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What is a subsidy?
It means a government giving out money to encourage a particular product (or service) to be bought or sold. Some people will use the word more loosely to refer to any financial incentive, even if it's not coming from the government. Wikipedia has a list of examples that may be helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidy A commonly-mentioned one is farm subsidies, where farmers are paid to produce certain crops.