Education is a search for ways in which society can both benefit from as well as limit the variety of individual experience.

Using his entrepreneurial skills to implement business diversification and divisional structure in the format of mass production, Edison dramatically influenced modern society by developing, manufacturing, and marketing practical products, particularly electric lightbulbs, electric generating systems, phonographs, and motion-picture projectors.

Since its nineteenth century inception, The Economist has been located in London.

The eBay auction site started with 41,000 registered users in 1996 and a merchandise volume of $7.2 million.

Extraterritorial jurisdiction most often refers to laws that are applied to activities, businesses, and persons located outside the United States. These activities, businesses, and persons may or may not involved Americans, but they are subject to U.S. laws reaching beyond U.S. territorial boundaries.

Externalities, also called spillover effects, are COSTS (negative externalities) or benefits (positive externalities) associated with a market but not included in the price of a good or service. An external cost occurs when the PRODUCTION or CONSUMPTION of a good inflicts a cost on someone other than the producer or consumer.

Exporting—the production and sale of goods from one country to another—is both a business decision and part of a country’s economic and political policies. Businesses export PRODUCTs and SERVICES to markets where they expect to earn PROFITs. From a business perspective, exporting is part of a firm’s MARKETING STRATEGY. Countries exchange goods and services based on COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) is a government-held CORPORATION created in 1934 to finance and facilitate U.S. exports. To stimulate exports to the former Soviet Union at the end of World War II, the Ex-Im Bank supported reconstruction of Europe and Asia.

The United States has a detailed system of export controls intended to protect scarce RESOURCES, further U.S. foreign policy, and enhance national security. The controls are contained in the Export Administration Act (2001) as implemented by a host of regulations.

Experience and learning curves are behavioral models demonstrating that individuals and organizations learn and become more efficient through work. Experience and learning curves are a source of COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE in competitive markets.

Expectancy theory states that motivation depends on an individual’s expectations of his or her ability to perform a job and the relationship between performance and attaining rewards valued by that individual.

Exit strategies are methods used by companies to discontinue PRODUCTs, businesses, or relationships with customers or suppliers. They are generally not considered as part of a company’s BUSINESS PLAN; rather, they are decisions made when a business plan does not work as anticipated.

See BUSINESS TAXES; CONSUMPTION TAX.

Exchange rates are the domestic price of a unit of foreign currency. Exchange rates impact international trade, part of a country’s CIRCULAR FLOW MODEL of economic output and INCOME. When the value of a country’s currency rises relative to another country’s currency, the currency is said to have appreciated.

Exchange-rate risk is the effect on profitability and ASSETS that can occur as a result of changes in EXCHANGE RATES. Exchange rates are the value of one country’s currency in terms of another country’s currency. As the value of one currency increases, the value of the other currency decreases.

The European Union (EU) comprises 15 European countries joined in economic and political cooperation.

See BUSINESS ETHICS; OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS.

An escalator clause is a stipulation in CONTRACTs that adjusts the agreed-on price when costs change. Generally business transactions include an agreed price, but often market conditions are volatile, and the seller can potentially lose money if his or her costs increase between the time the price is agreed on and when the transaction is completed. Escalator clauses protect sellers against this risk.

Ergonomics is an engineering science concerned with the psychological and physical relationship between workers and their work environment. Ergonomics evolved after World War II as production managers recognized the physiological impact of workers’ repetitive actions.

Equity income theory suggests that employees determine whether they are being fairly treated by management by comparing their own input/outcome ratio to the input/outcome ratio of others. Inputs are the experience, education, effort, time worked, and special skills workers bring to a job. Outcomes are pay, benefits, recognition, and other rewards given to workers.

Equity has different meanings, depending on the business context.

In economics, equilibrium refers to situations in which individuals, firms, markets, and systems are operating at optimal level and there is no current need or motive to change. One analogy to equilibrium is dropping a marble into a bowl.

The equation of exchange is a mathematical statement showing that the MARKET VALUE of all goods and services sold equals the amount of money paid for the goods and services.

The Equal Pay Act (1963), which makes pay discrimination based on gender illegal, was designed to correct the wage gap for women. At the time female workers were being paid 60 percent of what male workers were making. By 1999 women were earning 75 percent of men’s wages.