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Definition: The time it takes for the full impact of the policy to be felt. See also time lag, recognition lag, and implementation lag.

Related Term(s): Implementation lag, Recognition lag, Time lag

Impairment-related work expenses (IRWE)

SSI Annual Statistical Report, 2002

Definition: The costs of items or services that a disabled person needs to work. The expenses, when paid by the beneficiary, are deducted from his or her gross earnings when determining if the work is considered substantial gainful activity.

Imperfect competition

Definition: Market structure where all conditions of pure competition are not met; monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly

Implementation lag

Definition: The time it takes for policymakers to act once they recognize an economic condition requiring action. See also time lag, impact lag, and recognition lag.

Related Term(s): Impact lag, Recognition lag, Time lag

Implicit GDP price deflator

Definition: Index used to measure price changes in Gross Domestic Product

Implicit price deflator (IPD)

Definition: The ratio of the current-dollar value of a series, such as gross domestic product (GDP), to its corresponding chained-dollar value, multiplied by 100.

Import

Definition: A good or service that is sold (import sale) to a person residing in the U.S. from a person residing abroad. Imports include government and non-government goods and services; however they exclude goods and services to the U.S. military, diplomatic, and consular institutions abroad. Imports do include goods and services that were previously exported.

Import sale (Import Export Program)

Definition: A sale is the price paid for the good or service, free on board. This does not include the duty, insurance, and other charges to transport the good or service from abroad to the U.S. A sale, therefore, does not include personal and household movements of travelers and in-transit shipments.

Imports

Definition: The goods and services that a nation buys from other nations

Imports of goods and services

Definition: Goods and services purchased by U.S. residents from foreign residents.

Imputations

Definition: Estimates of the value of certain income and product flows that do not take measurable monetary form. In the national income and product accounts (NIPAs) for example, BEA imputes a rental value to owner-occupied housing and a value to services that banks and other depository institutions provide without charge.

Incidence of a tax

Definition: Final burden of a tax

Incidence rates (Safety and Health)

Definition: Represent the number of injuries and/or illnesses per 100 full-time workers and were calculated as: (N/EH) X 200,000 where: N = number of injuries and/or illnesses; EH = total hours worked by all employees during the calendar year; 200,000 = base for 100 full-time equivalent workers (working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year).

Income before taxes (Consumer Expenditures)

Definition: Income before taxes is the total money earnings and selected money receipts of all consumer unit members 14 years of age or over during the 12 months prior to the interview date . It includes the following components: Wages and salaries; self-employment income; Social Security, private and government retirement; interest, dividends, rental income, and other property income; unemployment, workers’ compensation and veteran’s benefits; public assistance, supplemental security income, and food stamps; regular contributions for support (including alimony and child support); other income (including cash scholarships, fellowships or stipends not based on working, and meals and rent as pay).

Income effect

Definition: That portion of a change in quantity demanded caused by a change in a consumer’s real income when the price of a product changes

Income payments on assets

Definition: Payments that result from the ownership of assets. It includes interest payments, dividend payments, reinvested earnings on foreign direct investment in the United States, and rents and royalties paid by private enterprises to government.

Income payments to the rest of the world

Definition: Consists of compensation paid to foreign residents, income payments on assets to the rest of the world (which includes interest and dividends paid to the rest of the world), and reinvested earnings on foreign direct investment in the United States.

Income receipts from the rest of the world

Definition: Consists of compensation paid to U.S. residents by foreigners, income receipts on assets from the rest of the world (which includes interest and dividends received from the rest of the world), and reinvested earnings on U.S. direct investment abroad (USDIA).

Income receipts on assets

Definition: For private businesses it consists of interest and dividend receipts from the rest of the world and reinvested earnings on U.S. direct investment abroad. For government, it consists of interest and miscellaneous receipts and dividends.

Income statement

Definition: Report showing a business’s sales, expenses, and profits for a certain period, usually three covers months or a year

Income taxes

Definition: Taxes on income, both earned (salaries, wages, tips, commissions) and unearned (interest, dividends). Income taxes can be levied on both individuals (personal income taxes) and businesses (business and corporate income taxes).

