Revision as of 20:26, 25 September 2007 view sourceThomasmeeks (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers14,658 edits →Wealth definition: 3rd para.,2nd sent.W def.-->"accounting measures usually used measure the pay received for work and the price paid for goods":Unlikely.Rm seeming non-WP:NPOV,nonWP:VER← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 14:49, 8 January 2025 view source Abertho3 (talk | contribs)32 editsmNo edit summaryTag: Visual edit | ||
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{{Short description|Social science}} | |||
{{Refimprove|date=May 2007}} | |||
{{other uses}} | |||
] trading floor. Financial decisions can be one of those many economic choices people make.]] | |||
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'''Economics''' is the ] that studies the production, ], and consumption of ]. The term ''economics'' comes from the ] for ''oikos'' (house) and ''nomos'' (custom or law), hence "rules of the house(hold)." | |||
{{pp-move}} | |||
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=August 2016}} | |||
{{Use British English|date=August 2016}} | |||
{{CS1 config|mode=cs1}} | |||
{{Economics sidebar|expanded=all}} | |||
'''Economics''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|ɛ|k|ə|ˈ|n|ɒ|m|ᵻ|k|s|,_|ˌ|iː|k|ə|-}})<ref name="OED">{{Cite OED | term=economics |id=270555}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=ECONOMICS {{!}} Meaning & Definition for UK English |url=https://lexico.com/definition/economics |access-date=2024-04-13 |website=Lexico.com |archive-date=24 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824032001/https://lexico.com/definition/economics |url-status=dead }}</ref> is a ] that studies the ], ], and ] of ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Krugman |first1=Paul |author-link=Paul Krugman |last2=Wells |first2=Robin |title=Economics |publisher=Worth Publishers |series= |volume= |edition=3rd |date=2012 |location= |page=2 |url= |doi= |id= |isbn=978-1464128738 |mr= |zbl= |jfm=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Backhouse |first=Roger |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/59475581 |title=The Penguin history of economics |date=2002 |isbn=0-14-026042-0 |oclc=59475581 |quote=The boundaries of what constitutes economics are further blurred by the fact that economic issues are analysed not only by 'economists' but also by historians, geographers, ecologists, management scientists, and engineers. |publisher=Penguin }}</ref> | |||
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of ] and how ] work. ] analyses what is viewed as basic elements within ], including individual agents and ], their interactions, and the outcomes of interactions. Individual agents may include, for example, households, firms, buyers, and sellers. ] analyses economies as systems where production, distribution, consumption, ], and ] interact, and factors affecting it: ], such as ], ], ], and ], ], ], and ] that have impact on ]. It also seeks to ]. | |||
A definition that captures much of modern economics is that of ] in a ]: "the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." ] means that available ] are insufficient to satisfy all wants and needs. Absent scarcity and alternative uses of available resources, there is no ]. The subject thus defined involves the study of ]s as they are affected by incentives and resources. <br Robbins's (Brit.) spelling of "behaviour" preserved:> | |||
Other broad distinctions within economics include those between ], describing "what is", and ], advocating "what ought to be";<ref>{{cite book |last=Friedman |first=Milton |date=1953 |chapter=] |title=Essays in Positive Economics |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=5}}</ref> between economic theory and ]; between ] and ]; and between ] and ].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k2d8SFFyeNEC&pg=PP1 |title=The Foundations of Positive and Normative Economics: A Handbook |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-532831-8 |editor-last=Caplin |editor-first=Andrew |editor-last2=Schotter |editor-first2=Andrew}}</ref> | |||
Areas of economics may be divided or classified in various ways, including: | |||
* ] and ] | |||
* ] ("what is") and ] ("what ought to be") | |||
* ] and ] | |||
* fields and broader ] within economics. | |||
One of the uses of economics is to explain how ] work and what the relations are between economic players (]) in the larger society. Methods of economic analysis have been increasingly applied to fields that involve people (officials included) making choices in a social context, such as crime , education , the ], ], ], ], religion , ], and war . | |||
Economic analysis can be applied throughout society, including ],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dielman |first=Terry E. |title=Applied regression analysis for business and economics |date=2001 |publisher=Duxbury/Thomson Learning |isbn=0-534-37955-9 |oclc=44118027}}</ref> ], ],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kianpour |first1=Mazaher |last2=Kowalski |first2=Stewart |last3=Øverby |first3=Harald |date=2021 |title=Systematically Understanding Cybersecurity Economics: A Survey |journal= Sustainability|volume= 13 |issue=24 |page=13677 |doi= 10.3390/su132413677|doi-access=free |hdl=11250/2978306 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> ],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tarricone |first=Rosanna |date=2006 |title=Cost-of-illness analysis |journal=Health Policy |language=en |volume=77 |issue=1 |pages=51–63 |doi=10.1016/j.healthpol.2005.07.016 |pmid=16139925}}</ref> ]<ref name="Dharmaraj2010">{{Cite book |last=Dharmaraj |first=E. |title=Engineering Economics |location=Mumbai |publisher=Himalaya Publishing House |date=2010 |isbn=978-9350432471 |oclc=1058341272}} <!-- original citation mismatched publisher and year for 1st and 2nd(rev.) editions, so confirmation needed which is being cited --></ref> and ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=King |first=David |title=Fiscal Tiers: the economics of multi-level government |date=2018 |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-138-64813-5 |oclc=1020440881}}</ref> It is also applied to such diverse subjects as ],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Becker |first=Gary S |date=January 1974 |chapter=Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach |title=Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment |editor-last1=Becker |editor-first1=Gary S. |editor-last2=Landes |editor-first2=William M. |pages=1–54 |publisher=] |isbn=0-87014-263-1 |chapter-url=https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c3625/c3625.pdf |access-date=2022-07-01 |archive-date=13 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210913194049/https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c3625/c3625.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> ],<ref>{{Cite web|date=2007 |title=Economics of Education |url=https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/7154 |publisher=] |last1=Hanushek |first1=Eric A. |last2=Woessmannr |first2=Ludger |series=Policy Research Working Papers |doi=10.1596/1813-9450-4122 |hdl=20.500.12323/2954 |s2cid=13912607 |access-date=17 December 2020 |archive-date=6 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106142511/https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/7154 |url-status=live }}</ref> the ],<ref>{{Cite book |author-link=Gary Becker |last=Becker |first=Gary S. |orig-date=1981 |date=1991 |title=A Treatise on the Family |edition=Enlarged |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0-674-90698-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NLB1Ty75DOIC |access-date=2022-07-01 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730075050/https://books.google.com/books?id=NLB1Ty75DOIC |url-status=live }}</ref> ],<ref>{{Cite journal |author-link=Julie A. Nelson |last=Nelson |first=Julie A. |date=1995 |title=Feminism and Economics |journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=131–148 |doi=10.1257/jep.9.2.131 |url=https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.9.2.131 |access-date=2022-07-01 |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407203919/https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.9.2.131 |url-status=live }} | |||
==In the beginning== | |||
{{Cite book |author-link=Marianne A. Ferber |editor-last1=Ferber |editor-first1=Marianne A. |editor-last2=Nelson |editor-first2=Julie A. |date=October 2003 |orig-date=1993 |title=Feminist Economics Today: Beyond Economic Man |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226242071 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DeWgyqLvmfsC |access-date=2022-07-01 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730075049/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Feminist_Economics_Today/DeWgyqLvmfsC |url-status=live }}</ref> ],<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
]), generally regarded as initiating modern economics.]] | |||
|1 = {{Cite book |author-link=Richard A. Posner |last=Posner |first=Richard A. |orig-date=1972 |date=2007 |title=Economic Analysis of Law |edition=7th |publisher=Wolters Kluwer – Aspen Publishers |isbn=978-0735563544 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooFDAQAAIAAJ |access-date=2022-07-01 }} | |||
Although discussions about production and distribution have a ], economics in its modern sense is conventionally dated from the publication of ]'s '']'' in 1776. In this work Smith defines the subject in practical terms: | |||
|2 = {{Cite book |author-link=Richard A. Posner |last=Posner |first=Richard A. |date=1983 |title=The Economics of Justice |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674235267 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CKEN0F07ChUC |access-date=2022-07-01 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730075050/https://books.google.com/books?id=CKEN0F07ChUC |url-status=live }} | |||
:Political economy, considered as a branch of the science of a statesman or legislator, proposes two distinct objects: first, to supply a plentiful revenue or product for the people, or, more properly, to enable them to provide such a revenue or subsistence for themselves; and secondly, to supply the state or commonwealth with a revenue sufficient for the public services. It proposes to enrich both the people and the sovereign. | |||
}}</ref> ],<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
Smith referred to the subject as ']', but that term was gradually replaced in general usage by 'economics' after 1870. | |||
|1 = {{Cite book |author-link=Adam Smith |last=Smith |first=Adam |orig-date=1759 |date=1982 |title-link=The Theory of Moral Sentiments |title=The Theory of Moral Sentiments |editor-last1=Raphael |editor-first1=D. D. |editor-last2=Macfie |editor-first2=A. L. |location=Indianapolis |publisher=Liberty Classics 1976 |isbn=978-0-86597-012-0}} . | |||
|2 = {{Cite journal |author-link=Kenneth E. Boulding |last=Boulding |first=Kenneth E. |date=1969 |title=Economics as a Moral Science |journal=American Economic Review |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |jstor=1811088 |url=https://en-econ.tau.ac.il/sites/economy_en.tau.ac.il/files/media_server/Economics/grad/mini%20courses/David%20Colander/Boulding.pdf |access-date=2022-07-01 |archive-date=5 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005213945/https://en-econ.tau.ac.il/sites/economy_en.tau.ac.il/files/media_server/Economics/grad/mini%20courses/David%20Colander/Boulding.pdf |url-status=live }} | |||
|3 = {{Cite book |author-link=Robert Heilbroner |last=Heilbroner |first=Robert L. |orig-date=1953 |date=1999 |edition=7th |title=The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers |publisher=Touchstone |isbn=0-684-86214-X |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIxtW9cw-DQC |access-date=2022-07-01 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730075050/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Worldly_Philosophers/vIxtW9cw-DQC |url-status=live }} <!-- original cite mismatches gbooks url and isbn --> | |||
|4 = {{Cite book |author-link=Amartya Sen |last=Sen |first=Amartya |date=2009 |title-link=The Idea of Justice |title=The Idea of Justice |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674036130}} <!-- title wikilink conflicts with url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Idea_of_Justice/enqMd_ze6RMC --> <!-- original cite mismatches 2009 Harvard pub with 2011 Belknap pub --> }}</ref> ], ],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Iannaccone |first=Laurence R. |author-link=Laurence R. Iannaccone |date=September 1998 |title=Introduction to the Economics of Religion |journal=Journal of Economic Literature |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=1465–1495 |jstor=2564806 |url=https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/262957/mod_resource/content/2/Iannaccone%20-%20Economics%20of%20Religion.pdf |access-date=2022-07-01 |archive-date=9 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200209225107/https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/262957/mod_resource/content/2/Iannaccone%20-%20Economics%20of%20Religion.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> ], ],<ref>{{Cite book |author-link=William D. Nordhaus |last=Nordhaus |first=William D. |title=War with Iraq: Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives |date=2002 |veditors=Kaysen C, Miller SE, Malin MB, Nordhaus WD, Steinbruner JD |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |isbn=978-0-87724-036-5 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=51–85 |chapter=The Economic Consequences of a War with Iraq |access-date=21 October 2007 |chapter-url=http://nordhaus.econ.yale.edu/AAAS_War_Iraq_2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202005510/http://nordhaus.econ.yale.edu/AAAS_War_Iraq_2.pdf |archive-date=2 February 2007}}</ref> ],<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Diamond | first=Arthur M. Jr. |chapter=Science, economics of |date=2008 |edition=2nd |pages=328–334 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.1491 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |dictionary=] |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last2=Blume |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_E000222 <!--chapter-url throws error with archive-url --> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929232007/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_E000222 |archive-date=2017-09-29}} (Note the page is broken in some browsers but is still readable through the source.)</ref> and ].<ref>{{Cite report |title=Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication |date=2011 |publisher=] |url=https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/126GER_synthesis_en.pdf |access-date=2022-07-01 |archive-date=26 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326154152/https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/126GER_synthesis_en.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
== |
== Definitions of economics == | ||
{{anchor|The term and its various definitions€}} | |||
Areas of economics may be classified in various ways, but an ] is usually analyzed by use of ''microeconomics'' or ''macroeconomics''. | |||
{{main|Definitions of economics}} | |||
===Microeconomics=== | |||
The earlier term for the discipline was "political economy", but since the late 19th century, it has commonly been called "economics".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Backhouse |first=Roger |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/59475581 |title=The Penguin history of economics |date=2002 |isbn=0-14-026042-0 |pages=117 |publisher=Penguin Adult |oclc=59475581}}</ref> The term is ultimately derived from ] {{lang|grc|]}} (''oikonomia'') which is a term for the "way (nomos) to run a household (oikos)", or in other words the know-how of an {{lang|grc|οἰκονομικός}} (''oikonomikos''), or "household or homestead manager". Derived terms such as "economy" can therefore often mean "frugal" or "thrifty".<ref name="etymology">The terms derive ultimately from {{lang|grc|]}} (''{{lang|grc-Latn|oikos}}'' "house") and {{lang|grc|]}} (''{{lang|grc-Latn|nomos}}'', "custom" or "law"). {{Cite encyclopedia |last=Harper |first=Douglas |author-link=Douglas Harper |date=February 2007 |dictionary=Online Etymology Dictionary |title=Economy |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=economic |access-date=27 October 2007 |archive-date=12 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512162853/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=economic |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Free2010">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hRFadIRMaMsC&pg=PA8 |title=21st Century Economics: A Reference Handbook |publisher=Sage Publications |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4129-6142-4 |editor-last=Free |editor-first=Rhona C. |volume=1 |page=8}}</ref><ref name="MarshallMarshall1888">{{cite book |last1=Marshall |first1=Alfred |author-link1=Alfred Marshall |last2=Marshall |first2=Mary Paley |author-link2=Mary Paley Marshall |title=The Economics of Industry |url=https://archive.org/details/economicsindust00marsgoog |year=1888 |publisher=Macmillan |page=|orig-year=1879}}</ref><ref name="Jevons1879">{{cite book |last=Jevons |first=William Stanley |author-link=William Stanley Jevons |title=The Theory of Political Economy |url=https://archive.org/details/theorypolitical00jevogoog |edition=2nd |year=1879 |publisher=Macmillan and Co |page=XIV}}</ref> By extension then, "political economy" was the way to manage a ] or state. | |||
{{main|Microeconomics}} | |||
Microeconomics examines the economic behavior of ] (including businesses and households) and their interactions through individual markets, given scarcity and ]. Within microeconomics, ] theory aggregates across ''all'' markets, including their movements and interactions toward equilibrium. | |||
There are a variety of modern ]; some reflect evolving views of the subject or different views among economists.<ref name="Backhouse">{{cite encyclopedia |author-link1=Roger E. Backhouse |last1=Backhouse |first1=Roger E. |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=720–722 |first2=Steven |last2=Medema |date=2008 |edition=2nd|editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_E000291 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.0442 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Economics, definition of |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |access-date=23 December 2011 |archive-date=5 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005001939/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_E000291 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="BackhouseMedema2009">{{cite journal |last1=Backhouse |first1=Roger E. |first2=Steven |last2=Medema |date=Winter 2009 |title=Retrospectives: On the Definition of Economics |journal=] |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=221–233 |jstor=27648302 |doi=10.1257/jep.23.1.221|doi-access=free }}</ref> ] philosopher ] (1776) defined what was then called ] as "an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations", in particular as: | |||
===Macroeconomics=== | |||
{{main|Macroeconomics}} | |||
{{blockquote|text=a branch of the science of a statesman or legislator a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people ... to supply the state or commonwealth with a revenue for the publick services.<ref name="Groenwegen">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Smith |date=1776 |title=An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations|title-link=An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations }} and Book IV, as quoted in {{cite encyclopedia |first=Peter |last=Groenwegen |date=2008 |pages=476–480 |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |edition=2nd |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_P000114 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.1300 |chapter=Political Economy |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |access-date=4 October 2017 |archive-date=5 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005000524/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_P000114 |url-status=live }}</ref>}} | |||
] over the last 2000 years. The study of GDP growth is a key area of macroeconomics.|thumb]] | |||
Macroeconomics examines the economy as a whole "top down" to explain broad aggregates and their interactions. Such aggregates include ], the ], and price ] and subaggregates like total consumption and investment spending and their components. It also studies effects of ] and ]. Since at least the 1960s, macroeconomics has been characterized by further integration as to ] modeling of sectors, including ] of players, ] of market information, and ].<ref>] (1992). "Business Confidence and Depression Prevention: A Mesoeconomic Perspective," ''American Economic Review'' 82(2), pp. 365-371. </ref> This has addressed a long-standing concern about inconsistent developments of the same subject.<ref name="Hashem"> Howitt, Peter M. (1987). "macroeconomic relations with microeconomics".{{cite book | title=], pp. 273-75| publisher=Macmillan and Stockton| location=London and New York| id=ISBN 0-333-37235-2}}</ref> Analysis also considers factors affecting the long-term level and ] of national income within a country and across countries. | |||
] (1803), distinguishing the subject matter from its ] uses, defined it as the science ''of'' production, distribution, and consumption of ].<ref name="Say1803">{{cite book|last=Say|first=Jean Baptiste|author-link=Jean-Baptiste Say|title=A Treatise on Political Economy|year=1803|publisher=Grigg and Elliot|title-link=Say's Political Economy}}</ref> On the ] side, ] (1849) coined "]" as an ] for ], in this context, commonly linked to the pessimistic analysis of ] (1798).<ref name="Dismal">{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
=== Related fields, other distinctions, and classifications=== | |||
|1 = {{cite magazine |last=Carlyle |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Carlyle |date=1849 |title=Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question |magazine=] |title-link=Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question }} | |||
Recent developments closer to microeconomics include ] and ]. Fields bordering on other ] include ], ], ], ], and ]. | |||
|2 = {{cite book |last=Malthus |first=Thomas Robert |author-link=Thomas Robert Malthus |date=1798 |title=An Essay on the Principle of Population |publisher=J. Johnson |location=London|title-link=An Essay on the Principle of Population }} | |||
|3 = {{cite journal |last=Persky |first=Joseph |date=Autumn 1990 |title=Retrospectives: A Dismal Romantic |journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=165–172 |jstor=1942728 |doi=10.1257/jep.4.4.165|doi-access= }} | |||
}}</ref> ] (1844) delimited the subject matter further: | |||
{{blockquote|text=The science which traces the laws of such of the phenomena of society as arise from the combined operations of mankind for the production of wealth, in so far as those phenomena are not modified by the pursuit of any other object.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mill|first=John Stuart|author-link=John Stuart Mill|title=Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4TxQqkP40fYC&pg=PA99|year=2007|publisher=Cosimo|isbn=978-1-60206-978-7|chapter=On the Definition of Political Economy; and on the Method of Investigation Proper to It|orig-year=1844|access-date=4 October 2017|archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801073208/https://books.google.com/books?id=4TxQqkP40fYC&pg=PA99|url-status=live}}</ref>}} | |||
Another division of the subject distinguishes two types of economics. ] ("what is") seeks to explain economic phenomena or behavior. ] ("what ought to be," often as to public policy) prioritizes choices and actions by some set of criteria; such priorities reflect value judgments, including selection of the criteria. | |||
] provided a still widely cited definition in his textbook '']'' (1890) that extended analysis beyond ] and from the ] to the ] level: | |||
Another distinction is between ''mainstream economics'' and ''heterodox economics''. One broad characterization describes ] as dealing with the "rationality-individualism-equilibrium nexus" and ] as defined by a "institutions-history-social structure nexus." | |||
{{blockquote|text=Economics is a study of man in the ordinary business of life. It enquires how he gets his income and how he uses it. Thus, it is on the one side, the study of wealth and on the other and more important side, a part of the study of man.<ref>{{cite book|last=Marshall|first=Alfred|author-link=Alfred Marshall|title=Principles of Economics|url=https://archive.org/details/principlesecono00marsgoog|year=1890|publisher=Macmillan and Company|pages=–2}}</ref>}} | |||
The ] of the ] provide a comprehensive, detailed way of classifying and searching for economics articles by subject matter. An alternative classification of often-detailed entries by mutually-exclusive categories and subcategories is '']'' (1987).<ref name="Palgrave">{{cite book | title=]| first=John| authorlink=John Eatwell| coauthors=Milgate, Murray, and Newman, Peter, ed.| date=1987| publisher=Macmillan and Stockton| location=London and New York| id=ISBN 0-333-37235-2 and ISBN 0-935859-10-1}}</ref> | |||
] (1932) developed implications of what has been termed "erhaps the most commonly accepted current definition of the subject":<ref name="BackhouseMedema2009"/> | |||
===Mathematical and quantitative methods === | |||
Economics as an academic subject often uses geometric methods, in addition to literary methods. Other general mathematical and quantitative methods are also often used for rigorous analysis of the economy or areas within economics. Such methods include the following. | |||
{{blockquote |text=Economics is the science which studies ] as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.<ref>{{cite book|last=Robbins|first=Lionel|title=An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nySoIkOgWQ4C&pg=PA15|year=2007|orig-year=1932|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|isbn=978-1-61016-039-1|page=15}}</ref>}} | |||
====Mathematical economics==== | |||
{{main|Mathematical economics}} | |||
Mathematical economics refers to application of mathematical methods to represent economic theory or analyze ] posed in economics. It uses such methods as ] and ]. Expositors cite its advantage in allowing formulation and derivation of key relationships in an ] with clarity, generality, rigor, and simplicity.<ref>] (1987). "mathematical economics," ''The ]'', v. 3, pp. 401-03.</ref> For example, ]'s book '']'' (1947) identifies a common mathematical structure across multiple fields in the subject. | |||
Robbins described the definition as not ''classificatory'' in "pick out certain ''kinds'' of behaviour" but rather ''analytical'' in "focus attention on a particular ''aspect'' of behaviour, the form imposed by the influence of ]."{{sfnp|Robbins|2007|p=16}} He affirmed that previous economists have usually centred their studies on the analysis of wealth: how wealth is created (production), distributed, and consumed; and how wealth can grow.{{sfnp|Robbins|2007|pp=4–7}} But he said that economics can be used to study other things, such as war, that are outside its usual focus. This is because war has as the goal winning it (as a sought after ''end''), generates both cost and benefits; and, ''resources'' (human life and other costs) are used to attain the goal. If the war is not winnable or if the expected costs outweigh the benefits, the deciding ''actors'' (assuming they are rational) may never go to war (a ''decision'') but rather explore other alternatives. Economics cannot be defined as the science that studies wealth, war, crime, education, and any other field economic analysis can be applied to; but, as the science that studies a particular common aspect of each of those subjects (they all use scarce resources to attain a sought after end). | |||
====Econometrics==== | |||
{{main|Econometrics}} | |||
Econometrics applies mathematical and ] to analyze ] related to ]s. For example, a theory may hypothesize that a person with more education will on average earn more income than person with less education holding everything else equal. Econometric estimates can estimate the magnitude and ] of the relation. Econometrics can be used to draw quantitative generalizations. These include testing or refining a theory, describing the relation of past variables, and forecasting future variables.<ref> Hashem, M. Pesaren (1987). "econometrics", ], v. 2, p. 8.</ref> | |||
Some subsequent comments criticised the definition as overly broad in failing to limit its subject matter to analysis of markets. From the 1960s, however, such comments abated as the economic theory of maximizing behaviour and ] modelling ] of the subject to areas previously treated in other fields.<ref name="Backhouse2009Stigler">{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
====National accounting==== | |||
|1 = {{cite journal |last1=Backhouse |first1=Roger E. |first2=Steven G. |last2=Medema |date=October 2009 |title=Defining Economics: The Long Road to Acceptance of the Robbins Definition |journal=Economica |volume=76 |issue=s1 |pages=805–820 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0335.2009.00789.x|s2cid=148506444 |doi-access=free }} | |||
{{main|National accounts}} | |||
|2 = {{cite journal |author-link=George J. Stigler |last=Stigler |first=George J. |date=1984 |title=Economics – The Imperial Science? |journal=Scandinavian Journal of Economics |volume=86 |issue=3 |pages=301–313 |jstor=3439864|doi=10.2307/3439864 }} | |||
National accounting is a method for summarizing economic activity of a nation. The ] are ] systems that provide detailed underlying measures of such information. These include measurement of ]. Such accounts allow tracking the performance of an economy and its components through ] or over longer periods. Price data may permit distinguishing ], that is, correcting money totals for price changes over time.<ref>Usher, D. (1987), "real income," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 4, p. 104.</ref><ref>] (1979), "The Welfare Basis of Real Income Comparisons: A Survey," ''Journal of Economic Literature'', 17(1), p-45. | |||
}}</ref> There are other criticisms as well, such as in scarcity not accounting for the ] of high unemployment.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Mark Blaug |last=Blaug |first=Mark |date=15 September 2017 |title=Economics |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/economics |access-date=4 October 2017 |archive-date=25 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625153920/https://www.britannica.com/topic/economics |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
</ref> The national accounts also include measurement of the ], ] of a nation, and ].<ref name="Ruggles"> Ruggles, Nancy D. (1987), "social accounting". {{cite book | title=]date=| pages=v. 3, 377| publisher=Macmillan and Stockton| location=London and New York| id=ISBN 0-333-37235-2}}</ref> | |||
], a contributor to the expansion of economics into new areas, described the approach he favoured as "combin assumptions of maximizing behaviour, stable ], and ], used relentlessly and unflinchingly."<ref>{{cite book|last=Becker|first=Gary S.|title=The Economic Approach to Human Behavior|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iwEOFKSKbMgC&pg=PA5|year=1976|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-04112-4|page=5}}</ref> One commentary characterises the remark as making economics an approach rather than a subject matter but with great specificity as to the "choice process and the type of ] that analysis involves." The same source reviews a range of definitions included in principles of economics textbooks and concludes that the lack of agreement need not affect the subject-matter that the texts treat. Among economists more generally, it argues that a particular definition presented may reflect the direction toward which the author believes economics is evolving, or should evolve.<ref name=BackhouseMedema2009/> | |||
===Selected fields=== | |||
====Development economics==== | |||
{{main|Development economics}} | |||
Development economics examines the economic aspects of the development process in ] with a focus on methods of promoting ]. Unlike in many other fields of economics, approaches in development economics may incorporate social and political factors to devise particular plans.<ref>Bell, Clive (1987). "development economics," '']'', v. 1, pp. 818-26.</ref> | |||
====Environmental economics==== | |||
{{main|Environmental economics}} | |||
Environmental economics is concerned with issues related to degradation, enhancement, or preservation of the ]. In particular, ]s from production or consumption, such as air pollution, can lead to ]. The subject considers how public policy can be used to correct such failures. Policy options include regulations that reflect ] or market solutions that change incentives, such as ]s or redefinition of property rights.<ref>Kneese, Allen K., and Clifford S. Russell (1987). "environmental economics," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, pp. 159-64.</ref><ref>Samuelson, Paul A., and ] (2004). '']'', ch. 18, "Protecting the Environment." McGraw-Hill. | |||
ISBN 0-07-287205-5.</ref> | |||
Many economists including nobel prize winners ] and ] reject the method-based definition of Robbins and continue to prefer definitions like those of Say, in terms of its subject matter.<ref name="Backhouse2009Stigler"/> ] has for example argued that the definition of Robbins would make economics very peculiar because all other sciences define themselves in terms of the area of inquiry or object of inquiry rather than the methodology. In the biology department, it is not said that all biology should be studied with DNA analysis. People study living organisms in many different ways, so some people will perform DNA analysis, others might analyse anatomy, and still others might build game theoretic models of animal behaviour. But they are all called biology because they all study living organisms. According to Ha Joon Chang, this view that the economy can and should be studied in only one way (for example by studying only rational choices), and going even one step further and basically redefining economics as a theory of everything, is peculiar.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ha-joon-chang-economics_n_5120030 |title=Ha-Joon Chang: Economics Is A Political Argument |author=Seung-Yoon Lee |date=4 September 2014 |website=huffpost.com |publisher=Huffington Post |access-date= |quote= |archive-date=19 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019151027/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ha-joon-chang-economics_n_5120030 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
====Financial economics==== | |||
{{main|Financial economics}} | |||
Financial economics, often simply referred to as ], is concerned with the allocation of financial resources in an uncertain (or ]) environment. Thus, its focus is on the operation of ]s, the pricing of ]s, and the ] of companies.<ref>] (1987). "finance," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, pp. 322-26.</ref> | |||
====Game theory==== | |||
