| Value added | The value of output minus the value of all intermediate inputs, representing therefore the contribution of, and payments to, primary factors of production. |
| Value added tax | A tax that is levied only on the value added of a firm. A VAT is usually subject to border tax adjustment. |
| Value chain | The sequence of activities that a firm undertakes to create value, including the various steps of the supply chain but also additional activities, such as marketing, sales, and service. Term due to Porter (1990) and used by Krugman in slicing up the value chain. |
| Value marginal product | Marginal value product. |
| Value product | Price times quantity produced, as in marginal value product. |
| Value quota | A quota specifying value -- price times quantity -- of a good. |
| Variable cost | The portion of a firm or industry's cost that changes with output, in contrast to fixed cost. |
| Variable levy | A tax on imports that varies over time so as to stabilize the domestic price of the imported good. Essentially, the tax is set equal to the difference between the target domestic price and the world price. |
| Variable returns to scale | The property of a production function that returns to scale may be increasing or decreasing, at different rates, at different levels of output. |
| Variance | A measure of how much an economic or statistical variable varies across values or observations. Its calculation is the same as that of the covariance, being the covariance of the variable with itself. |
| Variety | Refers to the multiplicity of differentiated products that are available in some industries, a multiplicity that tends to become larger with trade. |
| VAT | Value added tax |
| Vehicle currency | The currency used to invoice an international trade transaction, especially when it is not the national currency of either the importer or the exporter. |
| Velocity of money | The rate at which money changes hands in an economy, usually defined by the equation of exchange. |
| Vent for surplus | The concept that a country -- especially a developing country -- may be able to gain by exporting the products of factors that would not be employed at all without trade. This "vent for surplus" theory of trade was developed especially by Myint (1958), who attributed the term to Williams (1929) and before that to Mill (1848) and the idea to Smith (1776). |
| Venture capital | A pool of money used to fund startup firms in exchange for shares of ownership that are expected to be cashed out within a few years as the successful startups go public or are acquired. The greater availability of venture capital in the U.S., compared to other countries, is said to contribute to its success in innovation. |
| VER | Voluntary export restraint |
| Vernon product cycle | See product cycle. |
| Vertical FDI | Foreign direct investment by a firm to establish manufacturing facilities in multiple countries, each producing a different input to, or stage of, the firm's production process. Contrasts with horizontal FDI. |
| Vertical integration | Production of different stages of processing of a product within the same firm. |
| Vertical intraindustry trade | Intraindustry trade in which the exports and imports are at different stages of processing. Contrasts with horizontal IIT. |
| Vertical specialization | Another term for fragmentation. Used by Hummels, Rapoport, and Yi (1998). |
| VIE | Voluntary import expansion. |
| Vinerian | Associated with the work of economist Jacob Viner, as in the Vinerian concept of trade diversion. |
| Visible | In referring to international trade, used as a synonym for "good." "Visibles trade" is trade in goods. Contrasts with invisible. |
| Volatility | The extent to which an economic variable, such as a price or an exchange rate, moves up and down over time. |
| Voluntary export restraint | A restriction on a country's imports that is achieved by negotiating with the foreign exporting country for it to restrict its exports. |
| Voluntary import expansion | The use of policies to encourage imports, in response to pressure from trading partners. Due to Bhagwati (1987). |
| Voluntary restraint agreement | Same as a VER. |
| VRA | Voluntary restraint agreement, same as a VER. |