Income-to-poverty ratios

U.S. Census Bureau

Definition: Income-to-poverty ratios represent the ratio of family or unrelated individual income to their appropriate poverty threshold. Ratios below 1.00 indicate that the income for the respective family or unrelated individual is below the official definition of poverty, while a ratio of 1.00 or greater indicates income above the poverty level. A ratio of 1.25, for example, indicates that income was 125 percent above the appropriate poverty threshold.

Related Term(s): Gini ratio

Inconvertible fiat money standard

Definition: Fiat money that cannot be exchanged for gold or silver; Federal Reserve notes today

Independent contractor

Definition: Performs services for others. The recipients of the services do not control the means or methods the independent contractor uses to accomplish the work. The recipients do control the results of the work; they decide whether the work is acceptable. Independent contractors are self-employed.

Independent union

Definition: Labor union not affiliated with the AFL-CIO

Indeterminate/Indeterminacy

Definition: A situation in which there are multiple solutions to the general-equilibrium model. A model has nominal indeterminacy/real determinacy if there are multiple solutions to nominal variables (such as prices) but a unique solution to real variables (such as employment and real output). A model has both nominal indeterminacy and real determinacy if there are multiple solutions to both nominal and real variables. A model with indeterminacy is prone to sunspots.

Related Term(s): General-equilibrium model

Index bond

Definition: A bond whose cash flow is adjusted for inflation by being linked to the purchasing power of a particular currency.

Index fund

Definition: A passively managed mutual fund that tries to mirror the performance of a specific stock price index.

Index of leading indicators

Definition: Composite index of 11 economic series that move up and down in advance of changes in the overall economy; statistical series used to predict business cycle turning points

Indexing

Definition: Adjustment of tax brackets to offset the effects of inflation

Indirect tax

Definition: A tax that can be shifted to others, such as business property taxes.

Individual income tax

Definition: Tax levied on the wages, salaries, and other income of individuals

Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

Definition: Retirement account in the form of a long-term time deposit, with annual contributions of up to $2,000 per year not taxed until withdrawn during retirement

Industry

Definition: A group of establishments that produce similar products or provide similar services. For example, all establishments that manufacture automobiles are in the same industry. A given industry, or even a particular establishment in that industry, might have employees in dozens of occupations. The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system groups similar establishments into industries.

Inelastic

Definition: Type of elasticity where the percentage change in the independent variable (usually price) causes a less than proportionate change in the dependent variable (usually quantity demanded or supplied)

Infant industries argument

Definition: Argument that new and emerging industries should be protected from foreign competition until they are strong enough to compete

Infant industry

Definition: A new or developing domestic industry whose costs of production are higher than those of established firms in the same industry in other countries.

Inflation

Definition: Inflation has been defined as a process of continuously rising prices, or equivalently, of a continuously falling value of money.

Definition: The simultaneous increase of consumer prices and decrease in the value of money and credit.

Definition: Rise in the general level of prices

Definition: Growth in a general measure of prices, usually expressed as an annual rate of change. See also consumer price index and GDP price index.

Definition: A rise, over time, in the average level of prices.

Definition: A rise, over time, in the average level of prices.

Definition: A rate of increase in the general price level of all goods and services. (This should not be confused with increases in the prices of specific goods relative to the prices of other goods.)

Inflation targets

Definition: A monetary policy rule which attempts to keep inflation within a narrow band by increasing interest rates when inflation increases or decreasing interest rates when inflation decreases.

Inflationary expectations

Definition: The rate of increase in the general price level anticipated by the public in the period ahead.

Informal tax legislation process

Definition: Individuals and interest groups expressing and promoting their opinions about tax legislation.

Infrastructure

Definition: Goverment-owned highways, mass transit, communications, power, water, sewerage and other public goods and services needed to support a population

Definition: Government-owned capital goods that provide services to the public, usually with benefits to the community at large as well as to the direct user. Examples include schools, roads, bridges, dams, harbors, and public buildings. See also capital.