{{main|Game theory}} | |||
Game theory is a branch of ] that studies strategic interactions between agents. In ], ] choose strategies that will maximize their payoff, given the strategies the other agents choose. It provides a formal modeling approach to social situations in which decision makers interact with other agents. Game theory generalizes maximization approaches developed to analyze markets such as the ] model. The field dates from the 1944 classic '']'' by ] and ]. It has found significant applications in many areas outside economics as usually construed, including formulation of ], ], ], and ].<ref>] (1987). "game theory ," '']'', v. 2, pp. 460-82.</ref> | |||
== History of economic thought == | |||
====Industrial organization==== | |||
{{Main|History of economic thought|History of macroeconomic thought}} | |||
{{main|Industrial organization}} | |||
{{Missing information|section|information and behavioural economics, contemporary microeconomics|date=September 2020}} | |||
Industrial organization studies the strategic behavior of firms, the structure of markets and their interactions. The common market structures studied include ], ], various forms of ], and ].<ref>Schmalensee, Richard (1987). "industrial organization," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, pp. 803-808.</ref> | |||
=== From antiquity through the physiocrats === | |||
====Information economics==== | |||
]|alt=A seaport with a ship arriving]] | |||
{{main|Information economics}} | |||
Questions regarding distribution of resources are found throughout the writings of the ]n poet ] and several economic historians have described Hesiod as the "first economist".<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
Information economics examines how information (or a lack of it) affects economic decision-making. An important focus is the concept of ], where one party has more or better information than the other. The existence of information asymmetry gives rise to problems such as ], and ], studied in ]. The economics of information has relevance in many fields, including ], ], ], and decision-making under risk and uncertainty. | |||
|1 = {{cite book|last=Gordan|first=Barry J.|title=Economic analysis before Adam Smith: Hesiod to Lessius|publisher=MacMillan|date=1975|page=3|isbn=978-1-349-02116-1|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-02116-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YReyCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3}} | |||
====International economics==== | |||
|2 = {{cite book|last=Brockway|first=George P.|title=The End of Economic Man: An Introduction to Humanistic Economics|edition=4th|date=2001|page=128|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-05039-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i8ZhZFqUl7kC|access-date=18 September 2020|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414142715/https://books.google.com/books?id=i8ZhZFqUl7kC|url-status=live}} | |||
{{main|International trade|International finance}} | |||
}}</ref> However, the word ], the Greek word from which the word economy derives, was used for issues regarding how to manage a household (which was understood to be the landowner, his family, and his slaves<ref>{{Cite book |last=Backhouse |first=Roger |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/59475581 |title=The Penguin history of economics |date=2002 |publisher=Penguin Adult |isbn=0-14-026042-0 |oclc=59475581 |access-date=3 June 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730075150/https://www.worldcat.org/title/penguin-history-of-economics/oclc/59475581 |url-status=live }}</ref>) rather than to refer to some normative societal system of distribution of resources, which is a more recent phenomenon.<ref>Cameron, Gregory. (2008). Oikos and Economy: The Greek Legacy in Economic Thought.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Oikos Meaning in Bible – New Testament Greek Lexicon – New American Standard|url=https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/oikos.html|access-date=2021-11-19|website=biblestudytools.com|language=en|archive-date=19 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119121115/https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/oikos.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Jameson|first=Michael H.|date=2015-12-22|title=houses, Greek|url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-3169|access-date=2021-11-19|website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics|language=en|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.3169|isbn=978-0-19-938113-5|archive-date=19 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119121120/https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-3169|url-status=live}}</ref> ], the author of the ], is credited by ] for being the source of the word economy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lowry |first=S. Todd |title=Xenophons Oikonomikos, Über einen Klassiker der Haushaltsökonomie |publisher=Verlag Wirtschaft und Finanzen |year=1998 |isbn=3878811276 |location=] |pages=77 |language=de}}</ref> ] described 16th and 17th century ] writers, including ], ], and ], as "coming nearer than any other group to being the 'founders' of scientific economics" as to ], ], and ] theory within a ] perspective.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schumpeter |first=Joseph A. |date=1954 |title=History of Economic Analysis |publisher=Routledge |pages=97, 101, 112|isbn=978-0-415-10888-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pl4DABZfGREC&pg=PA97}}</ref> | |||
International trade is the exchange of goods and services across international boundaries or territories. ] examines the flow of ] across international borders, and the role of ]s in facilitating this trade. The trade of goods, services and capital between countries is a major impetus behind and effect of ]. | |||
====Labour economics==== | |||
{{main|Labour economics}} | |||
Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning of the ] and dynamics for ]. ]s function through the interaction of workers and employers. Labour economics looks at the suppliers of labour services (workers), the demanders of labour services (employers), and attempts to understand the resulting patterns of wages and other labour income and of employment and unemployment, Practical uses include assisting the formulation of ] of policies.<ref>] (1987). "labour economics," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 3, pp. 72-76.</ref> | |||
====Law and economics==== | |||
{{main|Law and Economics}} | |||
Law and economics, or economic analysis of law, is an approach to legal theory that applies methods of economics to law. It includes the use of economic concepts to explain the effects of laws, to assess which legal rules are ], and to predict what the legal rules will be.<ref>] (1987). "law and economics," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 3, p. 144.</ref><ref>] (1972). ''Economic Analysis of Law''. Aspen, 7th ed., 2007) ISBN 978-0-735-56354-4.</ref> A seminal article by ] published in 1961 suggested that well-defined property rights could overcome the problems of ].<ref>], "The Problem of Social Cost", '']'' Vol.3, No.1 (1960). This issue was actually published in 1961.</ref> | |||
====Public finance==== | |||
{{main|Public finance}} | |||
Public finance is the field of economics that deals with budgeting the revenues and expenditures of a ] entity, usually government. The subject addresses such matters as ] (who really pays a particular tax), cost-benefit analysis of government programs, effects on ] and ] of different kinds of spending and taxes, and fiscal politics. The latter describes public-sector behavior analogously to microeconomics, involving interactions of self-interested voters, politicians, and bureaucrats.<ref>] (1987). "public finance," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 3, pp. 1055-60.</ref> | |||
====Welfare economics==== | |||
{{main|Welfare economics}} | |||
Welfare economics is a branch of economics that uses ] techniques to simultaneously determine the ] within an economy and the income ] associated with it. It attempts to measure ] by examining the economic activities of the individuals that comprise society.<ref>Feldman, Allan M. ((1987). "welfare economics," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 4, pp. 889-95.</ref> | |||
Two groups, who later were called "mercantilists" and "physiocrats", more directly influenced the subsequent development of the subject. Both groups were associated with the rise of ] and ] in Europe. ] was an economic doctrine that flourished from the 16th to 18th century in a prolific pamphlet literature, whether of merchants or statesmen. It held that a nation's wealth depended on its accumulation of gold and silver. Nations without access to mines could obtain gold and silver from trade only by selling goods abroad and restricting imports other than of gold and silver. The doctrine called for importing inexpensive raw materials to be used in manufacturing goods, which could be exported, and for state regulation to impose protective ]s on foreign manufactured goods and prohibit manufacturing in the colonies.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{cite encyclopedia |title=Mercantilism |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=26 August 2016 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/mercantilism |access-date=24 October 2017 |archive-date=31 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171031160310/https://www.britannica.com/topic/mercantilism |url-status=live }}|{{harvp|Blaug|2017|page=343}}.}}</ref> | |||
==Economic concepts== | |||
===Supply and demand=== | |||
{{main|Supply and demand}} | |||
] model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability and demand. The graph depicts an increase (that is, right-shift) in demand from D<sub>1</sub> to D<sub>2</sub> along with the consequent increase in price and quantity required to reach a new equilibrium point on the supply curve (S).]] | |||
The theory of demand and supply is an organizing principle to explain prices and quantities of goods sold and changes thereof in a ] economy. In ], it refers to price and output determination in a ]. This has served as a building block for modeling other market structures and for other theoretical approaches. | |||
], a group of 18th-century French thinkers and writers, developed the idea of the economy as a ] of income and output. Physiocrats believed that only agricultural production generated a clear surplus over cost, so that agriculture was the basis of all wealth.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bertholet|first=Auguste|date=2021|title=Constant, Sismondi et la Pologne|url=https://www.slatkine.com/fr/editions-slatkine/75250-book-05077807-3600120175625.html|journal=Annales Benjamin Constant|volume=46|pages=78–81|access-date=20 January 2022|archive-date=12 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512143530/https://www.slatkine.com/fr/editions-slatkine/75250-book-05077807-3600120175625.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Thus, they opposed the mercantilist policy of promoting manufacturing and trade at the expense of agriculture, including import tariffs. Physiocrats advocated replacing administratively costly tax collections with a single tax on income of land owners. In reaction against copious mercantilist trade regulations, the physiocrats advocated a policy of '']'',<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bertholet |first1=Auguste |url=https://www.sgeaj.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/bertholet-kapossy-la-physiocratie-et-la-suisse-2023.pdf |title=La Physiocratie et la Suisse |last2=Kapossy |first2=Béla |publisher=Slatkine |year=2023 |isbn=9782051029391 |location=Geneva |language=fr}}</ref> which called for minimal government intervention in the economy.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
For a given market of a ], ''demand'' shows the quantity that all prospective buyers would be prepared to purchase at each unit price of the good. Demand is often represented using a table or a graph relating price and quantity demanded (see boxed figure). ] describes individual consumers as "]" choosing the ''most preferred'' quantity of each good, given income, prices, tastes, etc. A term for this is 'constrained utility maximization' (with income as the "]" on demand). Here, ']' refers to the (hypothesized) preference relation for individual consumers. Utility and income are then used to model hypothesized properties about the effect of a price change on the quantity demanded. The '''law of demand''' states that, in general, price and quantity demanded in a given market are inversely related. In other words, the higher the price of a product, the less of it people would be able and willing buy of it (other things ]). As the price of a commodity rises, overall ] decreases (the '']'') and consumers move toward relatively less expensive goods (the '']''). Other factors can also affect demand; for example an increase in income will ''shift'' the demand curve outward relative to the origin, as in the figure. | |||
|1 = {{cite encyclopedia|title=Physiocrat|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|date=7 March 2014|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/physiocrat|access-date=24 October 2017|archive-date=25 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025023645/https://www.britannica.com/topic/physiocrat|url-status=live}} | |||
|2 = {{cite book|last=Blaug|first=Mark|title=Economic Theory in Retrospect|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nd6alor2goC&pg=PA24|edition=5th|year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-57701-4|pages=24–29, 82–84}} | |||
}}</ref> | |||
] (1723–1790) was an early economic theorist.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hunt|first=E. K.|title=History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=duYaugxYHdIC&pg=PA36|year=2002|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-0606-8|page=36}}</ref> Smith was harshly critical of the mercantilists but described the physiocratic system "with all its imperfections" as "perhaps the purest approximation to the truth that has yet been published" on the subject.<ref>{{cite book|last=Skousen|first=Mark|title=The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers|url=https://archive.org/details/makingo_sko_2001_00_5649|url-access=registration|year=2001|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-0479-8|page=}}</ref> | |||
''Supply'' is the relation between the price of a good and the quantity available for sale from suppliers (such as producers) at that price. Supply is often represented using a table or graph relating price and quantity ''supplied''. Producers are hypothesized to be profit-maximizers, meaning that they attempt to produce the amount of goods that will bring them the highest profit. '''Supply''' is typically represented as a directly proportional relation between price and quantity supplied (other things unchanged). In other words, the higher the price at which the good can be sold, the more of it producers will supply. The higher price makes it profitable to increase production. At a price below equilibrium, there is a shortage of quantity supplied compared to quantity demanded. This pulls the price up. At a price above equilibrium, there is a surplus of quantity supplied compared to quantity demanded. This pushes the price down. The ] of supply and demand predicts that for a given supply and demand curve, price and quantity will stabilize at the price that makes quantity supplied equal to quantity demanded. This is at the intersection of the two curves in the graph above, ]. | |||
=== Classical political economy === | |||
For a given quantity of a good, the price point on the demand curve indicates the ''value'', or ]<ref>] (2007). "Economic Theory" (Measurement and ordinal utility). ''The New Encyclopaedia Britannica'', v. 17, p. 719.</ref> to consumers for that unit of output. It measures what the consumer would be prepared to pay for the corresponding unit of the good. The price point on the supply curve measures '']'', the increase in total cost to the supplier for the corresponding unit of the good. The price in equilibrium is determined by supply and demand. In a ], supply and demand equate cost and value at equilibrium.<ref name="Hicks">{{cite book | title=]| last=Hicks| first=John Richard| authorlink=John Hicks| date=1939| publisher=Oxford University Press. 2nd ed., paper, 2001| location=London| id=ISBN 978-0198282693}}</ref> | |||
{{Main|Classical economics}} | |||
]'s '']'' in 1776 is considered to be the first formalisation of economic thought.|alt=Picture of Adam Smith facing to the right]] | |||
The publication of ]'s '']'' in 1776, has been described as "the effective birth of economics as a separate discipline."{{sfnp|Blaug|2017|p=343}} The book identified land, labour, and capital as the three factors of production and the major contributors to a nation's wealth, as distinct from the physiocratic idea that only agriculture was productive. | |||
Smith discusses potential benefits of specialisation by ], including increased ] and ], whether between town and country or across countries.<ref>{{cite web |author-link=Alan Deardorff |last=Deardorff |first=Alan V. |date=2016 |title=Division of labor |website=Deardorffs' Glossary of International Economics |publisher=University of Michigan |url=http://www-personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/d.html#DivisionOfLabor |access-date=1 March 2012 |archive-date=16 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200316082342/http://www-personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/d.html#DivisionOfLabor |url-status=live }}</ref> His "theorem" that "the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market" has been described as the "core of a ] and ]" and a "fundamental principle of economic organization."<ref>{{cite journal |author-link=George J. Stigler |last=Stigler |first=George J. |date=June 1951 |title=The Division of Labor Is Limited by the Extent of the Market |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=185–193 |jstor=1826433 |url=https://www.sfu.ca/~allen/stigler.pdf |doi=10.1086/257075 |s2cid=36014630 |access-date=26 August 2017 |archive-date=25 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160825225559/http://www.sfu.ca/~allen/stigler.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> To Smith has also been ascribed "the most important substantive proposition in all of economics" and foundation of ] theory—that, under ], resource owners (of labour, land, and capital) seek their most profitable uses, resulting in an equal rate of return for all uses in ] (adjusted for apparent differences arising from such factors as training and unemployment).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Stigler |first=George J. |date=December 1976 |title=The Successes and Failures of Professor Smith |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=84 |issue=6 |pages=1199–1213 |jstor=1831274 |doi=10.1086/260508|s2cid=41691663 }} Also published as {{cite report |title=The Successes and Failures of Professor Smith |work=Selected Papers, No. 50 |url=http://testwww.chicagobooth.edu/research/selectedpapers/sp50c.pdf |publisher=Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago |date= |access-date=16 August 2010 |archive-date=25 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160825213630/http://testwww.chicagobooth.edu/research/selectedpapers/sp50c.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Demand and supply can also be used to model the ] to the ], including labour and capital, through ''factor markets''. In a labour market for example, the quantity of labour employed and the price of labour (the wage rate) are modeled as set by the ] (from business firms etc. for production) and supply of labour (from workers). | |||
In an argument that includes "one of the most famous passages in all economics,"{{sfnp|Samuelson|Nordhaus|2010|p=30|loc=ch. 2, "Markets and Government in a Modern Economy", The Invisible Hand}} Smith represents every individual as trying to employ any capital they might command for their own advantage, not that of the society,{{efn|"Capital" in Smith's usage includes ] and ]. The latter includes wages and labour maintenance, money, and inputs from land, mines, and fisheries associated with production.{{sfn|Smith|1776|loc=Bk. II: ch. 1, 2, and 5}}}} and for the sake of profit, which is necessary at some level for employing capital in domestic industry, and positively related to the value of produce.{{sfnp|Smith|1776|loc=Bk. IV: Of Systems of political Œconomy, ch. II, "Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries of such Goods as can be Produced at Home", IV.2.3 para. 3–5 and 8–9}} In this: | |||
Demand and supply are used to explain the behavior of perfectly competitive markets, but their usefulness as a standard of performance extends to any type of market. Demand and supply can also be generalized to explain ] variables in a ], for example, ] and the general ]. | |||
{{blockquote|He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.{{sfnp|Smith|1776|loc=Bk. IV: Of Systems of political Œconomy, ch. II, "Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries of such Goods as can be Produced at Home", para. 9}} }} | |||
===Prices and quantities=== | |||
{{main|Price|Prices and quantities}} | |||
] has a price, its ] in currency markets. Its determination by supply and demand is an important issue in ].]] | |||
In supply-and-demand analysis, ''price'', the going rate of exchange for a good, coordinates production and consumption quantities. | |||
Price and quantity have been described as the most directly observable characteristics of a good produced for the market.<ref>Brody, A. (1987). ""prices and quantities," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 3, p. 957.</ref> Supply, demand, and market equilibrium are theoretical constructs linking price and quantity. But tracing the effects of factors predicted to change supply and demand -- and through them, price and quantity -- is a standard exercise in applied ] and ]. Economic theory can specify under what circumstances price demonstrably serves as an ''efficient'' communication device to regulate quantity.<ref>Jordan, J.S. (1982). "The Competitive Allocation Process Is Informationally Efficient Uniquely." ''Journal of Economic Theory'', 28(1), p. 1-18.</ref> A real-world counterpart might attempt to measure how much variables that increase supply or demand change price and quantity. | |||
The ] ] (1798) used the concept of ] to explain low living standards. ], he argued, tended to increase geometrically, outstripping the production of food, which increased arithmetically. The force of a rapidly growing population against a limited amount of land meant diminishing returns to labour. The result, he claimed, was chronically low wages, which prevented the standard of living for most of the population from rising above the subsistence level.<ref>{{cite book |last=Malthus |first=Thomas |date=1798 |title=An Essay on the Principle of Population |publisher=J. Johnson Publisher|title-link=An Essay on the Principle of Population }}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=November 2021}} Economist ] has criticised Malthus's conclusions.<ref>{{cite book|last=Simon|first=Julian Lincoln|title=The Ultimate Resource|year=1981|publisher=Princeton University Press|title-link=The Ultimate Resource}}; and {{cite book|last=Simon|first=Julian Lincoln|title=The Ultimate Resource 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wVyDwYqq5fMC&pg=PP1|year=1996|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-00381-8}}</ref> | |||
Elementary demand-and-supply theory predicts equilibrium but not the speed of adjustment for changes of equilibrium due to a shift in demand or supply.<ref>] (2007). "The Social Sciences: Economics". ''The New Encyclopaedia Britannica''v. 27, p. 347. Chicago. ISBN 0852294239</ref> In many areas, some form of "price stickiness" is postulated to account for quantities, rather than prices, adjusting in the short run to changes on the demand side or the supply side. This includes standard analysis of the ] in ]. Analysis often revolves around causes of such price stickiness and their implications for reaching a hypothesized long-run equilibrium. Examples of such price stickiness in particular markets include wage rates in labour markets and posted prices in markets deviating from ]. | |||
While Adam Smith emphasised production and income, ] (1817) focused on the distribution of income among landowners, workers, and capitalists. Ricardo saw an inherent conflict between landowners on the one hand and labour and capital on the other. He posited that the growth of population and capital, pressing against a fixed supply of land, pushes up rents and holds down wages and profits. Ricardo was also the first to state and prove the principle of ], according to which each country should specialise in producing and exporting goods in that it has a lower ''relative'' cost of production, rather relying only on its own production.<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Ricardo |date=1817 |title=On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation |publisher=John Murray|title-link=On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation }}</ref> It has been termed a "fundamental analytical explanation" for ].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author-link=Ronald Findlay |first=Ronald |last=Findlay |date=2008 |edition=2nd |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_C000254 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.0274 |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=28–33 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Comparative advantage |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |access-date=16 August 2010 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011021521/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_C000254 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Another area of economics considers whether markets adequately take account of all social costs and benefits. An ] is said to occur where there are significant social costs or benefits from production or consumption that are not reflected in market prices. For example, air pollution may generate a negative externality, and education may generate a positive externality (less crime, etc.). Governments often tax and otherwise restrict the sale of goods that have negative externalities and subsidize or otherwise promote the purchase of goods that have positive externalities in an effort to correct the price distortions caused by these externalities.<ref>] (1987). "externalities,"," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 263-65.</ref> | |||
Coming at the end of the classical tradition, ] (1848) parted company with the earlier classical economists on the inevitability of the distribution of income produced by the market system. Mill pointed to a distinct difference between the market's two roles: allocation of resources and distribution of income. The market might be efficient in allocating resources but not in distributing income, he wrote, making it necessary for society to intervene.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mill |first=John Stuart |date=1848 |title=Principles of Political Economy |publisher=John W. Parker Publisher|title-link=Principles of Political Economy }}</ref> | |||
===Marginalism=== | |||
{{main|Marginalism}} | |||
], such as above, describes consumers as attempting to reach a most-preferred position, subject to constraints, including ] and ]. It describes producers as attempting to maximize profits subject to their own constraints (including demand for goods produced, technology, and the price of inputs). Thus, for a consumer, at the point where ] of a good, net of price, reaches zero, further increases in consumption of that good stop. Analogously, a producer compares ] against ] of a good, with the difference as ''marginal profit''. At the point where the marginal profit reaches zero, further increases in production of the good stop. For movement to equilibrium and for changes in equilibrium, behavior also changes "at the margin" -- usually more-or-less of something, rather than all-or-nothing. | |||
Value theory was important in classical theory. Smith wrote that the "real price of every thing ... is the toil and trouble of acquiring it". Smith maintained that, with rent and profit, other costs besides wages also enter the price of a commodity.{{sfnp|Smith|1776|loc=Bk. 1, Ch. 5, 6}} Other classical economists presented variations on Smith, termed the ']'. Classical economics focused on the tendency of any market economy to settle in a ]. | |||
Related conditions and considerations apply more generally to any type of ], whether market-based or not, where there is scarcity.<ref>Samuelson, Paul A., and William D. Nordhaus (2004), '']'', pp.4-5, 7-15.</ref> ] is defined by the amount of producible or exchangeable ], whether needed or desired, exceeding feasible production.<ref>Montani, Guido (1987), "scarcity," ], v. 4, p. 254.</ref> The conditions are in the form of constraints on production from ''finite'' ] available. Such resource constraints describe a menu of ]. For consumers or other agents, production possibilities and scarcity are posited to imply that, even if resources are ], there are ], whether of radishes for carrots, non-work time for money income, ] for public goods, or present consumption for future consumption. The marginalist notion of ] is a device to measure the size of the trade-off between competing alternatives. Such costs, reflected in prices of a market economy, are used for analysis of ] or for predicting responses to disturbances in a market economy. In a ], comparable ] relations must be satisfied for the efficient use of resources in meeting production objectives.<ref>This was first described by the Italian economist ] in 1908. In 1939 the Soviet mathematician ] generalized and extended the analysis.</ref> At this level, marginalism can be used as a tool for modeling not only individual agents or markets but different economic systems and broad allocations of output in relation to variables that affect them. | |||
=== Marxian economics === | |||
==Economic reasoning== | |||
{{Main|Marxian economics}} | |||
Economics as a contemporary discipline relies on rigorous styles of argument. Objectives include formulating theories that are simpler, more fruitful, and more reliable in their explanatory power than other theories.<ref>] (1953), "]," ''Essays in Positive Economics'', University of Chicago Press, pp. 10, 14-15.</ref> Often analysis begins with a simple ] to isolate relations of a variable to be explained. Complications may be impounded in a '']'' ("other things equal") assumption. For example, the ] hypothesizes a positive relationship between the ] and the ], ''ceteris paribus''. The theory can be tested using ], such as a ] for ] and a measure of the money supply, say currency plus bank deposits. Econometric methods can allow for the influence of competing explanations and attempt to adjust for noise from other variables in the absence of a ]. More recently, the use of ] has greatly expanded, challenging a historically-noted differentiating feature of some ]s from economics.<ref>] (1987), "experimental methods in economics," '']'', v. 2, pp. 241-42.</ref> | |||
] ] comes from the work of German philosopher ].|alt=Photograph of Karl Marx facing the viewer]] | |||
Marxist (later, Marxian) economics descends from classical economics and it derives from the work of ]. The first volume of Marx's major work, {{lang|de|]}}, was published in 1867. Marx focused on the ] and ]. Marx wrote that they were mechanisms used by capital to exploit labour.<ref name="Roemer">{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
Expositions of reasoning within economic models often use two-dimensional graphs to represent theoretical relationships. At a higher level of generality, ]'s treatise '']'' (1947) showed how to apply mathematical methods to examine the class of assertions called ''operationally meaningful theorems'' in economics, which are ]s that can conceivably be refuted by ] data.<ref name="Foundations">{{cite book | title=], Enlarged Edition| last=Samuelson| first=Paul| authorlink=Paul Samuelson| date=1947, 1983| pages=p. 4| publisher=Harvard University Press| location=Boston| id=ISBN 978-0674313019}}</ref> Such assertions permit testing of a theory. | |||
|1 = {{cite encyclopedia |author-link=John Roemer |last=Roemer |first=J. E. |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001420 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3052 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Marxian value analysis |pages=1–6 |access-date=19 October 2017 |archive-date=20 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020033131/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001420 |url-status=live }} | |||
|2 = {{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Ernest Mandel |last=Mandel |first=Ernest |date=1987 |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |pages=372, 376 |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001419 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3051 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Marx, Karl Heinrich (1818–1883) |access-date=19 October 2017 |archive-date=20 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020032814/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001419 |url-status=live }} | |||
}}</ref> The labour theory of value held that the value of an exchanged commodity was determined by the labour that went into its production, and the theory of surplus value demonstrated how workers were only paid a proportion of the value their work had created.<ref name="THOMAS FULLER">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/world/asia/18laos.html|work=The New York Times|first=Thomas|last=Fuller|title=Communism and Capitalism Are Mixing in Laos|date=17 September 2009|access-date=24 February 2017|archive-date=22 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222010636/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/world/asia/18laos.html|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Marxian economics was further developed by ] (1854–1938)'s ''The Economic Doctrines of Karl Marx'' and '']'', ]'s (1877–1941) '']'', ] (1870–1924)'s '']'' and '']'', and ] (1871–1919)'s '']''. | |||
Some reject mathematical economics. Thus, in the ] of economics it is argued that anything beyond simple logic is likely unnecessary and inappropriate for economic analysis. Still, much of modern economics employs the ] to explain real-world phenomena. Towards this end, economics has undergone a massive formalization of its concepts and methods. This has included extension of microeconomic methods to analysis of seemingly non-economic areas, sometimes called '']''.<ref>Lazear, Edward P. (2000). "Economic Imperialism," | |||
''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'', 115(1), p-146.</ref> | |||
=== Neoclassical economics === | |||
==History and schools of economics== | |||
{{ |
{{Main|Neoclassical economics}} | ||
