What is Economics?

  • A social science
  • The science of studying the economy
  • The science behind the allocation of resources
  • The science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses
Broadly speaking it is the social science that looks at human behaviour and tries to answer the main economic problem of what to produce, for whom to produce, and how to produce.  It is all about working with finite resources despite infinite wants.

There are three broad areas:
  • Microeconomics - focuses on individual behaviour and behaviour of the firm
  • Macroeconomics - all about aggregates and the global economy
  • Econometrics - statistical theory used to validate economic theories