Initial claimant

Definition: A person who files any notice of unemployment to initiate a request either for a determination of entitlement to and eligibility for compensation, or for a subsequent period of unemployment within a benefit year or period of eligibility.

Injunction

Definition: Court order issued to prevent a company or union from taking action during a labor dispute

Input-output (I-O) accounts

Definition: Show the relationships between all the industries in the economy and all the commodities that these industries produce and use. The estimates of purchases of commodities are shown in producers’ prices. The I-O accounts consist of the make table, use table, direct requirements table, and total requirements tables. The make and use table are prepared in two different ways. The first way uses the Standard Industrial Classification System (SIC) or the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The second way begins with the SIC or NAICS but includes adjustments (redefinitions and reclassifications) that move some secondary products from one industry to another to attain a common input structure for commodities produced by industries. The direct requirements table and total requirements tables are computed from the make and use tables with redefinition and reclassifications.

Input-output (I-O) output multipliers

Definition: Estimate of output required to satisfy a given level of final use. There are three I-O output multipliers, all of which correspond to the total requirements tables. The first shows the total commodity output required to deliver a dollar of a commodity to final uses. The second shows the total industry output required to deliver a dollar of a commodity to final uses. The third shows the total industry output required to deliver a dollar of an industry’s output to final uses.

Related Term(s): Input-output (I-O) accounts

Intercompany debt flows (direct investment)

Definition: Loans, trade credits, and other transactions in intercompany account payables or receivables between U.S. parent companies and their foreign affiliates, or between U.S. affiliates and their foreign parents or other members of their foreign parent groups.

Interest

Definition: The charge for the use of borrowed money.

Definition: Payment made for the use of borrowed money; usually paid at periodic intervals for long-term bonds or loans

Interest and miscellaneous payments

Definition: Consist of interest paid by domestic private enterprises and rents and royalties paid by private enterprises to government.

Interest and miscellaneous receipts

Definition: Includes rents and royalties received by government from private enterprises, including both monetary and imputed interest receipts.

Interest income

Definition: The income a person receives from certain bank accounts or from lending money to someone else.

Interest payments

Definition: Government interest paid to persons.

Definition: The return expressed in percentage earned on an investment each year. These payments are issued every six months based on an annual rate.

Definition: The return expressed in percentages earned on an investment each year. These payments are issued every six months based on an annual rate.

Intergovernmental expenditures

Definition: Funds that one level of government transfers to another level for spending

Intergovernmental revenue

Definition: Funds one level of government receives from another level of government

Intermediate inputs

Definition: Goods and services that are used in the production process of other goods and services and are not sold in final-demand markets.

Intermediate products

Definition: Products directly excluded from GDP computations because they are components of other final products included in GDP; new tires and radios for use on new cars

Intermediate purchases

Definition: Purchases of intermediate inputs made by industries or government.

Related Term(s): Final use(s), Input-output (I-O) accounts

Intermediate service provider

Definition: Assists in processing tax return information between the ERO (or the taxpayer, in the case of online filing) and the Transmitter.

Intermediate targets

Definition: An intermediate target is a variable (such as the money supply) that is not directly under the control of the central bank, but that does respond fairly quickly to policy actions, is observable frequently and bears a predictable relationship to the ultimate goals of policy.

Definition: An intermediate target is a variable (such as the money supply) that is not directly under the control of the central bank, but that does respond fairly quickly to policy actions, is observable frequently, and bears a predictable relationship to the ultimate goals of policy.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Definition: The federal agency that collects income taxes in the United States.

Definition: Branch of Treasury Department that collects taxes

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Definition: International agency that makes loans to developing countries; formal name of the World Bank

Related Term(s): World Bank

International banking facility – IBF

Definition: Facilities which, in general, can accept time deposits from foreign customers free of reserve requirements and interest rate limitations, and can lend to foreigners if the funds are for the conduct of foreign business outside of the U.S. Net borrowing from these facilities by domestic banking offices is subject to reserve requirements.

