Commercial zoning, nonexistent in early American history, has come to play a crucial role in the land-use patterns of American business over the last century.

The term zoning may be used for “zoning laws,” “zoning ordinances,” or “zoning regulations.” The statuary laws governing zoning may be at the local, state, or federal level. Zoning controls how the land may be used in a particular region or community.

Zero-base budgeting (also called zero-based budgeting, or ZBB) is a system of BUDGETING in which all expenditures are justified each year. This is in contrast to the typical budgeting process that evaluates only amounts in excess of the previous year’s budget. In ZBB each department must justify all of its funding for the next year.

A zero-sum game is a game or situation where the gains by winners are offset by losses to losers. Zero-sum games are sometimes used to describe market situations in which increased sales by one firm come at the expense of other firms. The total sales remain the same, only each firm’s share of the total changes.