Economic Development Council of South Miami-Dade Glossary: Helpful Info to Learn More

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but here are common terms you may hear or read about from the Economic Development Council of South Miami-Dade.

Change: One of the nine key economic concepts, this relates to economic growth and is the numerical percentage value of all goods and services that a nation produces during a specific time period compared to a previous time period.

Choice: Also one of the nine key concepts, this represents the options a consumer has to choose from when it comes to goods, resources, and services. Choice is an indicator of economic well-being (see definition below.)

Costs and Benefits: This is a numerical value that represents how cost-effective an operation, procedure, product, program, or service is to help decision makers determine whether it is beneficial. This number is calculated through a cost-benefit analysis.

Economic Development: Activities, operations, policies, procedures, programs, services, and other processes that help improve the quality of living and well-being for a prosperous community. Economic development helps retain and increase jobs by incentivizing businesses and other means, as well as upgrade infrastructure, enhance public safety, and improve education.

Economic Well-Being: Another of the nine key concepts, this means that people in the community have their basic needs met, that there is a healthy distribution of income, and that there is an ability to access goods and services according to needs of the people within the community.

Efficiency: One of the nine key concepts, this is the optimization of resources and is achieved when waste is minimized (or altogether eliminated) in an economy by goods, services, and everything involved in their production being properly distributed.

Equity: Another of the nine key concepts, this is the concept of economic fairness and refers to taxation, income distribution, and opportunity.

Interdependence: One of the nine key concepts, this refers to the transactions amongst two or more businesses, communities, people, organizations, or other groups of goods and / or services to meet each others’ needs.

Scarcity: Another of the nine key concepts, scarcity is the central concept and is also known as paucity. In economics, it refers to the gap between available finite resources and the potential need for them. 

Sustainability: And the final of the nine key concepts, this is the practice of supporting economic growth in the long term without having a negative impact on cultural, environmental, and / or social well-being.

To learn more about economic development in our communities, please contact us today!

Our team at the Economic Development Council of South Miami-Dade would love to hear from you. We’re happy to answer your questions or address your comments and look forward to engaging with you!