At its inception as a social science, ''economics'' was defined and discussed at length as the study of production, distribution, and consumption of wealth by Jean-Baptiste Say in his ''Treatise on Political Economy or, The Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth'' (1803). These three items were considered only in relation to the increase or diminution of wealth, and not in reference to their processes of execution.{{efn|"This science indicates the cases in which commerce is truly productive, where whatever is gained by one is lost by another, and where it is profitable to all; it also teaches us to appreciate its several processes, but simply in their results, at which it stops. Besides this knowledge, the merchant must also understand the processes of his art. He must be acquainted with the commodities in which he deals, their qualities and defects, the countries from which they are derived, their markets, the means of their transportation, the values to be given for them in exchange, and the method of keeping accounts. The same remark is applicable to the agriculturist, to the manufacturer, and to the practical man of business; to acquire a thorough knowledge of the causes and consequences of each phenomenon, the study of political economy is essentially necessary to them all; and to become expert in his particular pursuit, each one must add thereto a knowledge of its processes." {{harv|Say|1803|page=XVI}} }} Say's definition has survived in part up to the present, modified by substituting the word "wealth" for "goods and services" meaning that wealth may include non-material objects as well. One hundred and thirty years later, ] noticed that this definition no longer sufficed,{{efn|"And when we submit the definition in question to this test, it is seen to possess deficiencies which, so far from being marginal and subsidiary, amount to nothing less than a complete failure to exhibit either the scope or the significance of the most central generalisations of all." {{harv|Robbins|2007|p=5}} }} because many economists were making theoretical and philosophical inroads in other areas of human activity. In his '']'', he proposed a definition of economics as a study of human behaviour, subject to and constrained by scarcity,{{efn|"The conception we have adopted may be described as analytical. It does not attempt to pick out certain kinds of behaviour, but focuses attention on a particular aspect of behaviour, the form imposed by the influence of scarcity. {{harv|Robbins|2007|p=17}} }} which forces people to choose, allocate scarce resources to competing ends, and economise (seeking the greatest welfare while avoiding the wasting of scarce resources). According to Robbins: "Economics is the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses".{{sfnp|Robbins|2007|p=16}} Robbins' definition eventually became widely accepted by mainstream economists, and found its way into current textbooks.<ref>{{cite conference |title=Defining Economics: the Long Road to Acceptance of the Robbins Definition |first1=Roger E. |last1=Backhouse |first2=Steven G. |last2=Medema |work=Lionel Robbins's essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, 75th anniversary conference proceedings |date=10 December 2007 |pages=209–230 |url=http://darp.lse.ac.uk/papersdb/LionelRobbinsConferenceProveedingsVolume.pdf#page=213 |conference= |access-date=30 July 2014 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060656/http://darp.lse.ac.uk/papersdb/LionelRobbinsConferenceProveedingsVolume.pdf#page=213 |url-status=live }} also published in {{cite journal |title=Defining Economics: The Long Road to Acceptance of the Robbins Definition |journal=Economica |date=October 2009 |volume=76 |issue=Supplement 1 |pages=805–820 |jstor=40268907 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0335.2009.00789.x|last1=Backhouse |first1=Roger E |last2=Medema |first2=Steve G |s2cid=148506444 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Although far from unanimous, most mainstream economists would accept some version of Robbins' definition, even though many have raised serious objections to the scope and method of economics, emanating from that definition.{{sfnp|Backhouse|Medema|2007|page=223|ps=: "There remained division over whether economics was defined by a method or a subject matter but both sides in that debate could increasingly accept some version of the Robbins definition."}} | |||
Economic thought may be roughly divided into three phases: ''premodern'' (], ], ], ], ], and ]), ''early modern'' (], ]) from the 15th to 18th century,<ref name="Blaug">] (2007). "The Social Sciences: Economics". {{cite book | title=The New Encyclopaedia Britannica| date=| pages=v. 27, p. 343| publisher=| id=ISBN 0852294239}}</ref> and ''modern'' (since ] in the late ]). Systematic economic theory has been developed mainly since the birth of the modern era. ] specifically credits the development of the scientific study of economics to the Late ], particularly those of 15th and 16th century ] (see his ''History of Economic Analysis''). | |||
A body of theory later termed "neoclassical economics" formed from about 1870 to 1910. The term "economics" was popularised by such neoclassical economists as ] and ] as a concise synonym for "economic science" and a substitute for the earlier "]".<ref name="MarshallMarshall1888" /><ref name="Jevons1879"/> This corresponded to the influence on the subject of mathematical methods used in the ]s.<ref name="Clark">{{cite book |last=Clark |first=Barry |title=Political Economy: A Comparative Approach |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3wpiDzS45PsC&pg=PP1 |edition=2nd |year=1998 |publisher=Praeger |isbn=978-0-275-95869-5}}</ref> | |||
===Classical economics=== | |||
{{main|Classical economics}} | |||
Publication of ]'s '']'' in 1776, has been described as "the effective birth of economics as a separate discipline."<ref name="Blaug">] (2007). "The Social Sciences: Economics". {{cite book | title=The New Encyclopaedia Britannica| date=| pages=v. 27, p. 343| publisher=The New Encyclopaedia Britannica| location=Chicago| id=ISBN 0852294239}}</ref> The approach that Smith helped initiate was called ] and later ']'. It included such notables as ], ], and ] writing from about 1770 to 1870.<ref>Blaug, Mark (1987). "classical economics". ], v. 1, pp. 434-35 Blaug notes less widely used datings and uses of 'classical economics', including those of ] and ].</ref> | |||
Neoclassical economics systematically integrated ] as joint determinants of both price and quantity in market equilibrium, influencing the allocation of output and income distribution. It rejected the classical economics' ] in favour of a ] theory of value on the demand side and a more comprehensive theory of costs on the supply side.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |chapter=Marginalist economics |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001393 |access-date=27 October 2017 |last=Campus |first=Antonietta |date=1987 |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first1=John |edition=first |volume=III |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3031 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027231849/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001393 |archive-date=27 October 2017 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |url-status=live}}</ref> In the 20th century, neoclassical theorists departed from an earlier idea that suggested measuring total utility for a society, opting instead for ], which posits behaviour-based relations across individuals.<ref name="Hicks" /><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |access-date=27 October 2017 |last=Black |first=R.D. Collison |date=2008 |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first1=Steven N. |edition=2nd |pages=577–581 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.1781 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028042451/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_U000047 |archive-date=28 October 2017 |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_U000047 |chapter=Utility |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Value theory was important in classical theory. Smith wrote that the "real price of every thing ... is the toil and trouble of acquiring it" as influenced by its scarcity. Smith maintained that, with rent and profit, other costs besides wages also enter the price of a commodity.<ref>Smith, Adam (1776). , Bk. 1, Ch. 5, 6.</ref> Other classical economists presented variations on Smith, termed the ']'. Classical economics focused on the tendency of markets to move to long-run equilibrium. | |||
In ], neoclassical economics represents incentives and costs as playing a pervasive role in shaping ]. An immediate example of this is the ] of individual demand, which isolates how prices (as costs) and income affect quantity demanded.<ref name="Hicks"/> In ] it is reflected in an early and lasting ] with Keynesian macroeconomics.<ref name="Blanchard2008"/><ref name="Hicks">{{cite journal |author-link=John Hicks |last=Hicks |first=J.R. |date=April 1937 |title=Mr. Keynes and the "Classics": A Suggested Interpretation |journal=Econometrica |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=147–159 |jstor=1907242 |doi=10.2307/1907242 }}</ref> | |||
===Marxist economics=== | |||
{{main|Marxian economics}} | |||
] | |||
Marxist (later, Marxian) economics descends from classical economics. It derives from the work of ]. The first volume of Marx's major work, ''Capital'', was published in German in 1867. In it, Marx focused on the ] and what he considered to be the exploitation of labour by capital. Thus, the labour theory of value, rather than simply a theory of price, was a method for measuring the exploitation of labour in a capitalist society,<ref name="Roemer"> ] (1987). "Marxian Value Analysis". {{cite book | title=]| authorlink=| date=| pages=v. 3, 383| publisher=Macmillan and Stockton| location=London and New York| id=ISBN 0333372352}},</ref><ref name="Mandel">] (1987). "Marx, Karl Heinrich". {{cite book | title=The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics| date=| pages=v. 3, 372, 376| publisher=Macmillan and Stockton| location=London and New York| id=ISBN 0333372352}}</ref> although concealed by appearances of "vulgar" political economy.<ref>Vianello, Fernando (1987). "labour theory of value," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 3, pp. 111-12.</ref><ref>Baradwaj Krishna (1987). "vulgar economy," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 3, p. 831.</ref> | |||
Neoclassical economics is occasionally referred as ''orthodox economics'' whether by its critics or sympathisers. Modern ] builds on neoclassical economics but with many refinements that either supplement or generalise earlier analysis, such as ], ], analysis of ] and ], and the ] of ] for analysing long-run variables affecting ]. | |||
===Neoclassical economics=== | |||
{{main|Neoclassical economics}} | |||
A body of theory later termed 'neoclassical economics' or ']' formed from about 1870 to 1910. The term 'economics' was popularized by neoclassical economists such as ] as a substitute for the earlier term ']'. Neoclassical economics sytematized ] as joint determinants of price and quantity in market equilibrium, affecting both the allocation of output and the distribution of income. It dispensed with the ] inherited from classical econonomics in favor of a ] theory of value on the demand side and a more general theory of costs on the supply side.<ref name=>Campos, Antonietta (1987). "marginalist economics". {{cite book | title=The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics| date=| pages=v. 3, 320| publisher=Macmillan and Stockton| location=London and New York| id=ISBN 0333372352}}</ref> | |||
Neoclassical economics studies the behaviour of ]s, ]s, and ]s (called economic actors, players, or agents), when they manage or use ] resources, which have alternative uses, to achieve desired ends. Agents are assumed to act rationally, have multiple desirable ends in sight, limited resources to obtain these ends, a set of stable preferences, a definite overall guiding objective, and the capability of making a choice. There exists an economic problem, subject to study by economic science, when a ] (choice) is made by one or more players to attain the best possible outcome.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Leigh |last=Tesfatsion |title=Agent-Based Computational Economics: Growing Economies from the Bottom Up |journal=] |date=Winter 2002 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=55–82 |url=https://www2.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/acealife.pdf |pmid=12020421 |doi=10.1162/106454602753694765 |citeseerx=10.1.1.194.4605 |s2cid=1345062 |access-date=24 June 2020 |archive-date=26 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126182912/https://www2.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/acealife.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
In ], neoclassical economics represents incentives and costs as playing a pervasive role in shaping ]. An immediate example of this is the ] of individual demand, which isolates how prices (as costs) and income affect quantity demanded. In ] it is reflected in an early and lasting ] with Keynesian macroeconomics.<ref>] (1937). "Mr. Keynes and the 'Classics': A Suggested Interpretation," ''Econometrica'', 5(2), pp. -159 (via ]).</ref><ref>Blanchard, Olivier Jean (1987). "neoclassical synthesis," '']'', v. 3, pp. 634-36.</ref> | |||
Neoclassical economics is occasionaly referred as ''orthodox economics'' whether by its critics or sympathizers. Modern ] builds on neoclassical economics but with many refinements that either supplement or generalize earlier analysis, such as ], ], analysis of ] and ], and the ] of ] for analyzing long-run variables affecting ]. | |||
===Keynesian economics=== |
=== Keynesian economics === | ||
{{ |
{{Main|Keynesian economics}} | ||
] | ], a key economics theorist]] | ||
Keynesian economics derives from ], in particular his book '']'' (1936), which ushered in contemporary ] as a distinct field.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
Keynesian economics derives from ], in particular his book '']'' (1936),<ref>{{cite book |last=Keynes |first=John Maynard |title=] |publisher= Macmillan|date=1936 |location=London |id=ISBN 1-57392-139-4 }}</ref> The book is commonly described in such terms as "revolutionary" as to its impact on economic thought.<ref>Samuelson, Paul A., and William D. Nordhaus]] (2004). '']'', p. 5.</ref><ref>^ Blaug, Mark (2007). "The Social Sciences: Economics". ''The New Encyclopaedia Britannica]], v. 27, p. 346. Chicago.</ref> It focused on economy as a whole in the short run when prices are relatively rigid. Written in the aftermath of the ], it attempted to explain in theoretical detail how employment could slump because of low "]." Keynesian economics has two successors. ] also concentrate on macroeconomic rigidities and adjustment processes. Research on micro foundations for their models is represented as based on real-life practices rather than simple optimizing models. It is generally associated with the ] and the work of ]. ] is also associated with developments in the Keynesian fashion. Within this group researchers tend to share with other ] economists the emphasis on models employing micro foundations and optimizing behavior but with a narrower focus on standard Keynesian themes such as price and wage rigidity. These are usually made to be endogenous features of these models, rather than simply assumed as in older style Keynesian ones. | |||
|1 = {{cite book |last=Keynes |first=John Maynard |title=The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money |publisher= Macmillan|year=1936 |location=London |isbn=978-1-57392-139-8 |title-link=The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money }} | |||
|2 = {{harvp|Blaug|2017|p=347}} | |||
}}</ref> The book focused on determinants of national income in the short run when prices are relatively inflexible. Keynes attempted to explain in broad theoretical detail why high labour-market unemployment might not be self-correcting due to low "]" and why even price flexibility and monetary policy might be unavailing. The term "revolutionary" has been applied to the book in its impact on economic analysis.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
|1 = {{cite encyclopedia |last=Tarshis |first=L. |author-link=Lorie Tarshis |date=1987 |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |volume=III |pages=47–50 |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001226 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.2888 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Keynesian Revolution |access-date=27 October 2017 |archive-date=28 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028042612/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001226 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }} | |||
|2 = {{harvp|Samuelson|Nordhaus|2010|p=5}} | |||
|3 = {{harvp|Blaug|2017|p=346}} | |||
}}</ref> | |||
During the following decades, many economists followed Keynes' ideas and expanded on his works. ] and ] developed the ] which was a simple formalisation of some of Keynes' insights on the economy's short-run equilibrium. ] and ] developed important theories of ] and ], respectively, two major components of ]. ] built the first ], applying the Keynesian thinking systematically to the ].<ref>Blanchard et al. (2017), p. 510.</ref> | |||
===Other schools and approaches=== | |||
Other well-known schools or trends of thought referring to a particular style of economics practiced at and disseminated from well-defined groups of academicians that have become known worldwide, include the ], ], the ], the ] and the ]. | |||
=== Post-WWII economics === | |||
Within macroeconomics there is, in general order of their appearance in the literature; ], ], the neoclassical synthesis, ], ], ], and ]. New alternative developments include ], ], and ]. | |||
Immediately after World War II, Keynesian was the dominant economic view of the United States establishment and its allies, Marxian economics was the dominant economic view of the Soviet Union nomenklatura and its allies. | |||
===Historic definitions of economics=== | |||
This section extends the discussion of the definitions of Economics at the beginning of the article. | |||
==== |
==== Monetarism ==== | ||
{{Main|Monetarism}} | |||
The earliest definitions of political economy were simple, elegant statements defining it as the study of wealth. ], author of the seminal work '']'', defines economics simply as "The science of wealth."<ref name="smith">] (1776). '''', edited by C. J. Bullock. Vol. X. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001.</ref> Smith offered another definition, "The Science relating to the laws of production, distribution and exchange."<ref name="smith" /> Wealth was defined as the specialization of labour which allowed a nation to produce more with its supply of labour and resources. This definition divided Smith and Hume from previous definitions which defined wealth as gold. Hume argued that gold without increased activity simply serves to raise prices.<ref name="Hume"> ]; Copley, Stephen and Edgar, Andrew, editors (1998). "Of the Balance of Trade" {{cite book | title=Selected Essays| url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/0192836218/| last=| first=| authorlink=| coauthors=| date=| publisher=Oxford University Press, USA| location=New York| pages=188 |id=ISBN 978-0192836212}}</ref> | |||
Monetarism appeared in the 1950s and 1960s, its intellectual leader being ]. Monetarists contended that monetary policy and other monetary shocks, as represented by the growth in the money stock, was an important cause of economic fluctuations, and consequently that monetary policy was more important than fiscal policy for ].<ref>Blanchard et al. (2017), p. 511.</ref><ref name="fed">{{cite web|url=http://www.federalreserve.gov/BOARDDOCS/SPEECHES/2002/20021108/default.htm|title=Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke|publisher=The Federal Reserve Board|date=8 November 2002|first=Ben|last=Bernanke|access-date=22 February 2009|archive-date=24 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200324160935/https://www.federalreserve.gov/BOARDDOCS/SPEECHES/2002/20021108/default.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Friedman was also skeptical about the ability of central banks to conduct a sensible active monetary policy in practice, advocating instead using simple rules such as a steady rate of money growth.<ref>Blanchard et al. (2017), p. 512.</ref> | |||
] defined economics as "The practical science of production and distribution of wealth"; this definition was adopted by the '']'' even though it does not include the vital role of consumption. For Mill, wealth is defined as the stock of useful things.<ref name="Mill">{{cite book | title=Principles of Political Economy with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy| url=http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC04904974&id=rsqrZx89WO4C&dq=editions:OCLC00334987| last=Mill| first=John Stuart| authorlink=John Stuart Mill| date=1848| pages=1, 8| publisher=C.C. Little & J. Brown| location=Boston| id=ISBN 978-0192836212}}</ref> | |||
Monetarism rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, when several major central banks followed a monetarist-inspired policy, but was later abandoned because the results were unsatisfactory.<ref>Blanchard et al. (2017), p. 483-484.</ref><ref name="Historical">{{cite web |title=Federal Reserve Board - Historical Approaches to Monetary Policy |url=https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/historical-approaches-to-monetary-policy.htm |website=Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System |access-date=29 October 2023 |language=en |date=8 March 2018}}</ref> | |||
Definitions of the subject in terms of wealth emphasize production and consumption. This emphasis was charged by critics as too narrow a focus in placing wealth to the forefront and man in the background. For example, ] referred to political economy as a "bastard science"<ref name="Ruskin1">] (1860). {{Cite web|url=http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/ruskin/ruskin|title=Ad Valorem|accessdate=2007-03-17|publisher=Cornhill Magazine|year= |author= |work=}} Reprinted as ''Unto This Last'', 1862</ref> and "the science of getting rich."<ref name="Ruskin2">] (1860). {{Cite web|url=http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/ruskin/ruskin|title=The Veins of Wealth|accessdate=2007-03-17|publisher=Cornhill Magazine |year=|author= |work=}} Reprinted as ''Unto This Last'', 1862</ref> | |||
==== |
==== New classical economics ==== | ||
{{Main|New classical macroeconomics}} | |||
Later definitions evolved to include human activity, advocating a shift toward the modern view of economics as primarily a study of man and of human welfare, not of money. ] in his 1890 book ''Principles of Economics'' wrote, "Political Economy or Economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary business of Life; it examines that part of the individual and social action which is most closely connected with the attainment and with the use of material requisites of well-being."<ref name="Marshall">{{cite book | title=Principles of Economics| url=http://www.econlib.org/library/Marshall/marP.html| last=Marshall| first=Alfred| authorlink=Alfred Marshall| date=1890| pages=8th ed., 1920, I.I.1| publisher=Macmillan and Co., Ltd | location=London}}</ref> | |||
A more fundamental challenge to the prevailing Keynesian paradigm came in the 1970s from ] like ], ] and ]. They introduced the notion of ] in economics, which had profound implications for many economic discussions, among which were the so-called ] and the presentation of ].<ref>Blanchard et al. (2017), pp. 512–516.</ref> | |||
== Economic theory criticisms == | |||
=== Is economics a science? === | |||
One of the marks of a ] is the use of a ] and the ability to establish ] and make ] which can then be tested with data and where the results are repeatable and demonstrable to others when the same conditions are present. In a number of applied fields in economics experimentation has been conducted: this includes the sub-fields of ] and ], focused on experimentation using human subjects; and the sub-field of ], focused on testing hypotheses when data are not generated via controlled experimentation. However, in a way similar to what happens in other ], it may be difficult for economists to conduct certain formal experiments due to moral and practical issues involved with human subjects. | |||
The status of social sciences as an empirical ] has been a matter of debate in the 20th century, see ].<ref name="Popper">Critical examination of various positions on this issue can be found in ]'s '''' (1957). London and New York: Routledge; reprint ed. 1988 (paper). </ref> Some philosophers and scientists, most notably ], have asserted that no empirical hypothesis, proposition, or theory can be considered scientific if no observation could be made which might contradict it, insisting on strict ]. Critics allege that economics cannot always achieve Popperian falsifiability, but economists point to many examples of controlled experiments that do exactly this. <ref>The Economics of Fair Play. Karl Sigmund, Ernst Fehr and Martin A. Nowak in Scientific American, Vol. 286, No. 1, pages 82-87; January 2002</ref><ref>The Nature of Human Altruism. Ernst Fehr and Urs Fischbacher in Nature, Vol. 425, pages 785-791; October 23, 2003.</ref><ref>Andrew Oswald, ‘‘Happiness and Economic Performance,’’ Economic Journal 107 (1997): p. 1815–1831.</ref> | |||
==== New Keynesians ==== | |||
While economics has produced theories that correlate with observations of behavior in society, economics yields no natural laws or universal constants due to its reliance on non-physical arguments. This has led some critics to argue economics is not a science.<ref name="Richardson">{{Cite web|url=http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/resource/onlinetext/Definitions/economicsNOTscience.htm|title=Economics is NOT Natural Science! (It is technology of Social Science.)|accessdate=2007-03-17|publisher=R.H. Richardson|year=]|author=Richardson, Dick}}</ref> In general, economists reply that while this aspect may present serious difficulties, they do in fact test their hypotheses using ] such as ] and data generated in the real world.<ref name="Roth">{{Cite web|url=http://kuznets.fas.harvard.edu/~aroth/econsci.html|title=Is Economics a Science? (Of course it is...) |accessdate=2007-03-17|publisher=Alvin E. Roth|year=1999|author=Roth, Alvin E.|work=Unpublished letter to the Economist}} Roth is the Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration, Harvard Economics Department and ]</ref> The field of ] has seen efforts to test at least some predictions of economic theories in a simulated laboratory setting – an endeavor which earned ] and ] the ] in ]. | |||
{{Main|New Keynesian economics}} | |||
During the 1980s, a group of researchers appeared being called ], including among others ], ], ] and ]. They adopted the principle of rational expectations and other monetarist or new classical ideas such as building upon models employing micro foundations and optimizing behaviour, but simultaneously emphasised the importance of various ]s for the functioning of the economy, as had Keynes.<ref>Blanchard et al. (2017), pp. 516–517.</ref> Not least, they proposed various reasons that potentially explained the empirically observed features of ], usually made to be endogenous features of the models, rather than simply assumed as in older Keynesian-style ones. | |||
Although the conventional way of connecting an ] with the world is through ] analysis, economist and professor ], through what is known as the ], cites many examples in which professors of ] were able to use the same data to both prove and disprove the applicability of a model's conclusions. She argues the vast efforts expended by economists on analytical equations is essentially wasted effort. ] have replied that this would be an objection to any science, and not only to economics. Critics of McCloskey's critique reply by saying, among other things, that she ignores examples where economic analysis is conclusive and that her claims are illogical. <ref></ref> | |||
====New neoclassical synthesis==== | |||
=== Criticism of assumptions === | |||
{{Main|New neoclassical synthesis}} | |||
Certain models used by economists within economics have been criticized, sometimes by other economists, for their reliance on unrealistic, unobservable, or unverifiable assumptions. One response to this criticism has been that the unrealistic assumptions result from abstraction from unimportant details, and that such abstraction is necessary in a complex real world, which means that rather than unrealistic assumptions compromising the epistemic worth of economics, such assumptions are essential for economic knowledge. One study has termed this explanation the "abstractionist defense" and concluded that that this "abstractionist defense" does not invalidate the criticism of the unrealistic assumptions.<ref name="Rappaport">{{Cite web|url=http://www.econmethodology.org/jem/issues/v3n2.html |title=Abstraction and unrealistic assumptions in economics|accessdate=2007-03-17|publisher=Journal of Economic Methodology|year=December 1996|author=Rappaport, Steven |work=Volume 3 Number 2}}</ref> However, it is important to note that while one school does have a majority in the field, there is far from a consensus on all economic issues and multiple alternative fields claim to have more empirically-justified insights. | |||
After decades of often heated discussions between Keynesians, monetarists, new classical and new Keynesian economists, a synthesis emerged by the 2000s, often given the name ''the ]''. It integrated the rational expectations and optimizing framework of the new classical theory with a new Keynesian role for nominal rigidities and other market imperfections like ] in goods, labour and credit markets. The monetarist importance of monetary policy in stabilizing<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Woodford |first1=Michael |title=Convergence in Macroeconomics: Elements of the New Synthesis |journal=American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics |date=2009 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=267–279 |doi=10.1257/mac.1.1.267 |jstor=25760267 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25760267 |issn=1945-7707}}</ref> the economy and in particular controlling inflation was recognised as well as the traditional Keynesian insistence that fiscal policy could also play an influential role in affecting ]. Methodologically, the synthesis led to a new class of applied models, known as ] or DSGE models, descending from real business cycles models, but extended with several new Keynesian and other features. These models proved useful and influential in the design of modern monetary policy and are now standard workhorses in most central banks.<ref>Blanchard et al. (2017), pp. 517–518.</ref> | |||
====Assumptions and observations==== | |||
Many criticisms of economics revolve around the belief that the fundamental claims of economics are unquestioned assumption without empirical evidence. Many economists reply giving examples of concepts that used to be considered "axioms" in economics and which have turned out to be consistent with empirical observation (see three examples below), however agreeing that these observations reveal that the original assumption was probably oversimplified. | |||
==== After the financial crisis ==== | |||
A few examples of such concepts that according to many economists have evolved from "assumptions" to empirically-based are: | |||
After the ], macroeconomic research has put greater emphasis on understanding and integrating the financial system into models of the general economy and shedding light on the ways in which problems in the financial sector can turn into major macroeconomic recessions. In this and other research branches, inspiration from ] has started playing a more important role in mainstream economic theory.<ref>Blanchard et al. (2017), pp. 518–519.</ref> Also, ] among the economic agents, e.g. differences in income, plays an increasing role in recent economic research.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Guvenen |first1=Fatih |title=Macroeconomics with Heterogeneity: A Practical Guide |url=https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w17622/w17622.pdf |website=www.nber.org |publisher=National Bureau of Economic Research |access-date=29 October 2023}}</ref> | |||
*Rationality = Self-Interest: This refers to the common axiom or belief shared by many mainstream economists that rationality implies self-interest and vice-versa. This does not, however, preclude altruism. Altruism can be viewed as a case in which the individual's self-interest includes doing good for others. Other views claim that this does not leave much room for altruism, and in fact discourages it, rather like a global ] .i.e.: ''If "rational" people are not altruistic, then I shouldn't be altruistic either'', ad infinitum. However, this "axiom" has since been subjected to multiple experiments and even altruism, when all social pressures are considered, could be modeled as a form of self-interest.<ref>The Economics of Fair Play. Karl Sigmund, Ernst Fehr and Martin A. Nowak in Scientific American, Vol. 286, No. 1, pages 82-87; January 2002</ref><ref>The Nature of Human Altruism. Ernst Fehr and Urs Fischbacher in Nature, Vol. 425, pages 785-791; October 23, 2003.</ref> | |||
=== Other schools and approaches === | |||
*Well-Being = Consumption: This refers to the axiom or belief shared by some mainstream economists that human beings are happy when they consume, and unhappy when not consuming. Added to the other common assumption of insatiability, this implies human beings can never remain happy. Although this original belief is over-simplified (and perhaps not representative of most economists actual beliefs today), empirical observations have now confirmed a relationship between sense of well-being and such factors as income.<ref>Andrew Oswald, ‘‘Happiness and Economic Performance,’’ Economic Journal 107 | |||
{{Main|Schools of economic thought}} | |||
(1997): p. 1815–1831.</ref> | |||
Other schools or trends of thought referring to a particular style of economics practised at and disseminated from well-defined groups of academicians that have become known worldwide, include the ], the ], the ] and the ]. During the 1970s and 1980s ] was sometimes separated into the ] of those universities along the ] and ] coasts of the US, and the Freshwater, or ] approach.<ref name=gordonessays>{{Citation | last = Gordon | first = Robert J. | author-link = Robert J. Gordon | title = Productivity Growth, Inflation, and Unemployment | publisher = ] | year = 2003 | pages = 226–227 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VXINsDT1sFwC |isbn = 978-0-521-53142-9}}</ref> | |||
*Atomism: This refers to the belief shared by some mainstream economists that human beings are atomistic, ie.their preferences are independent. This is another simplification both of the economy and of the specific beliefs of the economists. Agent-based modeling and experimental economics produce results that are indicative of this theory. | |||
