| QR | Quantitative Restriction |
| Quad | Refers both to the Quadrilateral Meetings and to the participants in those meetings, the U.S., Canada, EU, and Japan. |
| Quadrilateral meetings | Meetings that occur occasionally involving the trade ministers of the U.S., Canada, EU, and Japan to discuss trade policy issues. |
| Qualitative | 1. Referring only to the characteristics of something being described, rather than exact numerical measurement.
2. Indicative only of relative sizes or magnitudes, rather than their numerical values. A qualitative comparison would say whether one thing is larger, smaller, or equal to another, without specifying the size of any difference. As opposed to quantitative. |
| Quantitative | Expressed in numerical values. See qualitative. |
| Quantitative Restriction | A restriction on trade, usually imports, limiting the quantity of the good or service that is traded; a quota is the most common example, but VERs usually take the form of QRs. QRs on traded services are more likely to restrict the number or activities of foreign service providers than the services themselves, since the latter are hard to monitor and measure. |
| Quantity definition | A method of defining relative factor abundance based on ratios of factor quantities: Compared to country B, country A is abundant in factor X relative to factor Y iff XA/YA > XB/YB, where IJ is the quantity of factor I with which country J is endowed, I=X,Y, J=A,B. |
| Quantity quota | A quota specifying quantity, in units, weight, volume, etc. of a good. |
| Quantity theory of money | The classic theory of the price level and therefore of inflation, building on the equation of exchange and the additional assumption that velocity of money is constant. Together, these imply that the rate of inflation equals the rate of growth of money minus the rate of growth of real output. |
| Quarter | One of the four three-month periods into which the calendar year is divided for the reporting of economic data. |
| Quartile | One of four segments of a distribution that has been divided into quarters. For example, the second-from-the-bottom quartile of an income distribution is those with incomes above the bottom 25% of the population and below the top 50%. |
| Quasi-fiscal | Having to do with financial transactions of units that are not included in a government's budget but that have some of the same effects as fiscal policy. Most often mentioned as having quasi-fiscal effects are central banks. |
| Quasi-linear utility | A utility function of the form U(x0,x1,...,xn) = x0 + Siui(xi), where ui(×) are strictly concave functions. This is useful for generating demand functions for goods xi that depend only on their own prices in terms of the numeraire x0. |
| Quid pro quo FDI | FDI in response to the threat of protection. Done by a firm that exports into the domestic market, the motive is to create jobs there and lessen the threat that its exports will be restricted. Due to Bhagwati (1985). |
| Quintile | One of five segments of a distribution that has been divided into fifths. Analogous to quartile. |
| Quota | 1. A government-imposed restriction on quantity, or sometimes on total value.
2. An import quota specifies the maximum amount of an import per year, typically administered with import licenses that may be sold or directly allocated, to individuals or firms, domestic or foreign. May be global, bilateral, or by country.
3. An IMF quota. |
| Quota by country | A quota that specifies the total amount to be imported (or exported) and also assigns specific amounts to each exporting (or importing) country. |
| Quota rent | The economic rent received by the holder of the right (or license) to import under a quota. Equals the domestic price of the imported good, net of any tariff, minus the world price, times the quantity of imports. |
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