January 5 , 2006

Standard Book of Economic Terminology and Concepts

GOAL

The goal of this project is to provide a world-wide access to and explain free market economic and financial terminology and concepts, which are necessary to fully understand how a market economy operates. The dictionary/glossary will also contain short biographies of outstanding economists and brief descriptions of their key contributions.

MASTER ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITION

An English language master edition based on the Dictionary, authored by Rūta Vainienė , is being prepared by graduate students in the School of Public Policy of Pepperdine University . The initial draft will be finished by February 2006. Upon completion, the final document will be placed in electronic form on the world-wide web to enable free market oriented public policy organizations all over the world to download and translate it into the local language. These organizations will be encouraged to make it available in electronic and/or printed form to the local population, with the primary target being students and journalists. (These organizations will be offered a royalty free license to do so, with the provision that they translate the dictionary/glossary accurately and acknowledge the original source of the work.)

HISTORY

In many languages, a good and reasonably priced dictionary and glossary of free market concepts does not exist. For example, in most of the countries of the former Soviet Union, the existing economic dictionaries were produced by the communists and socialists and, hence, are largely irrelevant and incorrect. Arab countries, such as Egypt, still rely to a great extent on text books and other material produced by the socialists. Even in Western European languages, such as German, modern, high quality, non-socialist (or non-social market economy) dictionaries/glossaries do not exist.

Recognizing the necessity for a good economics dictionary with a free market soul, in the Lithuanian language, Ms. Rūta Vainienė (a former member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, and Vice President of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute) undertook a project to provide such a book. The Lithuanian edition of the Dictionary was published in October 2005, and became an immediate best-seller. The Dictionary has been featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal.

FUTURE EXPANSION

The Economic Dictionary is an on-going project, whereby the product will be constantly improved and expanded with new entries to reflect the expansion of economic and financial terminology. Ms. Rūta Vainienė , the originator of the project and principal author, will continue to serve as managing editor. An editorial board of distinguished economists and financial experts is being created to review and edit each item within the book to insure its integrity. It is expected that over time, academics, other economists and professionals will submit suggested entries to the editorial board for approval, which will enable the Dictionary to become the world standard text.