortgage owed to the bank. Debts owed to the person are added. |
| Weights | Numbers that are multiplied by database values to determine model or RFM scores. |
| Welfare state | A set of government policies designed to provide improvements in the welfare of citizens by assisting with income smoothing (for example, unemployment benefits and pensions). |
| What the market will bear | The price which an undifferentiated set of potential buyers will support. Vendors (especially smaller ones) will be better off focusing on marketing to small segments, rather than the market as a whole. |
| White elephant | An item that incurs maintenance costs far above its value, yet cannot be sold or disposed. |
| White good | Large household appliances so named due to the common use of enamel coating. Some authors use this term to refer to linens instead. |
| White mail | Mail received from a buyer or donor who has not included the response device, so you cannot determine the source code of the offer which promoted his purchase or gift. |
| Wholesale | The bulk sale of goods to retailers who will themselves sell to end users. |
| Willingness to accept (wta) | The reservation price of a potential seller, who will be willing to sell a unit only for a price at least this high. See also: willingness to pay. |
| Willingness to pay (wtp) | An indicator of how much a person values a good, measured by the maximum amount he or she would pay to acquire a unit of the good. See also: willingness to accept. |
| Winner-take-all competition | Firms entering a market first can often dominate the entire market, at least temporarily. |
| Winner’s curse | The winner of an auction is (by definition) willing to pay more than any other bidder for a given good. This suggests that winning bidders may have overvalued their purchases. |
| Without-profits policy | An insurance policy that does not share in the profits of the business that issued it. |
| Work directing | Work directing is telling someone what to do and how to do it. There usually is much less freedom as to how the employee does the task, and many times is much less ownership, participation and learning on the part of the employee, as well. |
| Work in process | The investment in items that have not yet been sold but are intended for sale. The larger the investment, the lower a firm’s ability to make investments. As a result, most firms are cautioned to keep work in progress to a minimum. |
| Work-life balance | The balance in demands of both life at work and personal life. |
| Worker’s best response function (to wage) | The optimal amount of work that a worker chooses to perform for each wage that the employer may offer. |
| Working capital | This is the capital a business uses in its day-to-day trading. It’s the difference between current assets and current liabilities. It provides an indication of liquidity and the businesses ability to meet its current obligations. |
