The ratio of an index of a country's export prices to an index of its import prices. The terms of trade are said to improve if this ratio increases, so that each unit of exports pays for more imports, and to deteriorate if the ratio falls, so that each unit of exports buys fewer imports. This terminology can be misleading: if a country's terms of trade improve because of increased foreign demand for its exports, this is an improvement in its economic position. If the terms of trade improve because domestic inflation exceeds that abroad, however, the result may be problems with the balance of trade, which cannot sensibly be regarded as an improvement in the economy. The commodity or ‘barter’ terms of trade are contrasted with the ‘factoral’ terms of trade, which is the amount of imports that can be obtained via trade per unit of factor services. A country's factoral terms of trade may improve either because of improvements in the barter terms of trade, or because of increased productivity. ‘Terms of trade’ with no adjective normally refers to the barter terms of trade.

• home bias
• homogeneous function
• homogeneous good
• homoscedasticity
• homotheticity
• horizontal equity
• horizontal integration
• horizontal merger
• horizon, time
• hostile bid
• hot money
• hours of work
• household
• household production
• housing
• housing association
• housing benefit
• HP
• human capital
• hundred-per-cent gold backing
• hyperbola
• hyperinflation
• hypothesis, null
• hypothesis testing
• hysteresis