Final answer:
The economic term for the total value of all goods and services produced at various price levels is Aggregate Supply (AS). It is a macroeconomic metric that helps in understanding the overall supply in the economy and relates to GDP, which measures the economy's output by valuing final goods and services produced.
Step-by-step explanation:
The economic term that refers to the total value of all goods and services that all firms would produce in a specific period of time at various price levels is Aggregate Supply (AS). This concept is relevant when taking a macroeconomic approach, representing the total supply of goods and services available in the economy at different price points. Aggregate Supply is similar to the microeconomic concept of market supply but on a much larger scale, encompassing the entire economy. It shares the logical connection to price levels: as prices rise, firms are incentivized to increase production, and vice versa when prices fall.
Understanding Aggregate Supply is essential to grasping how economists express the size of an economy through Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP is measured by taking the quantities of all final goods and services produced, multiplying them by their prices, and then summing the total. Final goods refer to items at their furthest stage of production, and care is taken to avoid double counting these goods as they pass through various production stages.
Efficiency in the economy means that the optimal amount of each good and service is produced and consumed, maximizing the use of scarce resources and ensuring all gains from trade are achieved. This efficiency reflects the balance of Consumer Surplus, Producer Surplus, and Social Surplus, all of which relate to the benefits received by different actors in the economy at a given price level and production quantity.