Within macroeconomics there is, in general order of their historical appearance in the literature; ], ], ], the ], ], ], ]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gali |first=Jordi |date=2015 |title=Monetary Policy, Inflation and the Business Cycle: An Introduction to the New Keynesian Framework and Its Applications |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GuYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 |edition=2nd |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-16478-6 |pages=5–6}}</ref> and the ].<ref>{{cite web |last=Woodford |first=Michael |title=Convergence in Macroeconomics: Elements of the New Synthesis |work=The New Consensus |date=January 2008 |url=http://www.columbia.edu/~mw2230/Convergence_AEJ.pdf |access-date=31 August 2021 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221064431/http://www.columbia.edu:80/~mw2230/Convergence_AEJ.pdf |archive-date=21 December 2008 }}</ref> | |||
A common defense of the above axioms was that they made the problem tractable. However, after specific details of this have been observed through economics research in a variety of controlled experiments, the original assumptions have been further refined and are no longer technically "axioms" in ]. | |||
Beside the ] development of economic thought, various alternative or ] have evolved over time, positioning themselves in contrast to mainstream theory.<ref name=Lee>{{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=Frederic S. |title=Heterodox Economics |journal=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |date=2008 |pages=1–7 |doi=10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2487-1|isbn=978-1-349-95121-5 }}</ref> These include:<ref name=Lee/> | |||
===Criticism of contradictions=== | |||
* ], emphasizing ], ] and the freedom to contract and transact to have a thriving and successful economy.<ref>{{cite web |title=WHAT IS AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS? |date=16 May 2014 |url=https://mises.org/what-austrian-economics |access-date=February 13, 2022 |archive-date=23 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023162020/https://mises.org/what-austrian-economics |url-status=live }}</ref> It also emphasises that the state should play as small role as possible (if any role) in the regulation of economic activity between two transacting parties.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Austrian Theory of Efficiency and the Role of Government|url=https://mises.org/library/austrian-theory-efficiency-and-role-government-0|date=November 9, 2019|access-date=14 February 2022|archive-date=14 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214010751/https://mises.org/library/austrian-theory-efficiency-and-role-government-0|url-status=live}}</ref> ] and ] are the two most prominent representatives of the Austrian school. | |||
Economics is a field of study with ]. As a result, there exists a considerable distribution of opinions, approaches and theories. Some of these reach opposite conclusions or, due to the differences in underlying assumptions, contradict each other.<ref name="Dissension">{{cite journal | author=Frey, Bruno S.; Pommerehne, Werner W.; Schneider, Friedrich; Gilbert, Guy | title=Consensus and Dissension Among Economists: An Empirical Inquiry| journal=The American Economic Review| year=December 1984| volume=74| issue=5| page=986-994| url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8282%28198412%2974%3A5%3C986%3ACADAEA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E&size=LARGE}} Accessed on ].</ref><ref name="Frey">{{Cite web|url=http://www.deirdremccloskey.com/articles.php|title=Rhetorical Criticism in Economics|accessdate=2007-03-17|publisher=www.deirdremccloskey.org|year=1983–2005|author=]|work=Articles by Deirdre McCloskey}} McCloskey is Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the ].</ref><ref>McCloskey, D. N. (1985) '''' (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press).</ref> | |||
* ] concentrates on macroeconomic rigidities and adjustment processes. It is generally associated with the ] and the work of ].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Harcourt |first=G.C. |date=1987 |title=The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |volume=III |pages=47–50 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001728 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3307 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Post-Keynesian economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |url=http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/isbn/9781852788018 |access-date=13 February 2020 |archive-date=12 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412222941/https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/post-keynesian-economics-9781852788018.html |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
* ] like ] studies the interactions between human economies and the ecosystems in which they are embedded,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Xepapadeas |first1=Anastasios |title=Ecological Economics |journal=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |date=2008 |pages=1–8 |doi=10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2141-1|isbn=978-1-349-95121-5 }}</ref> but in contrast to environmental economics takes an oppositional position towards general mainstream economic principles. A major difference between the two subdisciplines is their assumptions about the ] between human-made and ].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Berlin |first1=D. I. W. |title=DIW Berlin: A Matter of Opinion : How Ecological and Neoclassical Environmental Economists Think about Sustainability and Economics |url=https://www.diw.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=diw_01.c.450284.de |website=www.diw.de |access-date=29 October 2023 |language=de |date=2006}}</ref> | |||
Additionally, alternative developments include ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ].<ref>{{cite news |first=Nathanial |last=Greenwolde |date=23 October 2009 |title=New School of Thought Brings Energy to 'the Dismal Science' |work=] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/10/23/23greenwire-new-school-of-thought-brings-energy-to-the-dis-63367.html |access-date=24 February 2017 |archive-date=29 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161129124417/http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/10/23/23greenwire-new-school-of-thought-brings-energy-to-the-dis-63367.html |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
===Criticisms of welfare and scarcity definitions of economics=== | |||
The definition of economics in terms of material being is criticized as too narrowly materialistic. It ignores, for example, the non-material aspects of the services of a doctor or a dancer. A theory of wages which ignored all those sums paid for immaterial services was incomplete. Welfare could not be quantitatively measured, because the ] significance of money differs from rich to the poor (that is, $100 is relatively more important to the well-being of a poor person than to that of a wealthy person). Moreover, the activities of production and distribution of goods such as alcohol and tobacco may not be conducive to human welfare, but these scarce ] do satisfy innate human wants and desires. | |||
] emphasises the role that gender plays in economies, challenging analyses that render gender invisible or support gender-oppressive economic systems.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=Feminist Economics |author= Julie A. Nelson |title= The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |chapter-url= https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2210-1 |date=2016-01-01|pages= 1–6 |doi= 10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2210-1 |isbn= 978-1-349-95121-5 |access-date=2023-12-07 }}</ref> The goal is to create economic research and policy analysis that is inclusive and gender-aware to encourage gender equality and improve the well-being of marginalised groups. | |||
] economics still focuses on a welfare definition. In addition, several critiques of mainstream economics begin from the argument that current economic practice does not adequately measure welfare, but only monetized activity, which is an inadequate approximation of welfare. | |||
== Methodology == | |||
=== Theoretical research === | |||
{{Main|Microeconomics|Macroeconomics|Mathematical economics}} | |||
{{redirect|Economic theory|the publication|Economic Theory (journal){{!}}''Economic Theory'' (journal)}} | |||
Mainstream economic theory relies upon analytical ]. When creating theories, the objective is to find assumptions which are at least as simple in information requirements, more precise in predictions, and more fruitful in generating additional research than prior theories.{{sfn|Friedman|1953|p=10}} While ] economic theory constitutes both the dominant or orthodox theoretical as well as ], economic theory can also take the form of other ] such as in ]. | |||
In ], principal concepts include ], ], ], ], ]s, ], and the ].<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
|1 = {{cite encyclopedia |last=Boland |first=Lawrence A. |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |volume=III |pages=455–458 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001456 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3083 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Methodology |access-date=23 October 2017 |archive-date=24 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024043230/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001456 |url-status=live }} | |||
|2 = {{cite journal |title=Consensus and Dissension among Economists: An Empirical Inquiry |last1=Frey |first1=Bruno S. |last2=Pommerehne |first2=Werner W. |last3=Schneider |first3=Friedrich |last4=Gilbert |first4=Guy |journal=] |issn=0002-8282 |volume=74 |issue=5 |date=December 1984 |pages=986–994 |jstor=557 }} | |||
}}</ref> Early ] models focused on modelling the relationships between aggregate variables, but as the relationships appeared to change over time macroeconomists, including ]s, reformulated their models with ],<ref name="Dixon2008"/> in which microeconomic concepts play a major part. | |||
Sometimes an economic hypothesis is only '']'', not ''quantitative''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Quirk |first=James |date=1987 |title=The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |volume=IV |pages=1–3 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001811 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3369 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Qualitative economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |access-date=23 October 2017 |archive-date=23 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023230514/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001811 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Expositions of economic reasoning often use two-dimensional graphs to illustrate theoretical relationships. At a higher level of generality, ] is the application of ] methods to represent theories and analyse problems in economics. ]'s treatise '']'' (1947) exemplifies the method, particularly as to maximizing behavioural relations of agents reaching equilibrium. The book focused on examining the class of statements called ''operationally meaningful theorems'' in economics, which are ]s that can conceivably be refuted by empirical data.<ref name="Foundations">{{cite book |title=Foundations of Economic Analysis|edition=enlarged |last=Samuelson |first=Paul A. |author-link=Paul Samuelson |orig-year=1947 |year=1983 |page= |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-674-31301-9 |title-link=Foundations of Economic Analysis }}</ref> | |||
=== Empirical research === | |||
{{Main|Econometrics|Experimental economics}} | |||
Economic theories are frequently tested ]ly, largely through the use of ] using ].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Hashem |first=M. Pesaren |date=1987 |title=The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |volume=II |page=8 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000646 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.2430 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Econometrics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |access-date=23 October 2017 |archive-date=24 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024100955/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000646 |url-status=live }}</ref> The controlled experiments common to the ]s are difficult and uncommon in economics,<ref>{{cite book|last=Keuzenkamp|first=Hugo A.|author-link=Hugo A. Keuzenkamp|title=Probability, Econometrics and Truth: The Methodology of Econometrics|url=https://archive.org/details/probabilityecono0000keuz|url-access=registration|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-55359-9|page=|quote=... in economics, controlled experiments are rare and reproducible controlled experiments even more so ...}}</ref> and instead broad data is ]; this type of testing is typically regarded as less rigorous than controlled experimentation, and the conclusions typically more tentative. However, the field of ] is growing, and increasing use is being made of ]. | |||
] such as ] are common. Practitioners use such methods to estimate the size, economic significance, and ] ("signal strength") of the hypothesised relation(s) and to adjust for noise from other variables. By such means, a hypothesis may gain acceptance, although in a probabilistic, rather than certain, sense. Acceptance is dependent upon the ] hypothesis surviving tests. Use of commonly accepted methods need not produce a final conclusion or even a consensus on a particular question, given different tests, ]s, and prior beliefs. | |||
] has promoted the use of ] ]s. This has reduced the long-noted distinction of economics from ]s because it allows direct tests of what were previously taken as axioms.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{cite encyclopedia |last=Bastable |first=C. F. |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |volume=II |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000762 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.2512 |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Experimental methods in economics (i) |pages=1–2 |access-date=23 October 2017 |archive-date=24 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024101031/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000762 |url-status=live }}|{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Vernon L. Smith |last=Smith |first=Vernon L. |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |volume=II |pages=241–242 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000763 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.2513 |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Experimental methods in economics (ii) |access-date=23 October 2017 |archive-date=24 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024101020/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000763 |url-status=live }}}}</ref> In some cases these have found that the axioms are not entirely correct. | |||
In ], psychologist ] won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 for his and ]'s empirical discovery of several ]es and ]. Similar empirical testing occurs in ]. Another example is the assumption of narrowly selfish preferences versus a model that tests for selfish, altruistic, and cooperative preferences.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
|1 = {{cite journal |last1=Fehr |first1=Ernst |first2=Urs |last2=Fischbacher |date=23 October 2003 |title=The Nature of Human Altruism |journal=] |volume=425 |issue=6960 |pages=785–791 |doi=10.1038/nature02043|pmid=14574401 |bibcode=2003Natur.425..785F |s2cid=4305295 }} | |||
|2 = {{cite journal |last1=Sigmund |first1=Karl |first2=Ernst |last2=Fehr |first3=Martin A. |last3=Nowak |date=January 2002 |title=The Economics of Fair Play |journal=] |volume=286 |issue=1 |pages=82–87 |pmid=11799620 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0102-82|bibcode=2002SciAm.286a..82S }} | |||
}}</ref> These techniques have led some to argue that economics is a "genuine science".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lazear |first=Edward P. |title=Economic Imperialism |date=1 February 2000 |volume=115 |issue=1 |jstor=2586936 |pages=99–146 |journal=Quarterly Journal of Economics |doi=10.1162/003355300554683}}</ref> | |||
== Microeconomics == | |||
{{Main|Microeconomics|Market (economics)}} | |||
]|alt=A vegetable vendor in a marketplace.]] | |||
] in ], an ] network that brings together buyers and sellers through an ]|alt=Two traders sit at computer monitors with financial information.]] | |||
Microeconomics examines how entities, forming a ], interact within a ] to create a ]. These entities include private and public players with various classifications, typically operating under scarcity of tradable units and ]. The item traded may be a tangible ] such as apples or a ] such as repair services, legal counsel, or entertainment. | |||
Various market structures exist. In ], no participants are large enough to have the ] to set the price of a homogeneous product. In other words, every participant is a "price taker" as no participant influences the price of a product. In the real world, markets often experience ]. | |||
Forms of imperfect competition include ] (in which there is only one seller of a good), ] (in which there are only two sellers of a good), oligopoly (in which there are few sellers of a good), ] (in which there are many sellers producing highly differentiated goods), ] (in which there is only one buyer of a good), and ] (in which there are few buyers of a good). Firms under imperfect competition have the potential to be "price makers", which means that they can influence the prices of their products. | |||
In ] method of analysis, it is assumed that activity in the market being analysed does not affect other markets. This method aggregates (the sum of all activity) in only one market. ] theory studies various markets and their behaviour. It aggregates (the sum of all activity) across ''all'' markets. This method studies both changes in markets and their interactions leading towards equilibrium.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvp|Blaug|2017|pp=347–349}}.|{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Hal R. Varian |last=Varian |first=Hal R. |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001460 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3086 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Microeconomics |pages=1–5 |access-date=4 October 2017 |archive-date=5 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005051338/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001460 |url-status=live }}}}</ref> | |||
=== Production, cost, and efficiency === | |||
{{Main|Production (economics)|Opportunity cost|Economic efficiency|Production–possibility frontier}} | |||
] with illustrative points marked]] | |||
In microeconomics, ] is the conversion of ] into ]. It is an economic process that uses inputs to create a ] or a service for ] or direct use. Production is a ] and thus a rate of output per period of time. Distinctions include such production alternatives as for ] (food, haircuts, etc.) vs. ] (new tractors, buildings, roads, etc.), ]s (national defence, smallpox vaccinations, etc.) or ]s, and ]. | |||
Inputs used in the production process include such primary ] as ], ] (durable produced goods used in production, such as an existing factory), and ] (including natural resources). Other inputs may include ]s used in production of final goods, such as the steel in a new car. | |||
] measures how well a system generates desired output with a given set of inputs and available ]. Efficiency is improved if more output is generated without changing inputs. A widely accepted general standard is ], which is reached when no further change can make someone better off without making someone else worse off. | |||
The ] (PPF) is an expository figure for representing scarcity, cost, and efficiency. In the simplest case, an ] can produce just two goods (say "guns" and "butter"). The PPF is a table or graph (as at the right) that shows the different quantity combinations of the two goods producible with a given technology and total factor inputs, which limit feasible total output. Each point on the curve shows ] for the economy, which is the maximum feasible output of one good, given a feasible output quantity of the other good. | |||
] is represented in the figure by people being willing but unable in the aggregate to consume ''beyond the PPF'' (such as at ''X'') and by the negative slope of the curve.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Montani |first=Guido |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001949 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3485 |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Scarcity |pages=1–4 |access-date=4 October 2017 |archive-date=5 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005051007/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001949 |url-status=live }}</ref> If production of one good ''increases'' along the curve, production of the other good ''decreases'', an ]. This is because increasing output of one good requires transferring inputs to it from production of the other good, decreasing the latter. | |||
The ] of the curve at a point on it gives the ] between the two goods. It measures what an additional unit of one good costs in units forgone of the other good, an example of a ''real opportunity cost''. Thus, if one more Gun costs 100 units of butter, the opportunity cost of one Gun is 100 Butter. ''Along the PPF'', scarcity implies that choosing ''more'' of one good in the aggregate entails doing with ''less'' of the other good. Still, in a ], movement along the curve may indicate that the ] of the increased output is anticipated to be worth the cost to the agents. | |||
By construction, each point on the curve shows '']'' in maximizing output for given total inputs. A point ''inside'' the curve (as at ''A''), is feasible but represents ''production inefficiency'' (wasteful use of inputs), in that output of ''one or both goods'' could increase by moving in a northeast direction to a point on the curve. Examples cited of such inefficiency include high ] during a ] ] or economic organisation of a country that discourages full use of resources. Being on the curve might still not fully satisfy ] (also called ]) if it does not produce a mix of goods that consumers prefer over other points. | |||
Much ] in ] is concerned with determining how the efficiency of an economy can be improved. Recognizing the reality of scarcity and then figuring out how to organise society for the most efficient use of resources has been described as the "essence of economics", where the subject "makes its unique contribution."{{sfnp|Samuelson|Nordhaus|2010|loc= ch. 1, p. 5 (quotation) and sect. C, "The Production-Possibility Frontier", pp. 9–15; ch. 2, "Efficiency" sect.; ch. 8, sect. D, "The Concept of Efficiency}} | |||
=== Specialisation === | |||
{{Main|Division of labour|Comparative advantage|Gains from trade}} | |||
]s for goods within ]]] | |||
Specialisation is considered key to economic efficiency based on theoretical and ] considerations. Different individuals or nations may have different real opportunity costs of production, say from differences in ] of ] per worker or ]/] ratios. According to theory, this may give a ] in production of goods that make more intensive use of the relatively more abundant, thus ''relatively'' cheaper, input. | |||
Even if one region has an ] as to the ratio of its outputs to inputs in every type of output, it may still specialise in the output in which it has a comparative advantage and thereby gain from trading with a region that lacks any absolute advantage but has a comparative advantage in producing something else. | |||
It has been observed that a high volume of trade occurs among regions even with access to a similar technology and mix of factor inputs, including high-income countries. This has led to investigation of economies of ] and ] to explain specialisation in similar but differentiated product lines, to the overall benefit of respective trading parties or regions.<ref>{{cite journal |author-link=Paul Krugman |last=Krugman |first=Paul |date=December 1980 |title=Scale Economies, Product Differentiation, and the Pattern of Trade |journal=] |volume=70 |issue=5 |pages=950–959 |url=http://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/scale_econ.pdf |jstor=1805774 |access-date=16 August 2010 |archive-date=18 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518075839/http://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/scale_econ.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=William C. |last=Strange |date=2008 |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |journal=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |edition=2nd |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_U000064 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.1769 |pages=533–536 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |title=Urban agglomeration |access-date=16 August 2010 |archive-date=10 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010211747/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_U000064 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
The general theory of specialisation applies to trade among individuals, farms, manufacturers, ] providers, and ]. Among each of these production systems, there may be a corresponding '']'' with different work groups specializing, or correspondingly different types of ] and differentiated ] uses.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
|1 = {{cite journal|last=Groenewegen |first=Peter |date=2008 |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |journal=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |edition=2nd |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_D000176 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.0401 |pages=517–526 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |title=Division of labour |access-date=16 August 2010 |archive-date=10 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010211714/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_D000176 |url-status=live }} | |||
|2 = {{cite web |last=Johnson |first=Paul M. |date=2005 |url=http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/specialization |title=Specialization |website=A Glossary of Political Economy Terms |publisher=Department of Political Science, ] |access-date=27 March 2008 |archive-date=29 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130129085436/http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/specialization |url-status=live }} | |||
|3 = {{cite book|last1=Yang|first1=Xiaokai|last2=Ng|first2=Yew-Kwang|title=Specialization and Economic Organization: A New Classical Microeconomic Framework|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xuG4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PP1|year=1993|publisher=North-Holland|isbn=978-0-444-88698-9}} | |||
}}</ref> | |||
An example that combines features above is a country that specialises in the production of high-tech knowledge products, as developed countries do, and trades with developing nations for goods produced in factories where labour is relatively cheap and plentiful, resulting in different in opportunity costs of production. More total output and utility thereby results from specializing in production and trading than if each country produced its own high-tech and low-tech products. | |||
Theory and observation set out the conditions such that market ]s of outputs and productive inputs select an allocation of factor inputs by comparative advantage, so that (relatively) ] inputs go to producing low-cost outputs. In the process, aggregate output may increase as a ] or by ].<ref>{{cite book|last=Cameron|first=Rondo E.|author-link=Rondo Cameron|title=A Concise Economic History of the World: From Paleolithic Times to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aEHX63g1XsYC&pg=PA25|edition=2nd|year=1993|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-507445-1|pages=25–25, 32, 276–280|access-date=10 October 2017|archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801065517/https://books.google.com/books?id=aEHX63g1XsYC&pg=PA25|url-status=live}}</ref> Such specialisation of production creates opportunities for ] whereby resource owners benefit from ] in the sale of one type of output for other, more highly valued goods. A measure of gains from trade is the ''increased income levels'' that trade may facilitate.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvp|Samuelson|Nordhaus|2010|pages=37, 433, 435}}.|{{cite journal|last=Findlay |first=Ronald |date=2008 |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |journal=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |edition=2nd |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_C000254 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.0274 |pages=28–33 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |title=Comparative advantage |access-date=16 August 2010 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011021521/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_C000254 |url-status=live }}|{{cite encyclopedia |last=Kemp |first=Murray C. |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |edition= |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000902 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.2613 |pages=1–3 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Gains from trade |access-date=10 October 2017 |archive-date=10 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010211136/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000902 |url-status=live }}}}</ref> | |||
=== Supply and demand === | |||
{{Main|Supply and demand}} | |||
] model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability and demand. The graph depicts an increase in demand from D<sub>1</sub> to D<sub>2</sub> and the resulting increase in price and quantity required to reach a new equilibrium point on the supply curve (S).|alt=A graph depicting Quantity on the X-axis and Price on the Y-axis]] | |||
] have been described as the most directly observable attributes of goods produced and exchanged in a ].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Brody |first=A. |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001748 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3325 |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=1–7 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Prices and quantities |access-date=10 October 2017 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011071908/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001748 |url-status=live }}</ref> The theory of supply and demand is an organizing principle for explaining how prices coordinate the amounts produced and consumed. In ], it applies to price and output determination for a market with ], which includes the condition of no buyers or sellers large enough to have price-setting ]. | |||
For a given market of a ], ''demand'' is the relation of the quantity that all buyers would be prepared to purchase at each unit price of the good. Demand is often represented by a table or a graph showing price and quantity demanded (as in the figure). ] describes individual consumers as ] choosing the most preferred quantity of each good, given income, prices, tastes, etc. A term for this is "constrained utility maximisation" (with income and ] as the ] on demand). Here, ] refers to the hypothesised relation of each individual consumer for ranking different commodity bundles as more or less preferred. | |||
The ] states that, in general, price and quantity demanded in a given market are inversely related. That is, the higher the price of a product, the less of it people would be prepared to buy (other things ]). As the price of a commodity falls, consumers move toward it from relatively more expensive goods (the ]). In addition, ] from the price decline increases ability to buy (the ]). Other factors can change demand; for example an increase in income will shift the demand curve for a ] outward relative to the origin, as in the figure. All determinants are predominantly taken as constant factors of demand and supply. | |||
''Supply'' is the relation between the price of a good and the quantity available for sale at that price. It may be represented as a table or graph relating price and quantity supplied. Producers, for example business firms, are hypothesised to be ''profit maximisers'', meaning that they attempt to produce and supply the amount of goods that will bring them the highest profit. Supply is typically represented as a function relating price and quantity, if other factors are unchanged. | |||
That is, the higher the price at which the good can be sold, the more of it producers will supply, as in the figure. The higher price makes it profitable to increase production. Just as on the demand side, the position of the supply can shift, say from a change in the price of a productive input or a technical improvement. The "Law of Supply" states that, in general, a rise in price leads to an expansion in supply and a fall in price leads to a contraction in supply. Here as well, the determinants of supply, such as price of substitutes, cost of production, technology applied and various factors inputs of production are all taken to be constant for a specific time period of evaluation of supply. | |||
] occurs where quantity supplied equals quantity demanded, the intersection of the supply and demand curves in the figure above. At a price below equilibrium, there is a shortage of quantity supplied compared to quantity demanded. This is posited to bid the price up. At a price above equilibrium, there is a surplus of quantity supplied compared to quantity demanded. This pushes the price down. The ] of supply and demand predicts that for given supply and demand curves, price and quantity will stabilise at the price that makes quantity supplied equal to quantity demanded. Similarly, demand-and-supply theory predicts a new price-quantity combination from a shift in demand (as to the figure), or in supply. | |||
=== Firms === | |||
{{Main|Theory of the firm|Industrial organisation|Business economics|Managerial economics}} | |||
People frequently do not trade directly on markets. Instead, on the supply side, they may work in and produce through ''firms''. The most obvious kinds of firms are ]s, ] and ]. According to ], people begin to organise their production in firms when the costs of doing business becomes lower than doing it on the market.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Coase |first=Ronald | author-link=Ronald Coase |year=1937 |title=The Nature of the Firm |journal=] |volume=4 |issue=16 |pages=386–405 |jstor=2626876 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0335.1937.tb00002.x|title-link=The Nature of the Firm }}</ref> Firms combine labour and capital, and can achieve far greater ] (when the average cost per unit declines as more units are produced) than individual market trading. | |||