International banking facility (IBF)

Definition: In general, these facilities can accept time deposits from foreign customers free of reserve requirements and interest rate limitations, and can lend to foreigners if the funds are for the conduct of foreign business outside of the U.S. Net borrowing from these facilities by domestic banking offices is subject to reserve requirements.

Definition: Facilities which, in general, can accept time deposits from foreign customers free of reserve requirements and interest rate limitations, and can lend to foreigners if the funds are for the conduct of foreign business outside of the United States Net borrowing from these facilities by domestic banking offices is subject to reserve requirements.

International investment position (IIP) of the United States

Definition: Value of accumulated stocks of U.S.-owned assets abroad and the accumulated values of foreign-owned assets in the United States at a point in time; the net IIP is the former minus the latter.

International Monetary Fund – IMF

Definition: An international organization with 146 members, including the United States. The main functions of the IMF are to lend funds to member nations to finance temporary balance of payments problems, to facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade, and to promote international monetary cooperation among nations. The IMF also creates special drawing rights (SDR’s), which provide member nations with a source of additional reserves. Member nations are required to subscribe to a Fund quota, paid mainly in their own currency. The IMF grew out of the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Definition: International organization that offers advice and financial assistance to nations so that their currencies can compete in open markets

Definition: An international organization with 146 members, including the United States. The main functions of the International Monetary Fund are to lend funds to member nations to finance temporary balance of payments problems, to facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade, and to promote international monetary cooperation among nations. The IMF also creates special drawing rights (SDRs), which provide member nations with a source of additional reserves. Member nations are required to subscribe to a Fund quota, paid mainly in their own currency. The IMF grew out of the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944.

Definition: An international organization with 146 members, including the United States. The main functions of the IMF are to lend funds to member nations to finance temporary balance of payments problems, to facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade and to promote international monetary cooperation among nations. The IMF also creates special drawing rights (SDRs), which provide member nations with a source of additional reserves. Member nations are required to subscribe to a Fund quota, paid mainly in their own currency. The IMF grew out of the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944.

Intra-firm trade in services

Definition: Receipts and payments between U.S. affiliates and their foreign parents, and between U.S. parents and their foreign affiliates, for services provided to one another. They consist of royalties and license fees for the use or sale of intangible property or rights (including patents, trademarks, and copyrights) and of receipts and payments for other private services (such as service charges, rentals for tangible property, and film and television tape rentals).

Related Term(s): Foreign parent, U.S. affiliate

Inventories

Definition: Stocks of goods held by businesses for further processing or for sale. (BEA)

Inventory

Definition: Stock of goods held in reserve; includes finished goods waiting to be sold and raw materials to be used in production

Inventory valuation adjustment (IVA)

Definition: An adjustment made in the national income and product accounts (NIPAs) to corporate profits and to proprietors’ income in order to remove inventory ”profits,” which are more like a capital-gain than profits from current production.

Investment

Definition: Physical investment is the current product set aside during a given period to be used for future production–in other words, an addition to the stock of capital goods. As measured by the national income and product accounts, private domestic investment consists of investment in residential and nonresidential structures, producers’ durable equipment, and the change in business inventories. Financial investment is the purchase of a financial security, such as a stock, bond, or mortgage. Investment in human capital is spending on education, training, health services, and other activities that increase the productivity of the workforce. Investment in human capital is not treated as investment by the national income and product accounts. See capital, inventories, and national income and product accounts.

Investment income

Definition: Includes taxable and tax-exempt interest, dividends, capital gains net income, certain rent and royalty income, and net passive activity income.

Investment tax credit

Definition: Tax credit given for purchase of equipment

Inward investment

Definition: Foreign residents’ investment in U.S. assets.

IRS e-file

Definition: Refers to the preparation and transmission of tax return information to the IRS using telephone lines or a computer with a modem or Internet access.

Issue date

Definition: The date when a refund payment is issued on a Treasury Security representing the difference between the investment amount and the purchase price, as determined at auction.

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