zero-based budgeting:

Zero based budgeting is intended to reduce total government spending by requiring government agencies to justify all proposed expenditures every year, not merely increases in expenditures. Budget committees of state legislatures and the U.S. Congress have traditionally often required government agencies to justify only proposed increases in expenditures, while assuming that existing levels of expenditure have already been satisfactorily considered. Adoption of zero based budgeting would presumably result in the elimination of inefficient and especially, obsolete programs.

zero coupon bond

A zero coupon bond is a debt instrument with no interest payments prior to maturity, at which point the principal and all accrued interest are paid.

zero degree homogeneity:

A function has elements of zero degree homogeneity if multiplication of a set of the independent variables in the function by any scalar (constant) results in no change in the dependent variable. For example, the neoclassical conclusion that money is neutral in the long run is equivalent to an assertion that functions to maximize utility and profit are homogeneous of degree zero in monetary prices. If all monetary prices are multiplied by any positive number, the behavior that maximizes utility and “real” profit is assumed unaffected. See also homogeneity of degree zero.

zero economic profit:

Zero economic profit occurs when a firm’s revenues precisely cover opportunity costs, and is a characteristic of the long run equilibrium state in a model of pure competition or perfect competition. In a long run competitive equilibrium, there will be no net resource movements because no better opportunities exist elsewhere.

zero transaction costs:

Zero transaction costs means that information is complete, mobility is perfect, and that all costs associated with contracting are zero. Many economic models are “frictionless” in that they assume zero transaction costs. See also complete information and perfect mobility.

zero sum game:

A zero sum game is any interaction in which benefits experienced by any party are precisely offset by losses to some of the other parties. Gambling is an example, in that any winnings by some players are necessarily equal to the losses of other players. (In the case of casino gambling, the casino and its employees could be considered “players.”)

Zimbardo, Philip:

Philip Zimbardo (1933- ) is an American psychologist whose research focused on shyness, madness, violence and evil, persuasion, dissonance, and hypnosis. Zimbardo’s most famous research is known as the Stanford prison study, in which a small group of paid volunteers drawn from the population of Stanford undergraduates were randomly assigned to act as either prison guards or prisoners. The study was curtailed earlier than scheduled after the prisoners were treated in brutal fashion by the students designated as guards.