In ] markets studied in the theory of supply and demand, there are many producers, none of which significantly influence price. ] generalises from that special case to study the strategic behaviour of firms that do have significant control of price. It considers the structure of such markets and their interactions. Common market structures studied besides perfect competition include monopolistic competition, various forms of oligopoly, and monopoly.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Schmalensee |first=Richard |author-link=Richard L. Schmalensee |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001118 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.2788 |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=1–9 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Industrial organization |series=Students business book series |hdl=2027/uc1.$b37792 |publisher=Chicago |hdl-access=free |access-date=10 October 2017 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011022150/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001118 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
] applies ] analysis to specific decisions in business firms or other management units. It draws heavily from quantitative methods such as ] and programming and from statistical methods such as ] in the absence of certainty and perfect knowledge. A unifying theme is the attempt to ] business decisions, including unit-cost minimisation and profit maximisation, given the firm's objectives and constraints imposed by technology and market conditions.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
|1 = {{cite encyclopedia |author=<!-- Staff Writers --> |date=5 May 2013 |title=Managerial Economics |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/managerial-economics |access-date=10 October 2017 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011023121/https://www.britannica.com/topic/managerial-economics |url-status=live }} | |||
|2 = {{cite encyclopedia|last=Hughes |first=Alan |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |location=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001379 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3017 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Managerial capitalism |pages=1–5 |access-date=10 October 2017 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011072045/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001379 |url-status=live }} <!-- check definitions because entries say they went online in 2016 --> | |||
}}</ref> | |||
=== Uncertainty and game theory === | |||
{{Main|Information economics|Game theory|Financial economics}} | |||
] in economics is an unknown prospect of gain or loss, whether quantifiable as ] or not. Without it, household behaviour would be unaffected by uncertain employment and income prospects, ] and ]s would reduce to exchange of a single ] in each market period, and there would be no ]s industry.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author-link1=Mark J. Machina |last1=Machina |first1=Mark J. |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=190–197 |author-link2=Michael Rothschild |last2=Rothschild |first2=Michael |date=2008 |edition=2nd |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_R000152 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.1442 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Risk |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |access-date=2 March 2011 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011071806/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_R000152 |url-status=live }}</ref> Given its different forms, there are various ways of representing uncertainty and modelling economic agents' responses to it.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Wakker |first=Peter P. |date=2008 |edition=second |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_U000005 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.1753 |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=428–439 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Uncertainty |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |access-date=2 March 2011 |archive-date=30 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230071633/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_U000005 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
] is a branch of ] that considers ] between agents, one kind of uncertainty. It provides a mathematical ] of ], discussed above, to model different types of firm behaviour, for example in a solipsistic industry (few sellers), but equally applicable to wage negotiations, ], ], and any situation where individual agents are few enough to have perceptible effects on each other. In ], it has been used to model the strategies ] choose when interacting with others whose interests are at least partially adverse to their own.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvp|Samuelson|Nordhaus|2010|loc=ch. 11, "Uncertainty and Game Theory" and Glossary of Terms, "Economics of information", "Game theory", and "Regulation"}}.|{{cite book |last=Camerer |first=Colin F. |author-link=Colin F. Camerer |date=2003 |title=Behavioral Game Theory: Experiments in Strategic Interaction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cr_Xg7cRvdcC&pg=PP1 |chapter=Chapter 1: Introduction |chapter-url=http://assets.press.princeton.edu/chapters/i7517.pdf |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4088-5}}}}</ref> | |||
In this, it generalises maximisation approaches developed to analyse market actors such as in the ] model and allows for incomplete information of actors. The field dates from the 1944 classic '']'' by ] and ]. It has significant applications seemingly outside of economics in such diverse subjects as the formulation of ], ], ], and ].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Game Theory |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_G000007 |access-date=2 March 2011 |last=Aumann |first=R. J. |date=2008 |author-link=Robert Aumann |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first1=Steven N. |edition=2nd |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229164520/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_G000007 |archive-date=29 December 2010 |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
] may stimulate activity that in well-functioning markets smooths out risk and communicates information about risk, as in markets for ], commodity ], and ]. ] or simply ] describes the allocation of financial resources. It also analyses the pricing of financial instruments, the ] of companies, the efficiency and fragility of ]s,<ref>{{cite journal |author-link1=Ben Bernanke |last1=Bernanke |first1=Ben |author-link2=Mark Gertler (economist) |first2=Mark |last2=Gertler |date=February 1990 |title=Financial Fragility and Economic Performance |journal=Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=105 |issue=1 |pages=87–114 |jstor=2937820 |doi=10.2307/2937820 |s2cid=155048192 |url=http://www.nber.org/papers/w2318.pdf |access-date=3 September 2019 |archive-date=26 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191126210951/https://www.nber.org/papers/w2318.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> ], and related government policy or ].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |edition=2nd |date=2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Stephen Ross (economist) |last=Ross |first=Stephen A. |title=Finance |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_F000071 }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Burnside |first1=Craig |first2=Martin |last2=Eichenbaum |first3=Sergio |last3=Rebelo |title=Currency Crises Models |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_S000204 |access-date=2 March 2011 |archive-date=26 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326015628/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_S000204 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Kaminsky |first=Graciela Laura |title=Currency Crises |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_C000468 |access-date=2 March 2011 |archive-date=26 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326015551/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_C000468 |url-status=live }} | |||
</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Calomiris |first=Charles W. |title=Banking Crises |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_B000051 |access-date=2 March 2011 |archive-date=3 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103021252/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_B000051 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Some market organisations may give rise to inefficiencies associated with uncertainty. Based on ]'s "]" article, the ] example is of a dodgy second-hand car market. Customers without knowledge of whether a car is a "lemon" depress its price below what a quality second-hand car would be.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Akerlof |first=George A. |date=August 1970 |title=The Market for 'Lemons': Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism |journal=Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=84 |issue=3 |pages=488–500 |jstor=1879431 |doi=10.2307/1879431 |s2cid=6738765 |url=http://hydrogen.its.ucdavis.edu/eec/education/EEC-classes/eeclimate/class-readings/akerlof-the%20market%20for%20lemons.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818045155/http://hydrogen.its.ucdavis.edu/eec/education/EEC-classes/eeclimate/class-readings/akerlof-the%20market%20for%20lemons.pdf |archive-date=18 August 2011}}</ref> ] arises here, if the seller has more relevant information than the buyer but no incentive to disclose it. Related problems in insurance are ], such that those at most risk are most likely to insure (say reckless drivers), and ], such that insurance results in riskier behaviour (say more reckless driving).<ref name="sciencedirect">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Lippman |first1=S.S. |title=International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences |pages=7480–7486 |first2=J.J. |last2=McCall |date=2001 |publisher=Elsevier |doi=10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/02244-0|isbn=978-0-08-043076-8 |chapter=Information, Economics of }}</ref> | |||
Both problems may raise insurance costs and reduce efficiency by driving otherwise willing transactors from the market ("]"). Moreover, attempting to reduce one problem, say adverse selection by mandating insurance, may add to another, say moral hazard. ], which studies such problems, has relevance in subjects such as insurance, ], ], ], and ].<ref name="sciencedirect" /> Applied subjects include market and legal remedies to spread or reduce risk, such as warranties, government-mandated partial insurance, ] or ], inspection, and ] for quality and information disclosure.<ref>{{harvp|Samuelson|Nordhaus|2010|loc=ch. 11, "Uncertainty and Game Theory" and Glossary of Terms, "Economics of information", "Game theory", and "Regulation"}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |edition=2nd |date=2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Wilson |first=Charles |title=Adverse Selection |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_A000040 |access-date=2 March 2011 |archive-date=16 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016225939/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_A000040 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Kotowitz |first=Y. |title=Moral Hazard |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_M000259 |access-date=2 March 2011 |archive-date=17 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017041859/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_M000259 |url-status=live }} | |||
</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Roger B. Myerson |last=Myerson |first=Roger B. |title=Revelation Principle |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_R000137 |access-date=2 March 2011 |archive-date=29 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229164407/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_R000137 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
=== Market failure === | |||
{{Main|Market failure}} | |||
{{see also|Government failure|Information economics|Environmental economics|Ecological economics|Agricultural economics}} | |||
] can be a simple example of market failure; if ] are not borne by producers but are by the environment, accident victims or others, then prices are distorted.|alt=A smokestack releasing smoke]] | |||
] sampling water|alt=A woman takes samples of water from a river.]] | |||
The term "]" encompasses several problems which may undermine standard economic assumptions. Although economists categorise market failures differently, the following categories emerge in the main texts.{{efn|Compare with ] (2004), whose list of market failures is melded with failures of economic assumptions, which are (1) producers as price takers (i.e. presence of oligopoly or monopoly; but why is this not a product of the following?) (2) equal power of consumers (what labour lawyers call an imbalance of bargaining power) (3) complete markets (4) public goods (5) external effects (i.e. externalities?) (6) increasing returns to scale (i.e. practical monopoly) (7) perfect information (in {{cite book |title=The Economics of the Welfare State |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gWxfQgAACAAJ&pg=PP1 |edition=4th |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-926497-1 |pages=72–79}}).<br /> • ] (2015) classifies market failures as from failure of competition (including ]), ], ], ], ] situations, and ] disturbances (in {{cite book |title=Economics of the Public Sector |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=miPeCgAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |edition=4th International Student |year=2015 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-93709-1 |pages=81–100 |chapter=Chapter 4: Market Failure}}).}} | |||
] and ] may result in economic inefficiency but also a possibility of improving efficiency through market, legal, and regulatory remedies, as discussed above. | |||
], or the overlapping concepts of "practical" and "technical" monopoly, is an extreme case of ''failure of competition'' as a restraint on producers. Extreme ] are one possible cause. | |||
] are goods which are under-supplied in a typical market. The defining features are that people can consume public goods without having to pay for them and that more than one person can consume the good at the same time. | |||
] occur where there are significant social costs or benefits from production or consumption that are not reflected in market prices. For example, air pollution may generate a negative externality, and education may generate a positive externality (less crime, etc.). Governments often tax and otherwise restrict the sale of goods that have negative externalities and subsidise or otherwise promote the purchase of goods that have positive externalities in an effort to correct the price ] caused by these externalities.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Jean-Jacques Laffont |last=Laffont |first=J.J. |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |pages=263–265 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000773 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.2520 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Externalities |access-date=16 October 2017 |archive-date=16 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016230115/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000773 |url-status=live }}</ref> Elementary demand-and-supply theory predicts equilibrium but not the speed of adjustment for changes of equilibrium due to a shift in demand or supply.{{sfn|Blaug|2017|p=347}} | |||
In many areas, some form of ] is postulated to account for quantities, rather than prices, adjusting in the short run to changes on the demand side or the supply side. This includes standard analysis of the ] in ]. Analysis often revolves around causes of such price stickiness and their implications for reaching a hypothesised long-run equilibrium. Examples of such price stickiness in particular markets include wage rates in labour markets and posted prices in markets ] from ]. | |||
Some specialised fields of economics deal in market failure more than others. The ] is one example. Much ] concerns externalities or "]s". | |||
] options include regulations that reflect ] or market solutions that change incentives, such as ] or redefinition of property rights.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
|1 = {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Kneese |first1=Allen V. |first2=Clifford S. |last2=Russell |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |pages=159–164 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000715 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.2480 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Environmental economics |author1-link=Allen V. Kneese |access-date=16 October 2017 |archive-date=30 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230143754/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000715 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }} | |||
|2 = {{harvp|Samuelson|Nordhaus|2010|loc=ch. 18, "Protecting the Environment."}} | |||
}}</ref> | |||
=== Welfare === | |||
{{main|Welfare economics}} | |||
Welfare economics uses microeconomics techniques to evaluate ] from ] of ] as to desirability and ] within an ], often relative to competitive ].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Deardorff |first=Alan V. |dictionary=Deardorffs' Glossary of International Economics |date=2016 |orig-date=2006 |title=Welfare economics |via=Alan Deardorff at University of Michigan |url=http://www-personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/w.html#WelfareEconomics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320065124/http://www-personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/w.html |archive-date=2017-03-20 }}</ref> It analyses ''social ]'', however ], in terms of economic activities of the individuals that compose the theoretical society considered. Accordingly, individuals, with associated economic activities, are the ] for aggregating to social welfare, whether of a group, a community, or a society, and there is no "social welfare" apart from the "welfare" associated with its individual units. | |||
== Macroeconomics == | |||
{{Main|Macroeconomics}} | |||
] in a macroeconomic model. In this model, the use of ] and the generation of ], such as ]es, is not included.]] | |||
Macroeconomics, another branch of economics, examines the economy as a whole to explain broad aggregates and their interactions "top down", that is, using a simplified form of ] theory.{{sfnp|Blaug|2017|p=345}} Such aggregates include ], the ], and price ] and subaggregates like total consumption and investment spending and their components. It also studies effects of ] and ]. | |||
Since at least the 1960s, macroeconomics has been characterised by further integration as to ] modelling of sectors, including ] of players, ] of market information, and ].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Business Confidence and Depression Prevention: A Mesoeconomic Perspective |last=Ng |first=Yew-Kwang |author-link=Yew-Kwang Ng |journal=] |issn=0002-8282 |volume=82 |issue=2 |date=May 1992 |pages=365–371 |jstor=2117429}}</ref> This has addressed a long-standing concern about inconsistent developments of the same subject.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Howitt |first1=Peter M. |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |pages=273–276 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001367 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3008 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Macroeconomics: Relations with microeconomics |access-date=16 October 2017 |archive-date=17 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017044005/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001367 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Macroeconomic analysis also considers factors affecting the long-term level and ] of national income. Such factors include ], technological change and ] growth.{{sfnp|Blaug|2017|p=349}} | |||
=== Growth === | |||
{{Main|Economic growth}} | |||
''Growth economics'' studies factors that explain ] – the increase in output '']'' of a country over a long period of time. The same factors are used to explain differences in the ''level'' of output ''per capita'' ''between'' countries, in particular why some countries grow faster than others, and whether countries ] at the same rates of growth. | |||
Much-studied factors include the rate of ], ], and technological change. These are represented in theoretical and ] forms (as in the ] and ] growth models) and in ].<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvp|Samuelson|Nordhaus|2010|loc=ch. 27, "The Process of Economic Growth"}}.|{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Hirofumi Uzawa |last=Uzawa |first=H. |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |pages=483–489 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001477 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3097 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Models of growth |access-date=16 October 2017 |archive-date=17 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017042317/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001477 |url-status=live }}}}</ref> | |||
=== Business cycle === | |||
{{Main|Business cycle}} | |||
{{See also|Circular flow of income|Aggregate supply|Aggregate demand|Unemployment}} | |||
]]] | |||
The economics of a depression were the spur for the creation of "macroeconomics" as a separate discipline. During the ] of the 1930s, ] authored a book entitled '']'' outlining the key theories of ]. Keynes contended that ] for goods might be insufficient during economic downturns, leading to unnecessarily high unemployment and losses of potential output. | |||
He therefore advocated active policy responses by the ], including ] actions by the ] and ] actions by the government to stabilise output over the ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Sullivan |first1=Arthur |author-link=Arthur O'Sullivan (economist) |first2=Steven M. |last2=Sheffrin |author-link2=Steven M. Sheffrin |title=Economics: Principles in Action |publisher=Pearson Prentice Hall |year=2003 |page=396 |isbn=978-0-13-063085-8}}</ref> Thus, a central conclusion of Keynesian economics is that, in some situations, no strong automatic mechanism moves output and employment towards ] levels. ]' ] model has been the most influential interpretation of ''The General Theory''. | |||
Over the years, understanding of the ] has branched into various ]mes, mostly related to or distinct from Keynesianism. The ] refers to the reconciliation of Keynesian economics with ], stating that Keynesianism is correct in the ] but qualified by classical-like considerations in the intermediate and ].<ref name="Blanchard2008">{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Olivier J. Blanchard |last=Blanchard |first=Olivier Jean |date=2008 |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |edition=2nd |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_N000041 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.1172 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=896–899 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Neoclassical synthesis |access-date=17 November 2012 |archive-date=18 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018013510/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_N000041 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
], as distinct from the Keynesian view of the business cycle, posits ] with ]. It includes Friedman's ] on consumption and "]" theory,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.economics.harvard.edu/files/faculty/40_Macroeconomist_as_Scientist.pdf |title=The Macroeconomist as Scientist and Engineer |first=N. Gregory |last=Mankiw |publisher=Harvard University |date=May 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118103900/http://www.economics.harvard.edu/files/faculty/40_Macroeconomist_as_Scientist.pdf |archive-date=18 January 2012}}</ref> led by ], and ].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Stanley Fischer |last=Fischer |first=Stanley |date=2008 |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |edition=2nd |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_N000056 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.1180 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=17–22 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=New classical macroeconomics |access-date=17 November 2012 |archive-date=13 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140113071857/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_N000056 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
In contrast, the ] approach retains the rational expectations assumption, however it assumes a variety of ]. In particular, New Keynesians assume prices and wages are "]", which means they do not adjust instantaneously to changes in economic conditions.<ref name="Dixon2008">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Dixon |first=Huw David |date=2008 |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |edition=2nd |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_N000166 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.1184 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=40–45 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=New Keynesian macroeconomics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |access-date=17 November 2012 |archive-date=18 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018013536/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_N000166 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Thus, the new classicals assume that prices and wages adjust automatically to attain full employment, whereas the new Keynesians see full employment as being automatically achieved only in the long run, and hence government and central-bank policies are needed because the "long run" may be very long. | |||
=== Unemployment === | |||
{{Main|Unemployment}} | |||
] rate from 1990 to 2022]] | |||
The amount of unemployment in an economy is measured by the unemployment rate, the percentage of workers without jobs in the labour force. The labour force only includes workers actively looking for jobs. People who are retired, pursuing education, or ] by a lack of job prospects are excluded from the labour force. Unemployment can be generally broken down into several types that are related to different causes.<ref name=Dwivedi443>{{cite book|last=Dwivedi|first=D. N.|title=Macroeconomics: Theory and Policy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P1eFyp9Iku8C&pg=PP1|year=2005|publisher=Tata McGraw-Hill Education|isbn=978-0-07-058841-7}}</ref> | |||
Classical models of unemployment occurs when wages are too high for employers to be willing to hire more workers. Consistent with classical unemployment, frictional unemployment occurs when appropriate job vacancies exist for a worker, but the length of time needed to search for and find the job leads to a period of unemployment.<ref name=Dwivedi443/> | |||
] covers a variety of possible causes of unemployment including a mismatch between workers' skills and the skills required for open jobs.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Freeman |first=C. |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |date=2008 |edition=2nd |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_S000311 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.1641 |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=64–66 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Structural unemployment |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |access-date=9 September 2012 |archive-date=6 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606035612/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_S000311 |url-status=live }}</ref> Large amounts of structural unemployment can occur when an economy is transitioning industries and workers find their previous set of skills are no longer in demand. Structural unemployment is similar to frictional unemployment since both reflect the problem of matching workers with job vacancies, but structural unemployment covers the time needed to acquire new skills not just the short term search process.{{sfnp|Dwivedi|2005|pp=444–445}} | |||
While some types of unemployment may occur regardless of the condition of the economy, cyclical unemployment occurs when growth stagnates. ] represents the empirical relationship between unemployment and economic growth.{{sfnp|Dwivedi|2005|pp=445–446}} The original version of Okun's law states that a 3% increase in output would lead to a 1% decrease in unemployment.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Neely |first=Christopher J. |url=http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/es/10/ES1004.pdf |title=Okun's Law: Output and Unemployment |journal=Economic Synopses |volume=4 |date=2010 |access-date=9 September 2012 |archive-date=4 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121204055537/http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/es/10/ES1004.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
=== Money and monetary policy === | |||
{{Main|Monetary policy}} | |||
{{See also|Monetary economics|History of money}} | |||
] is a ''means of final payment'' for goods in most ] economies, and is the ] in which prices are typically stated. Money has general acceptability, relative consistency in value, divisibility, durability, portability, elasticity in supply, and longevity with mass public confidence. It includes currency held by the nonbank public and checkable deposits. It has been described as a ], like language, useful to one largely because it is useful to others. In the words of ], a well-known 19th-century economist, "Money is what money does" ("Money is ''that'' money does" in the original).<ref name="Walker1891">{{cite book|author=Francis Amasa Walker|author-link=Francis Amasa Walker|title=Money|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2MJYSvaRqcwC|access-date=5 November 2017|year=1878|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|location=New York|page=405}}</ref> | |||
As a ], money facilitates trade. It is essentially a measure of value and more importantly, a store of value being a basis for credit creation. Its economic function can be contrasted with ] (non-monetary exchange). Given a diverse array of produced goods and specialised producers, barter may entail a hard-to-locate double ] as to what is exchanged, say apples and a book. Money can reduce the ] of exchange because of its ready acceptability. Then it is less costly for the seller to accept money in exchange, rather than what the buyer produces.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=James Tobin |last=Tobin |first=James |date=1992 |chapter=Money (Money as a Social Institution and Public Good) |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Money and Finance |volume=2 |editor-first1=Peter K. |editor-last1=Newman |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=John |editor-last3=Eatwell |pages=770–771 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-5615-9041-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b0UOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP1}}</ref> | |||
Monetary policy is the policy that central banks conduct to accomplish their broader objectives. Most central banks in developed countries follow ],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/target.htm |title=Inflation Targeting: Holding the Line |last=Jahan |first=Sarwat |publisher=International Monetary Funds, Finance & Development |access-date=13 September 2023}}</ref> whereas the main objective for many central banks in development countries is to uphold a ].<ref name=IMF>{{cite book |last1=Department |first1=International Monetary Fund Monetary and Capital Markets |title=Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions 2022 |date=26 July 2023 |publisher=International Monetary Fund |isbn=979-8-4002-3526-9 |url=https://www.elibrary.imf.org/display/book/9798400235269/9798400235269.xml?code=imf.org |access-date=13 September 2023 |language=en }}</ref> The primary monetary tool is normally the adjustment of interest rates,<ref name=RBA>{{cite web |last1=Baker |first1=Nick |last2=Rafter |first2=Sally |title=An International Perspective on Monetary Policy Implementation Systems {{!}} Bulletin – June 2022 |url=https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2022/jun/an-international-perspective-on-monetary-policy-implementation-systems.html |publisher=Reserve Bank of Australia |access-date=13 September 2023 |language=en-AU |date=16 June 2022}}</ref> either directly via administratively changing the central bank's own interest rates or indirectly via ]s.<ref>{{cite book |title=MC Compendium Monetary policy frameworks and central bank market operations |date=October 2019 |publisher=Bank for International Settlements |isbn=978-92-9259-298-1 |url=https://www.bis.org/publ/mc_compendium.pdf}}</ref> Via the ], interest rate changes affect ], ] and ], and hence ], ] and employment, and ultimately the development of wages and inflation. | |||
=== Fiscal policy === | |||
{{Main|Fiscal policy|Government spending|Tax}} | |||
Governments implement fiscal policy to influence macroeconomic conditions by adjusting spending and taxation policies to alter aggregate demand. When aggregate demand falls below the potential output of the economy, there is an ] where some productive capacity is left unemployed. Governments increase spending and cut taxes to boost aggregate demand. Resources that have been idled can be used by the government. | |||
For example, unemployed home builders can be hired to expand highways. Tax cuts allow consumers to increase their spending, which boosts aggregate demand. Both tax cuts and spending have ] where the initial increase in demand from the policy percolates through the economy and generates additional economic activity. | |||
The effects of fiscal policy can be limited by ]. When there is no output gap, the economy is producing at full capacity and there are no excess productive resources. If the government increases spending in this situation, the government uses resources that otherwise would have been used by the private sector, so there is no increase in overall output. Some economists think that crowding out is always an issue while others do not think it is a major issue when output is depressed. | |||
Sceptics of fiscal policy also make the argument of ]. They argue that an increase in debt will have to be paid for with future tax increases, which will cause people to reduce their consumption and save money to pay for the future tax increase. Under Ricardian equivalence, any boost in demand from tax cuts will be offset by the increased saving intended to pay for future higher taxes. | |||
=== Inequality === | |||
{{Main|Economic inequality}} | |||
Economic inequality includes ], measured using the ] (the amount of money people receive), and ] measured using the ] (the amount of wealth people own), and other measures such as consumption, land ownership, and ]. Inequality exists at different extents between countries or states, groups of people, and individuals.<ref name="urlWealth Distribution and Income Inequality by Country 2018 | Global Finance Magazine">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/wealth-distribution-income-inequality|title=World Wealth Distribution And Income Inequality 2022|first1=Luca |last1=Ventura | |||
