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Economics Word Search

This economics word search hides words like trade, money, budget to find. Play it free online or print the PDF with the answer key, a handy economics vocabulary activity.

10 words · 11×11 grid · Medium · Answer key included · Free printable PDF

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Tap the first and last letter of a word — or use arrow keys and Enter. Dragging works too.

CURRENCY
SHORTAGE
BUDGET
PROFIT
INCOME
DEMAND
SUPPLY
MARKET
TRADE
MONEY

🎉 Solved — all 10 words found!

True stories

The town that printed its own money

Wörgl, Austria

In Wörgl, Austria, in 1932, the mayor tried an experiment that economists still argue about. Michael Unterguggenberger issued the town its own money, called Certified Compensation Bills, which needed a small stamp each month to stay valid. Nobody wanted to sit on notes like that, so they moved quickly. The town put the money to work building new houses, a reservoir, a bridge and a ski jump, while unemployment stayed high across the rest of Austria. The experiment drew international attention, including from the American economist Irving Fisher. Austria's central bank ended it in September 1933, so the federal government would keep its monopoly on legal tender.

Monkeys learn to shop

New Haven, Connecticut

In New Haven, Connecticut, researchers at Yale handed seven capuchin monkeys small discs and waited. The monkeys learned that a disc could be swapped for a grape, a slice of apple, or a cube of gelatin. Then the scientists started changing prices. When one treat got cheaper, the capuchins bought more of it, exactly as a shopper would. Offered gambles, they also showed the very human habit of hating a loss more than they enjoyed an equal gain. Keith Chen, Venkat Lakshminarayanan and Laurie Santos reported the results in 2005. Their conclusion was gentle and a little humbling: our economic instincts may be far older than our species.

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Did you know?

trade: Traders on the Silk Road never called it that. A German geographer popularized the name in 1877.
money: On Yap, stone money can weigh four tons and rarely moves. Owners simply agree that the coin changed hands.
budget: Budget comes from bougette, an Old French word for the little leather bag a treasurer carried plans in.
profit: Profit is what survives after every cost is paid, so a shop can sell more and still lose money.
income: Income is a flow, not a pile. Economists measure it per week or year, never as a single lump.
demand: Drop a price and buyers usually want more. That everyday habit is grand enough to be called a law.
supply: Supply leans the other way from demand: the higher the price climbs, the more sellers want to make.
market: The Amsterdam exchange, born from Dutch East India Company shares in 1602, is considered the oldest modern securities market.
currency: Zimbabwe issued a hundred trillion dollar note in 2009. On its first day it bought about thirty US dollars.
shortage: A shortage is not scarcity. It appears when a price is held below the level that would clear the market.
consumer: Economists study your smallest choices. Which loaf you reach for is data that helps explain a whole national economy.
interest: Nearly four thousand years ago the Code of Hammurabi capped interest at twenty percent on loans of silver.
inflation: Hungary holds the record. In 1946 prices doubled about every fifteen hours, the fastest inflation ever recorded.
investment: To an economist, investment means buying machines, tools and buildings that make future goods, not just buying shares.
competition: Competition is why a seller with no rivals behaves differently. Economists watch closely when only one firm remains.

Trivia

What is the term for trading goods directly for other goods, with no money involved?
Barter.
Which Scottish thinker published The Wealth of Nations in 1776?
Adam Smith.
What do economists call a general rise in prices that makes each unit of money buy less?
Inflation.
What is the name for the price at which the amount supplied and the amount demanded match?
The equilibrium price.
Which country suffered the fastest inflation ever recorded, with prices doubling about every fifteen hours?
Hungary, in 1946.

Trivia · 1 / 5

What is the term for trading goods directly for other goods, with no money involved?

Barter.

In their words

The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones.
John Maynard Keynes

Political economy or economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.
Alfred Marshall

Is this economics word search free to print?

This economics word search is a free printable puzzle with 10 hidden words in an 11×11 grid. Find words like CURRENCY, SHORTAGE, BUDGET hidden across, down, and diagonally. You can play it right here in your browser — tap the first and last letter of a word — or download it as a printable PDF with the full answer key on page two. It's free for personal and classroom use, so teachers can print copies for a whole class with no sign-up and no account. Word searches like this one are a proven way to build vocabulary, spelling, and word-shape recognition, which is why they're a favourite with ESL learners, elementary classrooms, and anyone who likes a quiet puzzle with their coffee.

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