Individual economic decision making

• Asymmetric information: When one party (buyers or sellers) has more information than the other in an economic transaction.
• Hyperbolic discounting: Individuals tend to base the value of rewards on the amount of time taken to acquire the reward (longer waits, less valuable).
• Behavioural economics: Branch of economics that incorporates psychological insights to understand human economic decision making.
• Risk aversion: Individuals tend to value losses more than commensurate gains.
• Symmetric information: Where consumers and producers have sufficient information to make rational decisions.
• Utility: Benefit, wellbeing, welfare or satisfaction gained from consumption of a good or service.
• Utility maximisation: When consumers aim to make their personal welfare as high as possible.
• Economic man (Homo economicus): A hypothetical person who behaves in exact accordance with their rational self-interest.
• Perfect information: When both buyers and sellers have full knowledge of goods and services in a market.
• Heuristics: Rules of thumb.
• Availability bias: Individuals base the likeliness of future events occurring on past events.
• Altruism: The selfless and disinterested concern towards the wellbeing of others.