|website=Global Finance Magazine|date=12 January 2022 }}</ref> There are ] for measuring inequality,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Trapeznikova |first1=Ija |title=Measuring income inequality |journal=IZA World of Labor |date=2019 |doi=10.15185/izawol.462 |url=https://wol.iza.org/articles/measuring-income-inequality|doi-access=free }}</ref> the ] being widely used for income differences among individuals. An example measure of inequality between countries is the ], a composite index that takes inequality into account.<ref>Human Development Reports. {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712222023/http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/inequality-adjusted-human-development-index-ihdi |date=July 12, 2019}}. ''United Nations Development Programme''. Retrieved: March 3, 2019.</ref> Important concepts of equality include ], ], and ]. | |||
Research has linked economic inequality to political and social instability, including ], democratic breakdown and civil conflict.<ref name="MacCulloch">{{Cite web |title=Introduction to Inequality |url=https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/Inequality/introduction-to-inequality |access-date=May 9, 2022 |website=IMF |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=MacCulloch |first1=Robert |year=2005 |title=Income Inequality and the Taste for Revolution |journal=The Journal of Law and Economics |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=93–123 |doi=10.1086/426881 |jstor=10.1086/426881 |s2cid=154993058}}</ref><ref name="Acemoglu">{{Cite book |last1=Acemoglu |first1=Daron |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/economic-origins-of-dictatorship-and-democracy/3F29DF90519971B183CAA16ED0203507 |title=Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy |last2=Robinson |first2=James A. |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521855266 |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511510809}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cederman|first1=Lars-Erik |last2=Gleditsch|first2=Kristian Skrede |last3=Buhaug|first3=Halvard |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/inequality-grievances-and-civil-war/39F26D12EFEE2D7D621A59DF74DED496 |title=Inequality, Grievances, and Civil War |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013|isbn=978-1107017429|doi=10.1017/cbo9781139084161}}</ref> Research suggests that greater inequality hinders economic growth and macroeconomic stability, and that land and ] inequality reduce growth more than inequality of income.<ref name="MacCulloch" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Neves |first1=Pedro Cunha |last2=Afonso |first2=Óscar |last3=Silva |first3=Sandra Tavares |year=2016 |title=A Meta-Analytic Reassessment of the Effects of Inequality on Growth |journal=World Development |volume=78 |pages=386–400 |doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.10.038}}</ref> Inequality is at the centre stage of ] debate across the globe, as government tax and spending policies have significant effects on income distribution.<ref name="MacCulloch" /> In advanced economies, taxes and transfers decrease income inequality by one-third, with most of this being achieved via public social spending (such as pensions and family benefits.)<ref name="MacCulloch" /> | |||
== Other branches of economics == | |||
=== Public economics === | |||
{{Main|Public economics}} | |||
Public economics is the field of economics that deals with economic activities of a ], usually government. The subject addresses such matters as ] (who really pays a particular tax), cost–benefit analysis of government programmes, effects on ] and ] of different kinds of spending and taxes, and fiscal politics. The latter, an aspect of ], models public-sector behaviour analogously to microeconomics, involving interactions of self-interested voters, politicians, and bureaucrats.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Musgrave |first1=Richard A. |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |date=1987 |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |author-link=Richard Musgrave (economist) |pages=1055–1060 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001795 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3360 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Public finance |access-date=16 October 2017 |archive-date=16 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016230041/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001795 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Much of economics is ], seeking to describe and predict economic phenomena. ] seeks to identify what economies ought to be like. | |||
Welfare economics is a normative branch of economics that uses ] techniques to simultaneously determine the ] within an economy and the income ] associated with it. It attempts to measure ] by examining the economic activities of the individuals that comprise society.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Feldman |first1=Allan M. |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |pages=889–095 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X002306 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3785 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Welfare economics |access-date=16 October 2017 |archive-date=17 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017041911/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X002306 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
=== International economics === | |||
{{Main|International economics}} | |||
] (PPP) per capita in April 2022]] | |||
International trade studies determinants of goods-and-services flows across international boundaries. It also concerns the size and distribution of ]. Policy applications include estimating the effects of changing ] rates and trade quotas. ] is a macroeconomic field which examines the flow of capital across international borders, and the effects of these movements on ]s. Increased trade in goods, services and capital between countries is a major effect of contemporary ].<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
|1 = {{cite encyclopedia |last=Anderson |first=James E. |date=2008 |edition=2nd |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_I000263 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.0839 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=516–522 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=International trade theory |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |access-date=6 June 2008 |archive-date=20 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020033352/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_I000263 |url-status=live }} | |||
|2 = {{Cite journal |last=Venables |first=A. |date=2001 |title=International Trade: Economic Integration |journal=] |pages=7843–7848 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/02259-2 |isbn=978-0080430768 }} | |||
|3 = {{cite encyclopedia |last=Obstfeld |first=Maurice |date=2008 |edition=2nd |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_I000169 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.0828 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |pages=439–451 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=International finance |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |s2cid=219381371 |access-date=6 June 2008 |archive-date=20 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020032606/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_I000169 |url-status=live }} | |||
}}</ref> | |||
=== Labour economics === | |||
{{main|Labour economics}} | |||
Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the ] for ]. ''Labour markets'' function through the interaction of workers and employers. Labour economics looks at the suppliers of labour services (workers), the demands of labour services (employers), and attempts to understand the resulting pattern of wages, employment, and income. In economics, ''labour'' is a measure of the work done by human beings. It is conventionally contrasted with such other ] as ] and ]. There are theories which have developed a concept called ] (referring to the skills that workers possess, not necessarily their actual work), although there are also counter posing macro-economic system theories that think human capital is a contradiction in terms.{{Citation needed|reason=What is the source used to define Human Capital here? And what are the counter posing theories claiming human capital is a contradiction?|date=July 2022}} | |||
The definition of economics in terms of ] suggests that resources are in finite supply while wants and needs are infinite. People therefore have to make choices. Scarcity too has its critics. It is most amenable to those who consider economics a pure science, but others object that it reduces economics merely to a valuation theory. It ignores how values are fixed, prices are determined and national income is generated.{{Fact|date=December 2006}} It also ignores unemployment and other problems arising due to abundance. This definition cannot apply to such ] concerns as cyclical instability, ], and ]. | |||
=== Development economics === | |||
The focus on scarcity continues to dominate ], which, in turn, predominates in most academic economics departments. It has been criticized in recent years from a variety of quarters, including ] and ] and ]. | |||
{{Main|Development economics}} | |||
Development economics examines economic aspects of the ] process in relatively ] focusing on ], ], and ]. Approaches in development economics frequently incorporate social and political factors.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
===Criticism in other topics=== | |||
|1 = {{cite encyclopedia |last=Bell |first=Clive |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |volume=1 |pages=818–826 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000565 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.2366 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Development economics |access-date=19 October 2017 |archive-date=20 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020033009/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X000565 |url-status=live }} | |||
Criticism on several topics in economics can be found elsewhere, in both general and specialized literature. See, for example: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ]. | |||
|2 = {{harvp|Blaug|2017|p=351}} | |||
}}</ref> | |||
== Related subjects == | |||
===Economics and politics=== | |||
{{Main|Law and economics|Natural resource economics|Philosophy and economics|Political economy}} | |||
Some economists (ex. J.S.Mill, Leon Walras) have maintained that the production of wealth should not be tied to its distribution. The former is in the field of "applied economics" while the latter belongs to "social economics" and is largely a matter of (power)politics.<ref> ''The Origin of Economic Ideas'', Guy Routh (1989)</ref> | |||
Economics is one ] among several and has fields bordering on other areas, including ], ], ], ], ], ] and ]. | |||
Law and economics, or economic analysis of law, is an approach to legal theory that applies methods of economics to law. It includes the use of economic concepts to explain the effects of legal rules, to assess which legal rules are ], and to predict what the legal rules will be.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
Economics per se, as a social science, do not stand on the political acts of any government or other decision-making organization, however, many ]s or individuals holding highly ranked positions that can influence other people's lives are known for arbitrarily use a plethora of economic theory concepts and ] as vehicles to legitimize ]s and ], and do not limit their remarks to matters relevant to their responsibilities.<ref></ref> The close relation of economic theory and practice with ]<ref></ref> is a focus of contention that may shade or distort the most unpretentious original tenets of economics, and is often confused with specific social agendas and value systems.<ref></ref> For example, it is possible associate the U. S. promotion of democracy by force in the 21st century, the 19th century work of ] or the ] era debate of ] vs. ], as issues of economics. Although economics makes no such value claims, this may be one of the reasons why economics could be perceived as not being based on empirical observation and testing of hypothesis. As a social science, economics tries to focus on the observable consequences and efficiencies of different economic systems without necessarily making any value judgments about such systems, for example, examine the economics of authoritarian systems, egalitarian systems, or even a caste system without making judgments about the morality of any of them. | |||
|1 = {{cite encyclopedia|author-link=David D. Friedman |last=Friedman |first=David |date=1987 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |volume=III |pages=1–8 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001281 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.2937 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Law and economics |access-date=23 October 2017 |archive-date=24 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024101008/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001281 |url-status=live }} | |||
|2 = {{cite book|last=Posner|first=Richard A.|author-link=Richard Posner|title=Economic Analysis of Law|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooFDAQAAIAAJ|edition=7th|year=2007|publisher=Aspen|isbn=978-0-7355-6354-4}}{{page needed|date=October 2017}} | |||
}}</ref> A seminal article by ] published in 1961 suggested that well-defined property rights could overcome the problems of ].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Coase |first=Ronald |title=The Problem of Social Cost |journal=] |volume=3 |issue=1 |date=October 1960 |pages=1–44 |jstor=724810 |doi=10.1086/466560|title-link=The Problem of Social Cost |s2cid=222331226 }}</ref> | |||
] is the interdisciplinary study that combines economics, law, and ] in explaining how political institutions, the political environment, and the economic system (capitalist, ], mixed) influence each other. It studies questions such as how monopoly, ] behaviour, and ] should impact government policy.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Groenewegen |first=Peter |date=2008 |title=Political Economy |pages=476–480 |journal=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |editor-first1=Steven N. |editor-last1=Durlauf |editor-first2=Lawrence E. |editor-last2=Blume |edition=2nd |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_P000114 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.1300 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |access-date=4 October 2017 |archive-date=5 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005000524/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_P000114 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author-link=Anne Osborn Krueger |last=Krueger |first=Anne O. |date=June 1974 |title=The Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society |journal=American Economic Review |volume=64 |issue=3 |pages=291–303 |jstor=1808883}}</ref> ]s have employed ''political economy'' to explore the ways in the past that persons and groups with common economic interests have used politics to effect changes beneficial to their interests.<ref>{{cite book |last=McCoy |first=Drew R. |title=The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |date=1980 |isbn=978-0-8078-1416-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0aDqCQAAQBAJ}}</ref> | |||
==== Ethics and economics ==== | |||
The relationship between economics and ] is complex. Many economists consider normative choices and value judgments, like what needs or wants, or what is good for society, to be political or personal questions outside the scope of economics. Once a person or government has established a set of goals, however, economics can provide insight as to how they might best be achieved. | |||
] is a broad ] subject area which includes topics related to ] and ]. ] reintroduced the concept of ] in relation to economics and energy from ], as distinguished from what he viewed as the mechanistic foundation of neoclassical economics drawn from Newtonian physics. His work contributed significantly to ] and to ]. He also did foundational work which later developed into ].<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
Others see the influence of economic ideas, such as those underlying modern ], to promote a certain system of values with which they may or may not agree. (See, for example, ] and ].) According to some thinkers, a theory of economics is also, or implies also, a theory of ].<ref>E.F.Schumacher: Small is Beautiful, Economics as if People matter.</ref> | |||
|1 = {{cite journal |last1=Cleveland |first1=Cutler J. |last2=Ruth |first2=Matthius |date=September 1997 |title=When, where, and by how much do biophysical limits constrain the economic process? A survey of Georgescu-Roegen's contribution to ecological economics |journal=] |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=203–223 |doi=10.1016/S0921-8009(97)00079-7|doi-access=free }} | |||
|2 = {{cite journal |last=Daly |first=Herman E. |date=June 1995 |title=On Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's Contributions to Economics: An Obituary essay |journal=Ecological Economics |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=149–154 |doi=10.1016/0921-8009(95)00011-W|bibcode=1995EcoEc..13..149D }} | |||
|3 = {{cite journal |last=Mayumi |first=Kozo |date=August 1995 |title=Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906–1994): an admirable epistemologist |journal=Structural Change and Economic Dynamics |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=115–120 |doi=10.1016/0954-349X(95)00014-E|doi-access= }} | |||
|4 = {{cite book |editor-last1=Mayumi |editor-first=Kozo |editor-last2=Gowdy |editor-first2=John M. |date=1999 |title=Bioeconomics and Sustainability: Essays in Honor of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishering |isbn=978-1-85898-667-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Hd08ju9UG4C&pg=PP1}} | |||
|5 = {{cite book |last=Mayumi |first=Kozo |date=2001 |title=The Origins of Ecological Economics: The Bioeconomics of Georgescu-Roegen |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-23523-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mCiCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PP1}} | |||
}}</ref> | |||
The ] subfield of ] arose, primarily through the work of ], ] and ], as an approach to analysing the effects of economic phenomena in relation to the overarching social paradigm (i.e. ]).<ref>{{cite book |title=Principles of Economic Sociology |first=Richard |last=Swedberg |date=2003 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-07439-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=is7NGpu93NwC&pg=PP1}}</ref> Classic works include ]'s '']'' (1905) and ]'s '']'' (1900). More recently, the works of ],<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle | |||
The premise of ] is that one should take into account ethical and environmental concerns, in addition to financial and traditional economic considerations, when making buying decisions. | |||
|1 = {{Cite book |author-link=James Samuel Coleman |last=Coleman |first=James S. |date=1998 |title=Foundations of Social Theory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2_64AAAAIAAJ |publisher=Belknap – Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674312265 |access-date=12 October 2021 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730075147/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Social_Economics/2_64AAAAIAAJ |url-status=live }} <!-- orig cite has different harvard isbn from the google books link, and the cited date (1990) was wrong for both --> | |||
|2 = {{Cite journal |author-link=Robert H. Frank |last=Frank |first=Robert H. |date=1992 |title=Melding Sociology and Economics: James Coleman's Foundations of Social Theory |journal=Journal of Economic Literature |volume=30 |issue=1 |jstor=2727881 |pages=147–170}} | |||
}}</ref> ], ] and ] have been influential in this field. | |||
] in 1974 presented an economic theory of social interactions, whose applications included the ], charity, ]s and multiperson interactions, and envy and hatred.<ref>{{Cite journal |author-link=Gary Becker |last=Becker |first=Gary S. |date=1974 |title=A Theory of Social Interactions |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=82 |issue=6 <!-- pages=1063–1093 --> |doi=10.1086/260265 |jstor=1830662 |s2cid=17052355 |at=See pp. 1074–1090 |url=http://www.uoregon.edu/~cjellis/441/Becker1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050502153308/http://www.uoregon.edu/~cjellis/441/Becker1.pdf |archive-date=2005-05-02}}</ref> He and ] authored a book in 2001 that analysed market behaviour in a social environment.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Becker |first1=Gary S. |last2=Murphy |first2=Kevin M. |date=2003 |title=Social Economics: Market Behavior in a Social Environment |publisher=Belknap – Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674011212 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2_64AAAAIAAJ}} <!-- again, orig cite has different isbns and dates for gbooks and harvard sites and neither match what was in the citation (2001) --></ref> | |||
On the other hand, the rational allocation of limited resources toward public welfare and safety is also an area of economics. Some have pointed out that not studying the best ways to allocate resources toward goals like health and safety, the environment, justice, or disaster assistance is a sort of willful ignorance that results in less public welfare or even increased suffering.<ref>Douglas Hubbard, "How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business", John Wiley & Sons, 2007.</ref> In this sense, it would be unethical not to assess the economics of such issues. In fact, federal agencies in the United States routinely conduct economic analysis studies toward that end. | |||
== Profession == | |||
==== Effect on society ==== | |||
{{Main|Economist}} | |||
Some would say that ]s and other means of distribution of scarce goods, suggested by economics, affect not just their "desires and wants" but also "needs" and "habits". Much of so-called economic "choice" is considered involuntary, certainly given by social ] because people have come to expect a certain ]. This leads to one of the most hotly debated areas in economic policy, namely, the effect and efficacy of welfare policies. ] view this as a failure to respect economic reasoning. They argue that redistribution of wealth is morally and economically wrong. ] view it as a failure of economics to respect society. They argue that disparities of wealth should not have been allowed in the first place. This led to both 19th century ] and 20th century ] before being subsumed into ]. | |||
The professionalisation of economics, reflected in the growth of graduate programmes on the subject, has been described as "the main change in economics since around 1900".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Economics: Overview, The Profession of Economics |encyclopedia=] |publisher=Pergamon |last=Ashenfelter |first=Orley |date=2001 |author-link=Orley Ashenfelter |editor-last1=Smelser |editor-first1=N. J. |edition= |volume=VI |page=4159 |isbn=978-0-0804-3076-8 |editor-first2=P. B. |editor-last2=Baltes}}</ref> Most major ] and many colleges have a major, school, or department in which ] are awarded in the subject, whether in the ], business, or for professional study. See ] and ]. | |||
In the private sector, professional economists are employed as consultants and in industry, including ] and ]. Economists also work for various government departments and agencies, for example, the national ], ] or ]. See ]. | |||
The older term for economics, '']'', is still often used ''instead of'' "economics", especially by certain economists such as ]. The use of this term often signals a basic disagreement with the terminology or paradigm of market economics. Political economy explicitly brings social political considerations into economic analysis and is therefore openly ], although this can be said of many economic recommendations as well, despite claims to being ]. Some mainstream universities (many in the ]) have a "political economy" department rather than an "economics" department. | |||
There are dozens of prizes awarded to economists each year for outstanding intellectual contributions to the field, the most prominent of which is the ], though it is not a ]. | |||
Marxist economics generally denies the trade-off of time for money. In the Marxist view, concentrated control over the means of production is the basis for the allocation of resources among classes. Scarcity of any particular physical resource is subsidiary to the central question of power relationships embedded in the means of production. | |||
Contemporary economics uses mathematics. Economists draw on the tools of ], ], ], ], and ].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Gérard Debreu |last=Debreu |first=Gérard |date=1987 |dictionary=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |edition= |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Eatwell |editor-first2=Murray |editor-last2=Milgate |editor-first3=Peter |editor-last3=Newman |pages=401–403 |chapter-url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001428 |doi=10.1057/9780230226203.3059 |isbn=978-0-333-78676-5 |chapter=Mathematical economics |access-date=23 October 2017 |archive-date=24 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024042819/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_X001428 |url-status=live }}</ref> Professional economists are expected to be familiar with these tools, while a minority specialise in econometrics and mathematical methods. | |||
== Economics in practice == | |||
{{main|Economist}} | |||
An economist is an expert in the science of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Most major ] have a faculty, school or department, where ] are awarded in economics. The ] (colloquially, the Nobel Prize in Economics) is a prize awarded to economists each year for outstanding intellectual contributions in the field. In the private sector, professional economists are employed in industries such as ] and ]. Economists also work for various government departments and agencies, for example, the ]. | |||
===Women in economics=== | |||
] (1802–1876) was a widely-read populariser of classical economic thought. ] (1850–1944), the first women lecturer at a British economics faculty, wrote ''The Economics of Industry'' with her husband ]. ] (1903–1983) was an important ] economist. The economic historian ] (1915–2012) coauthored '']'' with ].<ref>{{cite web | first=Mike | last=Bird | title=13 women who transformed the world of economics | website=World Economic Forum | date=November 27, 2015 |url=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/13-women-who-transformed-the-world-of-economics/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160122204258/https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/13-women-who-transformed-the-world-of-economics/ | archive-date=January 22, 2016 }}</ref> Three women have received the ]: ] (2009), ] (2019) and ] (2023). Five have received the ]: ] (2007), Esther Duflo (2010), ] (2012), ] (2019) and ] (2020). | |||
Women's authorship share in prominent economic journals reduced from 1940 to the 1970s, but has subsequently risen, with different patterns of gendered coauthorship.<ref>{{cite journal | first1=Erin | last1=Hengel | first2=Sarah Louisa | last2=Phythian-Adams | title=A historical portrait of female economists' co-authorship networks | journal=History of Political Economy | date=August 2022 | volume=54 | pages=17–41 | doi=10.1215/00182702-10085601 | s2cid=251532686 | url=https://erinhengel.github.io/hope/hope.pdf | access-date=30 August 2022 }}</ref> Women remain globally under-represented in the profession (19% of authors in the ] database in 2018), with national variation.<ref>{{cite web | first1=Anne | last1=Boring | first2=Soledad | last2=Zignago | title= Economics, where are the women? | website=Banque de France | date=March 6, 2018 | url=https://blocnotesdeleco.banque-france.fr/en/blog-entry/economics-where-are-women | access-date=August 30, 2022 }}</ref> | |||
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==References== | ||
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== Further reading == | |||
* {{cite journal |last1=Hoover |first1=Kevin D. |first2=Mark V. |last2=Siegler |date=20 March 2008 |title=Sound and Fury: McCloskey and Significance Testing in Economics |journal=Journal of Economic Methodology |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=1–37 |doi=10.1080/13501780801913298 |citeseerx=10.1.1.533.7658 |s2cid=216137286 }} | |||
* - ed. K. F. Zimmermann, Springer-Science, 2002. - A summary of surveys on different areas in economics. | |||
* {{cite book | last1=Samuelson | first1=Paul A | author-link1=Paul Samuelson| last2=Nordhaus | first2=William D.| author-link2=William D. Nordhaus |title-link=Economics (textbook) |title=Economics |location=Boston |publisher=Irwin McGraw-Hill |date=2010 |oclc=751033918 |isbn=978-0073511290}} | |||
* - ''Yale Economic Review'' - How and why the dismal science embraces theory over reality. | |||
*'''' by ] - an essay in which Say claims that economics is not an ethical system that one can simply refute on the basis that one does not accept its ''values'': it is a collection of theories and models that explain inductively found principles. | |||
==Further reading== | |||
== External links == | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Anderson |first=David A. |date=2019 |title=Survey of Economics |location=New York |publisher=Worth |isbn=978-1-4292-5956-9}} | |||
=== General information === | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Blanchard |first1=Olivier |author-link1=Olivier Blanchard |last2=Amighini |first2=Alessia |last3=Giavazzi |first3=Francesco |author-link3=Francesco Giavazzi |title=Macroeconomics: a European perspective |date=2017 |publisher=Pearson |isbn=978-1-292-08567-8 |edition=3rd}} | |||
{{sisterlinks|Economics}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Blaug |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Blaug |edition=4th |date=1985 |title=Economic Theory in Retrospect|location= Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521316446 }} | |||
{{wikibookspar|Wikiversity|School of Economics}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=McCann | first=Charles Robert Jr. |date=2003 |title=The Elgar Dictionary of Economic Quotations |publisher=Edward Elgar |isbn=978-1840648201}} | |||
*{{dmoz|Science/Social_Sciences/Economics/|Economics}} | |||
* ] (1927), ''''. United States: Columbian Printing Company, Incorporated. | |||
*: Official resource guide of the ] | |||
* {{librivox book | title=Economics}}. | |||
*: huge database of preprints and other research | |||
* | |||
*: Searchable human catalogue of the best links for teaching and research in Economics | |||
==External links== | |||
=== Institutions and organizations === | |||
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* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130710110240/http://www.oswego.edu/~economic/journals.htm |date=10 July 2013 }} | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625153920/https://www.britannica.com/topic/economics |date=25 June 2022 }} at '']'' | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214211108/https://www.economist.com/economics-a-to-z |date=14 February 2022 }} Definitions from '']''. | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028015205/https://www.economicsonline.co.uk/ |date=28 October 2021 }} (UK-based), with ]s at top, incl. Definitions. | |||
* : ] of UK universities. | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000816091515/http://repec.org/ |date=16 August 2000 }} | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511055542/http://rfe.org/ |date=11 May 2013 }}: ]-sponsored guide to 2,000+ Internet resources from "Data" to "Neat Stuff", updated quarterly. | |||
{{refend}} | |||
===Institutions and organizations=== | |||
*] on ] | |||
{{refbegin|35em}} | |||
* : US-based database of learning materials | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430082832/http://edirc.repec.org/ |date=30 April 2013 }} | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* : The Economics Network (UK)'s database of text, slides, glossaries and other resources | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020124234652/http://unstats.un.org/ |date=24 January 2002 }} | |||
* : Archive of study materials from ] courses | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727121731/https://data.worldbank.org/ |date=27 July 2019 }} | |||
* | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120030415/https://www.aeaweb.org/ |date=20 January 2021 }} | |||
* : Economics Books, Articles, Blog (EconLog), Podcasts (EconTalk) | |||
{{refend}} | |||
* : Compare various economic schools of thought on particular issues | |||
* | |||
* –A UK-based portal site for Economics and Business Studies designed mainly for ] students. | |||
* section of EH. Net Economic History Services | |||
* : Short ]-licensed introduction to basic economics | |||
===Study resources=== | |||
{{refbegin|35em}} | |||
* {{cite book|last1=Anderson|first1=David|last2=Ray|first2=Margaret|title=Krugman's Economics for the AP Course|date=2019|publisher=BFW|location=New York|isbn=978-1-319-11327-8|edition=3rd|url=https://www.bfwpub.com/high-school/us/product/Krugmans-Economics-for-the-AP-Course/p/1319113273|access-date=2 March 2021|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308040106/https://www.bfwpub.com/high-school/us/product/Krugmans-Economics-for-the-AP-Course/p/1319113273|url-status=live}} | |||
* {{cite book|last=McConnell|first=Campbell R.|edition=18th|date=2009|title=Economics. Principles, Problems and Policies|url=http://www.califaxprinters.com/mba_books/EB%20McConnell%20Econ.18e.pdf|format=PDF contains full textbook|location=New York|publisher=McGraw-Hill|display-authors=etal|isbn=978-0-07-337569-4|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006014212/http://www.califaxprinters.com/mba_books/EB%20McConnell%20Econ.18e.pdf|archive-date=6 October 2016|df=dmy-all}} | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070602020408/http://economics.about.com/ |date=2 June 2007 }} | |||
* ] on ] | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130614190857/http://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?category=2216 |date=14 June 2013 }}: US-based database of learning materials | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509105953/http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/links/othertl.htm |date=9 May 2013 }} UK Economics Network's database of text, slides, glossaries and other resources | |||
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Latest revision as of 14:49, 8 January 2025
Social science For other uses, see Economics (disambiguation).
