Widget (economics) 

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This article is about marketable items. For the small web applications used in advertising, see web widget. For other uses, see widget.

A widget is a placeholder name for an object or, more specifically, a mechanical or other manufactured device. It is an abstract unit of production.1

Contents

Usage

"Widget" is frequently used in texts and speech, especially in the context of economics, to indicate a hypothetical "any-product." Companies in such texts will frequently be given names such as "ABC Widgets" or "Acme Widget Corp." to indicate that the particular business of the hypothetical company is not relevant to the topic of discussion.2

In popular culture

The term appeared in the 1985 Rodney Dangerfield feature film comedy Back to School, in a college economics classroom scene in which the professor uses the term to describe a hypothetical company whose product is irrelevant to the discussion.

See also

References

  1. ^ Widget, Econmodel, 2008, accessed 13 November 2008 from http://www.econmodel.com/classic/terms/widget.htm
  2. ^ Paul Levine and Peter Burgess. "Bankruptcy preferences: cashing the check may not be the end of the story" bizjournals.com; April 19, 2002