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This article is about the social science. For other uses, see Economics (disambiguation).
Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek οἰκονομία (oikonomia, "management of a household, administration") from οἶκος (oikos, "house") + νόμος (nomos, "custom" or "law"), hence "rules of the house(hold)". Current economic models developed out of the broader field of political economy in the late 19th century, owing to a desire to use an empirical approach more akin to the physical sciences. A definition that captures much of modern economics is that of Lionel Robbins in a 1932 essay: "the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." Scarcity means that available resources are insufficient to satisfy all wants and needs. Absent scarcity and alternative uses of available resources, there is no economic problem. The subject thus defined involves the study of choices as they are affected by incentives and resources. Economics aims to explain how economies work and how economic agents interact. Economic analysis is applied throughout society, in business, finance and government, but also in crime, education, the family, health, law, politics, religion, social institutions, war, and science. The expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism. Common distinctions are drawn between various dimensions of economics: between positive economics (describing "what is") and normative economics (advocating "what ought to be") or between economic theory and applied economics or between mainstream economics (more "orthodox" dealing with the "rationality-individualism-equilibrium nexus") and heterodox economics (more "radical" dealing with the "institutions-history-social structure nexus"). However the primary textbook distinction is between microeconomics ("small" economics), which examines the economic behavior of agents (including individuals and firms) and macroeconomics ("big" economics), addressing issues of unemployment, inflation, monetary and fiscal policy for an entire economy. Economics Economies by regionAfrica · North America South America · Asia Europe · Oceania General categoriesMicroeconomics · Macroeconomics History of economic thought Methodology · Heterodox approaches Fields and subfieldsBehavioral · Cultural · Evolutionary Growth · Development · History International · Economic systems Monetary and Financial economics Public and Welfare economics Health · Labour · Managerial Business · Information · Game theory Industrial organization · Law Agricultural · Natural resource Environmental · Ecological Urban · Rural · Regional Economic geography TechniquesMathematical · Econometrics Experimental · National accounting ListsJournals · Publications Categories · Topics · Economists Economic ideologiesAnarchism · Capitalism Communism · Corporatism Fascism · Georgism Islamic · Laissez-faire Market socialism · Mercantilism Protectionism · Socialism Syndicalism · Third Way The economy: concept and history Business and Economics Portal This box:From Wikipedia under the
GNU Free Documentation License Economic theory assumes people maximise utility but we can't. How does this effect the validity of the theory Q. We don't get the best price when we shop, we settle for good enough. We don't choose the number of hours a week to work, most jobs require 40 and you may prefer 45 or 35. When we chose a place to live we must pick among current vacancies etc. The theory predictions for labor markets don't agree well with emperical studies on minimum wage, and immigration effects. In a recient interview a labor economist Card said that in general theory does not work well for labor markets. What I would like to know is, are labor markets different or does emperical work not agree with theory in other markets also. Asked by meg - Fri Dec 8 03:56:09 2006 - - 2 Answers - 0 Comments A. First off if you look at other theories they are not 100% accurate or require so many criteria to be met. Gas laws and fluid laws and conservation of matter are some examples. Should we throw them out? Hell even that things fall at 9.8meters per second squared is wrong it assumes no air and that while you are falling you are not getting closer to the earth etc. So how do we decide what a good theory is? There are several answers to this question. In economics the usual answer is how well it predicts. Take your examples. Places that offer lower prices get more customers (totally predicted by the theory). Second higher wages result in more hours worked and more people applying to the job. Finally there is no disconnect between utility… [cont.] Answered by uncle frosty - Fri Dec 8 15:59:39 2006 How does Thoreaus economic theory applies to todays world? Q. How does Thoreaus economic theory applies to todays world? Asked by Napalm84 - Mon Jan 14 12:31:24 2008 - - 4 Answers - 0 Comments A. You mean his theory that people who work for a living are bozos and that we should all go live in the woods like hermits? It doesn't. Thoreau was such an idealist. He clearly did not have a family to support. Answered by greengo - Mon Jan 14 12:43:28 2008 what relationship would economic theory suggest exists between investment and economic growth?
Q. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Asked by melt_the_fudge - Fri Oct 2 04:58:33 2009 - - 5 Answers - 0 Comments A. what kind of investment r u referring to? is it investment from finance or economic perspective; if it is economic then it has got to do long-term investment in physical goods; investment is positively related to national income but negatively related to interest rates, which is the main determinant for investment; there r also other main factors that affect investment such as expected marginal product of capital (MPK) and effective taxes (tax on capital goods); for example, increase in MPK will cause investment to rise because firms need to increase capital stocks (capital goods such as machinery, equipments, etc) but increase in effective tax will reduce investment as the user cost of capital after tax will increase which reduces the… [cont.] Answered by vijay - Fri Oct 2 08:34:35 2009 From Yahoo Answer Search: "economic theory"  news.google.com Computerworld Standard economic theory tells us that offshoring could be good or it could be bad for the American economy and standard of living. ... and more » news.google.com New York Times (blog) How, then, could economic theory on the virtues of markets be of any real-world use? Samuelson's answer was that good macro policies come first. ... Remembering Paul Samuelson and his ideas Livemint all 6 news articles » news.google.com American Thinker ... to increased business investment, consumer spending, and economic growth. Alberto Alesina's work has lent considerable evidence to the above theory . ... From Google News Search: "economic theory"  sociologyindex.com 240px x 240px | 17.20kB [source page] rigorous but accessible introduction to game theory will be of use not only to political scientists but also to psychologists sociologists and others in the social sciences Game Theory with Economic Applications 2nd Edition by H Scott Bierman Luis Fernandez  stlouisfed.org 225px x 360px | 48.80kB [source page] Going Once Going Twice Sold Auctions and the Success of Economic Theory From Yahoo Image Search: "economic theory"  lawprofessors.typepad.com buslawblogger Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:46:00 GM It has been over half-a-century since corporate legal . theory. , of any political or . economic. stripe, took the concession . theory. seriously. In particular, concession . theory. is plainly inconsistent with the contractarian model of the firm, ...  timworstall.com Tim Worstall Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:22:38 GM there's no point interacting with a man who, for example, when it is repeatedly pointed out to him that externalities are core . economic theory. , will not modify his view that economics ignores externalities. ...  asociologist.wordpress.com Dan Hirschman ue, 22 Dec 2009 13:43:26 GM 2 Responses to The Deadweight Loss of . Economic Theory. and the True Meaning of Christmas . Free Refills & Why I Love America Says: December 22, 2009 at 2:58 pm | Reply. What Christmas is all about is Big Corporations. ... From Google Blog Search: "economic theory" |