Economics (/ˌɛkəˈnɒmɪks, ˌiːkə-/) is a social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyses what is viewed as basic elements within economies, including individual agents and markets, their interactions, and the outcomes of interactions. Individual agents may include, for example, households, firms, buyers, and sellers. Macroeconomics analyses economies as systems where production, distribution, consumption, savings, and investment expenditure interact, and factors affecting it: factors of production, such as labour, capital, land, and enterprise, inflation, economic growth, and public policies that have impact on these elements. It also seeks to analyse and describe the global economy.
Other broad distinctions within economics include those between positive economics, describing "what is", and normative economics, advocating "what ought to be"; between economic theory and applied economics; between rational and behavioural economics; and between mainstream economics and heterodox economics.
Economic analysis can be applied throughout society, including business, finance, cybersecurity, health care, engineering and government. It is also applied to such diverse subjects as crime, education, the family, feminism, law, philosophy, politics, religion, social institutions, war, science, and the environment.
Definitions of economics
Main article: Definitions of economics
The earlier term for the discipline was "political economy", but since the late 19th century, it has commonly been called "economics". The term is ultimately derived from Ancient Greek οἰκονομία (oikonomia) which is a term for the "way (nomos) to run a household (oikos)", or in other words the know-how of an οἰκονομικός (oikonomikos), or "household or homestead manager". Derived terms such as "economy" can therefore often mean "frugal" or "thrifty". By extension then, "political economy" was the way to manage a polis or state.
There are a variety of modern definitions of economics; some reflect evolving views of the subject or different views among economists. Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1776) defined what was then called political economy as "an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations", in particular as:
a branch of the science of a statesman or legislator a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people ... to supply the state or commonwealth with a revenue for the publick services.
Jean-Baptiste Say (1803), distinguishing the subject matter from its public-policy uses, defined it as the science of production, distribution, and consumption of wealth. On the satirical side, Thomas Carlyle (1849) coined "the dismal science" as an epithet for classical economics, in this context, commonly linked to the pessimistic analysis of Malthus (1798). John Stuart Mill (1844) delimited the subject matter further:
The science which traces the laws of such of the phenomena of society as arise from the combined operations of mankind for the production of wealth, in so far as those phenomena are not modified by the pursuit of any other object.
Alfred Marshall provided a still widely cited definition in his textbook Principles of Economics (1890) that extended analysis beyond wealth and from the societal to the microeconomic level:
Economics is a study of man in the ordinary business of life. It enquires how he gets his income and how he uses it. Thus, it is on the one side, the study of wealth and on the other and more important side, a part of the study of man.
Lionel Robbins (1932) developed implications of what has been termed "erhaps the most commonly accepted current definition of the subject":
Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.
Robbins described the definition as not classificatory in "pick out certain kinds of behaviour" but rather analytical in "focus attention on a particular aspect of behaviour, the form imposed by the influence of scarcity." He affirmed that previous economists have usually centred their studies on the analysis of wealth: how wealth is created (production), distributed, and consumed; and how wealth can grow. But he said that economics can be used to study other things, such as war, that are outside its usual focus. This is because war has as the goal winning it (as a sought after end), generates both cost and benefits; and, resources (human life and other costs) are used to attain the goal. If the war is not winnable or if the expected costs outweigh the benefits, the deciding actors (assuming they are rational) may never go to war (a decision) but rather explore other alternatives. Economics cannot be defined as the science that studies wealth, war, crime, education, and any other field economic analysis can be applied to; but, as the science that studies a particular common aspect of each of those subjects (they all use scarce resources to attain a sought after end).
Some subsequent comments criticised the definition as overly broad in failing to limit its subject matter to analysis of markets. From the 1960s, however, such comments abated as the economic theory of maximizing behaviour and rational-choice modelling expanded the domain of the subject to areas previously treated in other fields. There are other criticisms as well, such as in scarcity not accounting for the macroeconomics of high unemployment.
Gary Becker, a contributor to the expansion of economics into new areas, described the approach he favoured as "combin assumptions of maximizing behaviour, stable preferences, and market equilibrium, used relentlessly and unflinchingly." One commentary characterises the remark as making economics an approach rather than a subject matter but with great specificity as to the "choice process and the type of social interaction that analysis involves." The same source reviews a range of definitions included in principles of economics textbooks and concludes that the lack of agreement need not affect the subject-matter that the texts treat. Among economists more generally, it argues that a particular definition presented may reflect the direction toward which the author believes economics is evolving, or should evolve.
Many economists including nobel prize winners James M. Buchanan and Ronald Coase reject the method-based definition of Robbins and continue to prefer definitions like those of Say, in terms of its subject matter. Ha-Joon Chang has for example argued that the definition of Robbins would make economics very peculiar because all other sciences define themselves in terms of the area of inquiry or object of inquiry rather than the methodology. In the biology department, it is not said that all biology should be studied with DNA analysis. People study living organisms in many different ways, so some people will perform DNA analysis, others might analyse anatomy, and still others might build game theoretic models of animal behaviour. But they are all called biology because they all study living organisms. According to Ha Joon Chang, this view that the economy can and should be studied in only one way (for example by studying only rational choices), and going even one step further and basically redefining economics as a theory of everything, is peculiar.
History of economic thought
Main articles: History of economic thought and History of macroeconomic thoughtThis section is missing information about information and behavioural economics, contemporary microeconomics. Please expand the section by making an edit requestto include this information . Further details may exist on the talk page. (September 2020) |
From antiquity through the physiocrats
Questions regarding distribution of resources are found throughout the writings of the Boeotian poet Hesiod and several economic historians have described Hesiod as the "first economist". However, the word Oikos, the Greek word from which the word economy derives, was used for issues regarding how to manage a household (which was understood to be the landowner, his family, and his slaves) rather than to refer to some normative societal system of distribution of resources, which is a more recent phenomenon. Xenophon, the author of the Oeconomicus, is credited by philologues for being the source of the word economy. Joseph Schumpeter described 16th and 17th century scholastic writers, including Tomás de Mercado, Luis de Molina, and Juan de Lugo, as "coming nearer than any other group to being the 'founders' of scientific economics" as to monetary, interest, and value theory within a natural-law perspective.
Two groups, who later were called "mercantilists" and "physiocrats", more directly influenced the subsequent development of the subject. Both groups were associated with the rise of economic nationalism and modern capitalism in Europe. Mercantilism was an economic doctrine that flourished from the 16th to 18th century in a prolific pamphlet literature, whether of merchants or statesmen. It held that a nation's wealth depended on its accumulation of gold and silver. Nations without access to mines could obtain gold and silver from trade only by selling goods abroad and restricting imports other than of gold and silver. The doctrine called for importing inexpensive raw materials to be used in manufacturing goods, which could be exported, and for state regulation to impose protective tariffs on foreign manufactured goods and prohibit manufacturing in the colonies.
Physiocrats, a group of 18th-century French thinkers and writers, developed the idea of the economy as a circular flow of income and output. Physiocrats believed that only agricultural production generated a clear surplus over cost, so that agriculture was the basis of all wealth. Thus, they opposed the mercantilist policy of promoting manufacturing and trade at the expense of agriculture, including import tariffs. Physiocrats advocated replacing administratively costly tax collections with a single tax on income of land owners. In reaction against copious mercantilist trade regulations, the physiocrats advocated a policy of laissez-faire, which called for minimal government intervention in the economy.
Adam Smith (1723–1790) was an early economic theorist. Smith was harshly critical of the mercantilists but described the physiocratic system "with all its imperfections" as "perhaps the purest approximation to the truth that has yet been published" on the subject.
Classical political economy
Main article: Classical economicsThe publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations in 1776, has been described as "the effective birth of economics as a separate discipline." The book identified land, labour, and capital as the three factors of production and the major contributors to a nation's wealth, as distinct from the physiocratic idea that only agriculture was productive.
Smith discusses potential benefits of specialisation by division of labour, including increased labour productivity and gains from trade, whether between town and country or across countries. His "theorem" that "the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market" has been described as the "core of a theory of the functions of firm and industry" and a "fundamental principle of economic organization." To Smith has also been ascribed "the most important substantive proposition in all of economics" and foundation of resource-allocation theory—that, under competition, resource owners (of labour, land, and capital) seek their most profitable uses, resulting in an equal rate of return for all uses in equilibrium (adjusted for apparent differences arising from such factors as training and unemployment).
In an argument that includes "one of the most famous passages in all economics," Smith represents every individual as trying to employ any capital they might command for their own advantage, not that of the society, and for the sake of profit, which is necessary at some level for employing capital in domestic industry, and positively related to the value of produce. In this:
He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus (1798) used the concept of diminishing returns to explain low living standards. Human population, he argued, tended to increase geometrically, outstripping the production of food, which increased arithmetically. The force of a rapidly growing population against a limited amount of land meant diminishing returns to labour. The result, he claimed, was chronically low wages, which prevented the standard of living for most of the population from rising above the subsistence level. Economist Julian Simon has criticised Malthus's conclusions.
While Adam Smith emphasised production and income, David Ricardo (1817) focused on the distribution of income among landowners, workers, and capitalists. Ricardo saw an inherent conflict between landowners on the one hand and labour and capital on the other. He posited that the growth of population and capital, pressing against a fixed supply of land, pushes up rents and holds down wages and profits. Ricardo was also the first to state and prove the principle of comparative advantage, according to which each country should specialise in producing and exporting goods in that it has a lower relative cost of production, rather relying only on its own production. It has been termed a "fundamental analytical explanation" for gains from trade.
Coming at the end of the classical tradition, John Stuart Mill (1848) parted company with the earlier classical economists on the inevitability of the distribution of income produced by the market system. Mill pointed to a distinct difference between the market's two roles: allocation of resources and distribution of income. The market might be efficient in allocating resources but not in distributing income, he wrote, making it necessary for society to intervene.
Value theory was important in classical theory. Smith wrote that the "real price of every thing ... is the toil and trouble of acquiring it". Smith maintained that, with rent and profit, other costs besides wages also enter the price of a commodity. Other classical economists presented variations on Smith, termed the 'labour theory of value'. Classical economics focused on the tendency of any market economy to settle in a final stationary state made up of a constant stock of physical wealth (capital) and a constant population size.
Marxian economics
Main article: Marxian economicsMarxist (later, Marxian) economics descends from classical economics and it derives from the work of Karl Marx. The first volume of Marx's major work, Das Kapital, was published in 1867. Marx focused on the labour theory of value and theory of surplus value. Marx wrote that they were mechanisms used by capital to exploit labour. The labour theory of value held that the value of an exchanged commodity was determined by the labour that went into its production, and the theory of surplus value demonstrated how workers were only paid a proportion of the value their work had created.
Marxian economics was further developed by Karl Kautsky (1854–1938)'s The Economic Doctrines of Karl Marx and The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program), Rudolf Hilferding's (1877–1941) Finance Capital, Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924)'s The Development of Capitalism in Russia and Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, and Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919)'s The Accumulation of Capital.
Neoclassical economics
Main article: Neoclassical economicsAt its inception as a social science, economics was defined and discussed at length as the study of production, distribution, and consumption of wealth by Jean-Baptiste Say in his Treatise on Political Economy or, The Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth (1803). These three items were considered only in relation to the increase or diminution of wealth, and not in reference to their processes of execution. Say's definition has survived in part up to the present, modified by substituting the word "wealth" for "goods and services" meaning that wealth may include non-material objects as well. One hundred and thirty years later, Lionel Robbins noticed that this definition no longer sufficed, because many economists were making theoretical and philosophical inroads in other areas of human activity. In his Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, he proposed a definition of economics as a study of human behaviour, subject to and constrained by scarcity, which forces people to choose, allocate scarce resources to competing ends, and economise (seeking the greatest welfare while avoiding the wasting of scarce resources). According to Robbins: "Economics is the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses". Robbins' definition eventually became widely accepted by mainstream economists, and found its way into current textbooks. Although far from unanimous, most mainstream economists would accept some version of Robbins' definition, even though many have raised serious objections to the scope and method of economics, emanating from that definition.
A body of theory later termed "neoclassical economics" formed from about 1870 to 1910. The term "economics" was popularised by such neoclassical economists as Alfred Marshall and Mary Paley Marshall as a concise synonym for "economic science" and a substitute for the earlier "political economy". This corresponded to the influence on the subject of mathematical methods used in the natural sciences.
Neoclassical economics systematically integrated supply and demand as joint determinants of both price and quantity in market equilibrium, influencing the allocation of output and income distribution. It rejected the classical economics' labour theory of value in favour of a marginal utility theory of value on the demand side and a more comprehensive theory of costs on the supply side. In the 20th century, neoclassical theorists departed from an earlier idea that suggested measuring total utility for a society, opting instead for ordinal utility, which posits behaviour-based relations across individuals.
In microeconomics, neoclassical economics represents incentives and costs as playing a pervasive role in shaping decision making. An immediate example of this is the consumer theory of individual demand, which isolates how prices (as costs) and income affect quantity demanded. In macroeconomics it is reflected in an early and lasting neoclassical synthesis with Keynesian macroeconomics.
Neoclassical economics is occasionally referred as orthodox economics whether by its critics or sympathisers. Modern mainstream economics builds on neoclassical economics but with many refinements that either supplement or generalise earlier analysis, such as econometrics, game theory, analysis of market failure and imperfect competition, and the neoclassical model of economic growth for analysing long-run variables affecting national income.
Neoclassical economics studies the behaviour of individuals, households, and organisations (called economic actors, players, or agents), when they manage or use scarce resources, which have alternative uses, to achieve desired ends. Agents are assumed to act rationally, have multiple desirable ends in sight, limited resources to obtain these ends, a set of stable preferences, a definite overall guiding objective, and the capability of making a choice. There exists an economic problem, subject to study by economic science, when a decision (choice) is made by one or more players to attain the best possible outcome.
Keynesian economics
Main article: Keynesian economicsKeynesian economics derives from John Maynard Keynes, in particular his book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), which ushered in contemporary macroeconomics as a distinct field. The book focused on determinants of national income in the short run when prices are relatively inflexible. Keynes attempted to explain in broad theoretical detail why high labour-market unemployment might not be self-correcting due to low "effective demand" and why even price flexibility and monetary policy might be unavailing. The term "revolutionary" has been applied to the book in its impact on economic analysis.
During the following decades, many economists followed Keynes' ideas and expanded on his works. John Hicks and Alvin Hansen developed the IS–LM model which was a simple formalisation of some of Keynes' insights on the economy's short-run equilibrium. Franco Modigliani and James Tobin developed important theories of private consumption and investment, respectively, two major components of aggregate demand. Lawrence Klein built the first large-scale macroeconometric model, applying the Keynesian thinking systematically to the US economy.
Post-WWII economics
Immediately after World War II, Keynesian was the dominant economic view of the United States establishment and its allies, Marxian economics was the dominant economic view of the Soviet Union nomenklatura and its allies.
Monetarism
Main article: MonetarismMonetarism appeared in the 1950s and 1960s, its intellectual leader being Milton Friedman. Monetarists contended that monetary policy and other monetary shocks, as represented by the growth in the money stock, was an important cause of economic fluctuations, and consequently that monetary policy was more important than fiscal policy for purposes of stabilisation. Friedman was also skeptical about the ability of central banks to conduct a sensible active monetary policy in practice, advocating instead using simple rules such as a steady rate of money growth.
Monetarism rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, when several major central banks followed a monetarist-inspired policy, but was later abandoned because the results were unsatisfactory.
New classical economics
Main article: New classical macroeconomicsA more fundamental challenge to the prevailing Keynesian paradigm came in the 1970s from new classical economists like Robert Lucas, Thomas Sargent and Edward Prescott. They introduced the notion of rational expectations in economics, which had profound implications for many economic discussions, among which were the so-called Lucas critique and the presentation of real business cycle models.
New Keynesians
Main article: New Keynesian economicsDuring the 1980s, a group of researchers appeared being called New Keynesian economists, including among others George Akerlof, Janet Yellen, Gregory Mankiw and Olivier Blanchard. They adopted the principle of rational expectations and other monetarist or new classical ideas such as building upon models employing micro foundations and optimizing behaviour, but simultaneously emphasised the importance of various market failures for the functioning of the economy, as had Keynes. Not least, they proposed various reasons that potentially explained the empirically observed features of price and wage rigidity, usually made to be endogenous features of the models, rather than simply assumed as in older Keynesian-style ones.
New neoclassical synthesis
Main article: New neoclassical synthesisAfter decades of often heated discussions between Keynesians, monetarists, new classical and new Keynesian economists, a synthesis emerged by the 2000s, often given the name the new neoclassical synthesis. It integrated the rational expectations and optimizing framework of the new classical theory with a new Keynesian role for nominal rigidities and other market imperfections like imperfect information in goods, labour and credit markets. The monetarist importance of monetary policy in stabilizing the economy and in particular controlling inflation was recognised as well as the traditional Keynesian insistence that fiscal policy could also play an influential role in affecting aggregate demand. Methodologically, the synthesis led to a new class of applied models, known as dynamic stochastic general equilibrium or DSGE models, descending from real business cycles models, but extended with several new Keynesian and other features. These models proved useful and influential in the design of modern monetary policy and are now standard workhorses in most central banks.
After the financial crisis
After the 2007–2008 financial crisis, macroeconomic research has put greater emphasis on understanding and integrating the financial system into models of the general economy and shedding light on the ways in which problems in the financial sector can turn into major macroeconomic recessions. In this and other research branches, inspiration from behavioural economics has started playing a more important role in mainstream economic theory. Also, heterogeneity among the economic agents, e.g. differences in income, plays an increasing role in recent economic research.
Other schools and approaches
Main article: Schools of economic thoughtOther schools or trends of thought referring to a particular style of economics practised at and disseminated from well-defined groups of academicians that have become known worldwide, include the Freiburg School, the School of Lausanne, the Stockholm school and the Chicago school of economics. During the 1970s and 1980s mainstream economics was sometimes separated into the Saltwater approach of those universities along the Eastern and Western coasts of the US, and the Freshwater, or Chicago school approach.
Within macroeconomics there is, in general order of their historical appearance in the literature; classical economics, neoclassical economics, Keynesian economics, the neoclassical synthesis, monetarism, new classical economics, New Keynesian economics and the new neoclassical synthesis.
Beside the mainstream development of economic thought, various alternative or heterodox economic theories have evolved over time, positioning themselves in contrast to mainstream theory. These include:
- Austrian School, emphasizing human action, property rights and the freedom to contract and transact to have a thriving and successful economy. It also emphasises that the state should play as small role as possible (if any role) in the regulation of economic activity between two transacting parties. Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises are the two most prominent representatives of the Austrian school.
- Post-Keynesian economics concentrates on macroeconomic rigidities and adjustment processes. It is generally associated with the University of Cambridge and the work of Joan Robinson.
- Ecological economics like environmental economics studies the interactions between human economies and the ecosystems in which they are embedded, but in contrast to environmental economics takes an oppositional position towards general mainstream economic principles. A major difference between the two subdisciplines is their assumptions about the substitution possibilities between human-made and natural capital.
Additionally, alternative developments include Marxian economics, constitutional economics, institutional economics, evolutionary economics, dependency theory, structuralist economics, world systems theory, econophysics, econodynamics, feminist economics and biophysical economics.
Feminist economics emphasises the role that gender plays in economies, challenging analyses that render gender invisible or support gender-oppressive economic systems. The goal is to create economic research and policy analysis that is inclusive and gender-aware to encourage gender equality and improve the well-being of marginalised groups.
Methodology
Theoretical research
Main articles: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Mathematical economics "Economic theory" redirects here. For the publication, see Economic Theory (journal).Mainstream economic theory relies upon analytical economic models. When creating theories, the objective is to find assumptions which are at least as simple in information requirements, more precise in predictions, and more fruitful in generating additional research than prior theories. While neoclassical economic theory constitutes both the dominant or orthodox theoretical as well as methodological framework, economic theory can also take the form of other schools of thought such as in heterodox economic theories.
In microeconomics, principal concepts include supply and demand, marginalism, rational choice theory, opportunity cost, budget constraints, utility, and the theory of the firm. Early macroeconomic models focused on modelling the relationships between aggregate variables, but as the relationships appeared to change over time macroeconomists, including new Keynesians, reformulated their models with microfoundations, in which microeconomic concepts play a major part.
Sometimes an economic hypothesis is only qualitative, not quantitative.
Expositions of economic reasoning often use two-dimensional graphs to illustrate theoretical relationships. At a higher level of generality, mathematical economics is the application of mathematical methods to represent theories and analyse problems in economics. Paul Samuelson's treatise Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947) exemplifies the method, particularly as to maximizing behavioural relations of agents reaching equilibrium. The book focused on examining the class of statements called operationally meaningful theorems in economics, which are theorems that can conceivably be refuted by empirical data.
Empirical research
Main articles: Econometrics and Experimental economicsEconomic theories are frequently tested empirically, largely through the use of econometrics using economic data. The controlled experiments common to the physical sciences are difficult and uncommon in economics, and instead broad data is observationally studied; this type of testing is typically regarded as less rigorous than controlled experimentation, and the conclusions typically more tentative. However, the field of experimental economics is growing, and increasing use is being made of natural experiments.
Statistical methods such as regression analysis are common. Practitioners use such methods to estimate the size, economic significance, and statistical significance ("signal strength") of the hypothesised relation(s) and to adjust for noise from other variables. By such means, a hypothesis may gain acceptance, although in a probabilistic, rather than certain, sense. Acceptance is dependent upon the falsifiable hypothesis surviving tests. Use of commonly accepted methods need not produce a final conclusion or even a consensus on a particular question, given different tests, data sets, and prior beliefs.
Experimental economics has promoted the use of scientifically controlled experiments. This has reduced the long-noted distinction of economics from natural sciences because it allows direct tests of what were previously taken as axioms. In some cases these have found that the axioms are not entirely correct.
In behavioural economics, psychologist Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 for his and Amos Tversky's empirical discovery of several cognitive biases and heuristics. Similar empirical testing occurs in neuroeconomics. Another example is the assumption of narrowly selfish preferences versus a model that tests for selfish, altruistic, and cooperative preferences. These techniques have led some to argue that economics is a "genuine science".
Microeconomics
Main articles: Microeconomics and Market (economics)Microeconomics examines how entities, forming a market structure, interact within a market to create a market system. These entities include private and public players with various classifications, typically operating under scarcity of tradable units and regulation. The item traded may be a tangible product such as apples or a service such as repair services, legal counsel, or entertainment.
Various market structures exist. In perfectly competitive markets, no participants are large enough to have the market power to set the price of a homogeneous product. In other words, every participant is a "price taker" as no participant influences the price of a product. In the real world, markets often experience imperfect competition.
Forms of imperfect competition include monopoly (in which there is only one seller of a good), duopoly (in which there are only two sellers of a good), oligopoly (in which there are few sellers of a good), monopolistic competition (in which there are many sellers producing highly differentiated goods), monopsony (in which there is only one buyer of a good), and oligopsony (in which there are few buyers of a good). Firms under imperfect competition have the potential to be "price makers", which means that they can influence the prices of their products.
In partial equilibrium method of analysis, it is assumed that activity in the market being analysed does not affect other markets. This method aggregates (the sum of all activity) in only one market. General-equilibrium theory studies various markets and their behaviour. It aggregates (the sum of all activity) across all markets. This method studies both changes in markets and their interactions leading towards equilibrium.
Production, cost, and efficiency
Main articles: Production (economics), Opportunity cost, Economic efficiency, and Production–possibility frontierIn microeconomics, production is the conversion of inputs into outputs. It is an economic process that uses inputs to create a commodity or a service for exchange or direct use. Production is a flow and thus a rate of output per period of time. Distinctions include such production alternatives as for consumption (food, haircuts, etc.) vs. investment goods (new tractors, buildings, roads, etc.), public goods (national defence, smallpox vaccinations, etc.) or private goods, and "guns" vs "butter".
Inputs used in the production process include such primary factors of production as labour services, capital (durable produced goods used in production, such as an existing factory), and land (including natural resources). Other inputs may include intermediate goods used in production of final goods, such as the steel in a new car.
Economic efficiency measures how well a system generates desired output with a given set of inputs and available technology. Efficiency is improved if more output is generated without changing inputs. A widely accepted general standard is Pareto efficiency, which is reached when no further change can make someone better off without making someone else worse off.
The production–possibility frontier (PPF) is an expository figure for representing scarcity, cost, and efficiency. In the simplest case, an economy can produce just two goods (say "guns" and "butter"). The PPF is a table or graph (as at the right) that shows the different quantity combinations of the two goods producible with a given technology and total factor inputs, which limit feasible total output. Each point on the curve shows potential total output for the economy, which is the maximum feasible output of one good, given a feasible output quantity of the other good.
Scarcity is represented in the figure by people being willing but unable in the aggregate to consume beyond the PPF (such as at X) and by the negative slope of the curve. If production of one good increases along the curve, production of the other good decreases, an inverse relationship. This is because increasing output of one good requires transferring inputs to it from production of the other good, decreasing the latter.
The slope of the curve at a point on it gives the trade-off between the two goods. It measures what an additional unit of one good costs in units forgone of the other good, an example of a real opportunity cost. Thus, if one more Gun costs 100 units of butter, the opportunity cost of one Gun is 100 Butter. Along the PPF, scarcity implies that choosing more of one good in the aggregate entails doing with less of the other good. Still, in a market economy, movement along the curve may indicate that the choice of the increased output is anticipated to be worth the cost to the agents.
By construction, each point on the curve shows productive efficiency in maximizing output for given total inputs. A point inside the curve (as at A), is feasible but represents production inefficiency (wasteful use of inputs), in that output of one or both goods could increase by moving in a northeast direction to a point on the curve. Examples cited of such inefficiency include high unemployment during a business-cycle recession or economic organisation of a country that discourages full use of resources. Being on the curve might still not fully satisfy allocative efficiency (also called Pareto efficiency) if it does not produce a mix of goods that consumers prefer over other points.
Much applied economics in public policy is concerned with determining how the efficiency of an economy can be improved. Recognizing the reality of scarcity and then figuring out how to organise society for the most efficient use of resources has been described as the "essence of economics", where the subject "makes its unique contribution."
Specialisation
Main articles: Division of labour, Comparative advantage, and Gains from tradeSpecialisation is considered key to economic efficiency based on theoretical and empirical considerations. Different individuals or nations may have different real opportunity costs of production, say from differences in stocks of human capital per worker or capital/labour ratios. According to theory, this may give a comparative advantage in production of goods that make more intensive use of the relatively more abundant, thus relatively cheaper, input.
Even if one region has an absolute advantage as to the ratio of its outputs to inputs in every type of output, it may still specialise in the output in which it has a comparative advantage and thereby gain from trading with a region that lacks any absolute advantage but has a comparative advantage in producing something else.
It has been observed that a high volume of trade occurs among regions even with access to a similar technology and mix of factor inputs, including high-income countries. This has led to investigation of economies of scale and agglomeration to explain specialisation in similar but differentiated product lines, to the overall benefit of respective trading parties or regions.
The general theory of specialisation applies to trade among individuals, farms, manufacturers, service providers, and economies. Among each of these production systems, there may be a corresponding division of labour with different work groups specializing, or correspondingly different types of capital equipment and differentiated land uses.
An example that combines features above is a country that specialises in the production of high-tech knowledge products, as developed countries do, and trades with developing nations for goods produced in factories where labour is relatively cheap and plentiful, resulting in different in opportunity costs of production. More total output and utility thereby results from specializing in production and trading than if each country produced its own high-tech and low-tech products.
Theory and observation set out the conditions such that market prices of outputs and productive inputs select an allocation of factor inputs by comparative advantage, so that (relatively) low-cost inputs go to producing low-cost outputs. In the process, aggregate output may increase as a by-product or by design. Such specialisation of production creates opportunities for gains from trade whereby resource owners benefit from trade in the sale of one type of output for other, more highly valued goods. A measure of gains from trade is the increased income levels that trade may facilitate.
Supply and demand
Main article: Supply and demandPrices and quantities have been described as the most directly observable attributes of goods produced and exchanged in a market economy. The theory of supply and demand is an organizing principle for explaining how prices coordinate the amounts produced and consumed. In microeconomics, it applies to price and output determination for a market with perfect competition, which includes the condition of no buyers or sellers large enough to have price-setting power.
For a given market of a commodity, demand is the relation of the quantity that all buyers would be prepared to purchase at each unit price of the good. Demand is often represented by a table or a graph showing price and quantity demanded (as in the figure). Demand theory describes individual consumers as rationally choosing the most preferred quantity of each good, given income, prices, tastes, etc. A term for this is "constrained utility maximisation" (with income and wealth as the constraints on demand). Here, utility refers to the hypothesised relation of each individual consumer for ranking different commodity bundles as more or less preferred.
The law of demand states that, in general, price and quantity demanded in a given market are inversely related. That is, the higher the price of a product, the less of it people would be prepared to buy (other things unchanged). As the price of a commodity falls, consumers move toward it from relatively more expensive goods (the substitution effect). In addition, purchasing power from the price decline increases ability to buy (the income effect). Other factors can change demand; for example an increase in income will shift the demand curve for a normal good outward relative to the origin, as in the figure. All determinants are predominantly taken as constant factors of demand and supply.
Supply is the relation between the price of a good and the quantity available for sale at that price. It may be represented as a table or graph relating price and quantity supplied. Producers, for example business firms, are hypothesised to be profit maximisers, meaning that they attempt to produce and supply the amount of goods that will bring them the highest profit. Supply is typically represented as a function relating price and quantity, if other factors are unchanged.
That is, the higher the price at which the good can be sold, the more of it producers will supply, as in the figure. The higher price makes it profitable to increase production. Just as on the demand side, the position of the supply can shift, say from a change in the price of a productive input or a technical improvement. The "Law of Supply" states that, in general, a rise in price leads to an expansion in supply and a fall in price leads to a contraction in supply. Here as well, the determinants of supply, such as price of substitutes, cost of production, technology applied and various factors inputs of production are all taken to be constant for a specific time period of evaluation of supply.
Market equilibrium occurs where quantity supplied equals quantity demanded, the intersection of the supply and demand curves in the figure above. At a price below equilibrium, there is a shortage of quantity supplied compared to quantity demanded. This is posited to bid the price up. At a price above equilibrium, there is a surplus of quantity supplied compared to quantity demanded. This pushes the price down. The model of supply and demand predicts that for given supply and demand curves, price and quantity will stabilise at the price that makes quantity supplied equal to quantity demanded. Similarly, demand-and-supply theory predicts a new price-quantity combination from a shift in demand (as to the figure), or in supply.
Firms
Main articles: Theory of the firm, Industrial organisation, Business economics, and Managerial economicsPeople frequently do not trade directly on markets. Instead, on the supply side, they may work in and produce through firms. The most obvious kinds of firms are corporations, partnerships and trusts. According to Ronald Coase, people begin to organise their production in firms when the costs of doing business becomes lower than doing it on the market. Firms combine labour and capital, and can achieve far greater economies of scale (when the average cost per unit declines as more units are produced) than individual market trading.
In perfectly competitive markets studied in the theory of supply and demand, there are many producers, none of which significantly influence price. Industrial organisation generalises from that special case to study the strategic behaviour of firms that do have significant control of price. It considers the structure of such markets and their interactions. Common market structures studied besides perfect competition include monopolistic competition, various forms of oligopoly, and monopoly.
Managerial economics applies microeconomic analysis to specific decisions in business firms or other management units. It draws heavily from quantitative methods such as operations research and programming and from statistical methods such as regression analysis in the absence of certainty and perfect knowledge. A unifying theme is the attempt to optimise business decisions, including unit-cost minimisation and profit maximisation, given the firm's objectives and constraints imposed by technology and market conditions.
Uncertainty and game theory
Main articles: Information economics, Game theory, and Financial economicsUncertainty in economics is an unknown prospect of gain or loss, whether quantifiable as risk or not. Without it, household behaviour would be unaffected by uncertain employment and income prospects, financial and capital markets would reduce to exchange of a single instrument in each market period, and there would be no communications industry. Given its different forms, there are various ways of representing uncertainty and modelling economic agents' responses to it.
Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that considers strategic interactions between agents, one kind of uncertainty. It provides a mathematical foundation of industrial organisation, discussed above, to model different types of firm behaviour, for example in a solipsistic industry (few sellers), but equally applicable to wage negotiations, bargaining, contract design, and any situation where individual agents are few enough to have perceptible effects on each other. In behavioural economics, it has been used to model the strategies agents choose when interacting with others whose interests are at least partially adverse to their own.
In this, it generalises maximisation approaches developed to analyse market actors such as in the supply and demand model and allows for incomplete information of actors. The field dates from the 1944 classic Theory of Games and Economic Behavior by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern. It has significant applications seemingly outside of economics in such diverse subjects as the formulation of nuclear strategies, ethics, political science, and evolutionary biology.
Risk aversion may stimulate activity that in well-functioning markets smooths out risk and communicates information about risk, as in markets for insurance, commodity futures contracts, and financial instruments. Financial economics or simply finance describes the allocation of financial resources. It also analyses the pricing of financial instruments, the financial structure of companies, the efficiency and fragility of financial markets, financial crises, and related government policy or regulation.
Some market organisations may give rise to inefficiencies associated with uncertainty. Based on George Akerlof's "Market for Lemons" article, the paradigm example is of a dodgy second-hand car market. Customers without knowledge of whether a car is a "lemon" depress its price below what a quality second-hand car would be. Information asymmetry arises here, if the seller has more relevant information than the buyer but no incentive to disclose it. Related problems in insurance are adverse selection, such that those at most risk are most likely to insure (say reckless drivers), and moral hazard, such that insurance results in riskier behaviour (say more reckless driving).
Both problems may raise insurance costs and reduce efficiency by driving otherwise willing transactors from the market ("incomplete markets"). Moreover, attempting to reduce one problem, say adverse selection by mandating insurance, may add to another, say moral hazard. Information economics, which studies such problems, has relevance in subjects such as insurance, contract law, mechanism design, monetary economics, and health care. Applied subjects include market and legal remedies to spread or reduce risk, such as warranties, government-mandated partial insurance, restructuring or bankruptcy law, inspection, and regulation for quality and information disclosure.
Market failure
Main article: Market failure See also: Government failure, Information economics, Environmental economics, Ecological economics, and Agricultural economicsThe term "market failure" encompasses several problems which may undermine standard economic assumptions. Although economists categorise market failures differently, the following categories emerge in the main texts.
Information asymmetries and incomplete markets may result in economic inefficiency but also a possibility of improving efficiency through market, legal, and regulatory remedies, as discussed above.
Natural monopoly, or the overlapping concepts of "practical" and "technical" monopoly, is an extreme case of failure of competition as a restraint on producers. Extreme economies of scale are one possible cause.
Public goods are goods which are under-supplied in a typical market. The defining features are that people can consume public goods without having to pay for them and that more than one person can consume the good at the same time.
Externalities occur where there are significant social costs or benefits from production or consumption that are not reflected in market prices. For example, air pollution may generate a negative externality, and education may generate a positive externality (less crime, etc.). Governments often tax and otherwise restrict the sale of goods that have negative externalities and subsidise or otherwise promote the purchase of goods that have positive externalities in an effort to correct the price distortions caused by these externalities. Elementary demand-and-supply theory predicts equilibrium but not the speed of adjustment for changes of equilibrium due to a shift in demand or supply.
In many areas, some form of price stickiness is postulated to account for quantities, rather than prices, adjusting in the short run to changes on the demand side or the supply side. This includes standard analysis of the business cycle in macroeconomics. Analysis often revolves around causes of such price stickiness and their implications for reaching a hypothesised long-run equilibrium. Examples of such price stickiness in particular markets include wage rates in labour markets and posted prices in markets deviating from perfect competition.
Some specialised fields of economics deal in market failure more than others. The economics of the public sector is one example. Much environmental economics concerns externalities or "public bads".
Policy options include regulations that reflect cost–benefit analysis or market solutions that change incentives, such as emission fees or redefinition of property rights.
Welfare
Main article: Welfare economicsWelfare economics uses microeconomics techniques to evaluate well-being from allocation of productive factors as to desirability and economic efficiency within an economy, often relative to competitive general equilibrium. It analyses social welfare, however measured, in terms of economic activities of the individuals that compose the theoretical society considered. Accordingly, individuals, with associated economic activities, are the basic units for aggregating to social welfare, whether of a group, a community, or a society, and there is no "social welfare" apart from the "welfare" associated with its individual units.
Macroeconomics
Main article: MacroeconomicsMacroeconomics, another branch of economics, examines the economy as a whole to explain broad aggregates and their interactions "top down", that is, using a simplified form of general-equilibrium theory. Such aggregates include national income and output, the unemployment rate, and price inflation and subaggregates like total consumption and investment spending and their components. It also studies effects of monetary policy and fiscal policy.
Since at least the 1960s, macroeconomics has been characterised by further integration as to micro-based modelling of sectors, including rationality of players, efficient use of market information, and imperfect competition. This has addressed a long-standing concern about inconsistent developments of the same subject.
Macroeconomic analysis also considers factors affecting the long-term level and growth of national income. Such factors include capital accumulation, technological change and labour force growth.
Growth
Main article: Economic growthGrowth economics studies factors that explain economic growth – the increase in output per capita of a country over a long period of time. The same factors are used to explain differences in the level of output per capita between countries, in particular why some countries grow faster than others, and whether countries converge at the same rates of growth.
Much-studied factors include the rate of investment, population growth, and technological change. These are represented in theoretical and empirical forms (as in the neoclassical and endogenous growth models) and in growth accounting.
Business cycle
Main article: Business cycle See also: Circular flow of income, Aggregate supply, Aggregate demand, and UnemploymentThe economics of a depression were the spur for the creation of "macroeconomics" as a separate discipline. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, John Maynard Keynes authored a book entitled The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money outlining the key theories of Keynesian economics. Keynes contended that aggregate demand for goods might be insufficient during economic downturns, leading to unnecessarily high unemployment and losses of potential output.
He therefore advocated active policy responses by the public sector, including monetary policy actions by the central bank and fiscal policy actions by the government to stabilise output over the business cycle. Thus, a central conclusion of Keynesian economics is that, in some situations, no strong automatic mechanism moves output and employment towards full employment levels. John Hicks' IS/LM model has been the most influential interpretation of The General Theory.
Over the years, understanding of the business cycle has branched into various research programmes, mostly related to or distinct from Keynesianism. The neoclassical synthesis refers to the reconciliation of Keynesian economics with classical economics, stating that Keynesianism is correct in the short run but qualified by classical-like considerations in the intermediate and long run.
New classical macroeconomics, as distinct from the Keynesian view of the business cycle, posits market clearing with imperfect information. It includes Friedman's permanent income hypothesis on consumption and "rational expectations" theory, led by Robert Lucas, and real business cycle theory.
In contrast, the new Keynesian approach retains the rational expectations assumption, however it assumes a variety of market failures. In particular, New Keynesians assume prices and wages are "sticky", which means they do not adjust instantaneously to changes in economic conditions.
Thus, the new classicals assume that prices and wages adjust automatically to attain full employment, whereas the new Keynesians see full employment as being automatically achieved only in the long run, and hence government and central-bank policies are needed because the "long run" may be very long.
Unemployment
Main article: UnemploymentThe amount of unemployment in an economy is measured by the unemployment rate, the percentage of workers without jobs in the labour force. The labour force only includes workers actively looking for jobs. People who are retired, pursuing education, or discouraged from seeking work by a lack of job prospects are excluded from the labour force. Unemployment can be generally broken down into several types that are related to different causes.
Classical models of unemployment occurs when wages are too high for employers to be willing to hire more workers. Consistent with classical unemployment, frictional unemployment occurs when appropriate job vacancies exist for a worker, but the length of time needed to search for and find the job leads to a period of unemployment.
Structural unemployment covers a variety of possible causes of unemployment including a mismatch between workers' skills and the skills required for open jobs. Large amounts of structural unemployment can occur when an economy is transitioning industries and workers find their previous set of skills are no longer in demand. Structural unemployment is similar to frictional unemployment since both reflect the problem of matching workers with job vacancies, but structural unemployment covers the time needed to acquire new skills not just the short term search process.
While some types of unemployment may occur regardless of the condition of the economy, cyclical unemployment occurs when growth stagnates. Okun's law represents the empirical relationship between unemployment and economic growth. The original version of Okun's law states that a 3% increase in output would lead to a 1% decrease in unemployment.
Money and monetary policy
Main article: Monetary policy See also: Monetary economics and History of moneyMoney is a means of final payment for goods in most price system economies, and is the unit of account in which prices are typically stated. Money has general acceptability, relative consistency in value, divisibility, durability, portability, elasticity in supply, and longevity with mass public confidence. It includes currency held by the nonbank public and checkable deposits. It has been described as a social convention, like language, useful to one largely because it is useful to others. In the words of Francis Amasa Walker, a well-known 19th-century economist, "Money is what money does" ("Money is that money does" in the original).
As a medium of exchange, money facilitates trade. It is essentially a measure of value and more importantly, a store of value being a basis for credit creation. Its economic function can be contrasted with barter (non-monetary exchange). Given a diverse array of produced goods and specialised producers, barter may entail a hard-to-locate double coincidence of wants as to what is exchanged, say apples and a book. Money can reduce the transaction cost of exchange because of its ready acceptability. Then it is less costly for the seller to accept money in exchange, rather than what the buyer produces.
Monetary policy is the policy that central banks conduct to accomplish their broader objectives. Most central banks in developed countries follow inflation targeting, whereas the main objective for many central banks in development countries is to uphold a fixed exchange rate system. The primary monetary tool is normally the adjustment of interest rates, either directly via administratively changing the central bank's own interest rates or indirectly via open market operations. Via the monetary transmission mechanism, interest rate changes affect investment, consumption and net export, and hence aggregate demand, output and employment, and ultimately the development of wages and inflation.
Fiscal policy
Main articles: Fiscal policy, Government spending, and TaxGovernments implement fiscal policy to influence macroeconomic conditions by adjusting spending and taxation policies to alter aggregate demand. When aggregate demand falls below the potential output of the economy, there is an output gap where some productive capacity is left unemployed. Governments increase spending and cut taxes to boost aggregate demand. Resources that have been idled can be used by the government.
For example, unemployed home builders can be hired to expand highways. Tax cuts allow consumers to increase their spending, which boosts aggregate demand. Both tax cuts and spending have multiplier effects where the initial increase in demand from the policy percolates through the economy and generates additional economic activity.
The effects of fiscal policy can be limited by crowding out. When there is no output gap, the economy is producing at full capacity and there are no excess productive resources. If the government increases spending in this situation, the government uses resources that otherwise would have been used by the private sector, so there is no increase in overall output. Some economists think that crowding out is always an issue while others do not think it is a major issue when output is depressed.
Sceptics of fiscal policy also make the argument of Ricardian equivalence. They argue that an increase in debt will have to be paid for with future tax increases, which will cause people to reduce their consumption and save money to pay for the future tax increase. Under Ricardian equivalence, any boost in demand from tax cuts will be offset by the increased saving intended to pay for future higher taxes.
Inequality
Main article: Economic inequalityEconomic inequality includes income inequality, measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people receive), and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of wealth people own), and other measures such as consumption, land ownership, and human capital. Inequality exists at different extents between countries or states, groups of people, and individuals. There are many methods for measuring inequality, the Gini coefficient being widely used for income differences among individuals. An example measure of inequality between countries is the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, a composite index that takes inequality into account. Important concepts of equality include equity, equality of outcome, and equality of opportunity.
Research has linked economic inequality to political and social instability, including revolution, democratic breakdown and civil conflict. Research suggests that greater inequality hinders economic growth and macroeconomic stability, and that land and human capital inequality reduce growth more than inequality of income. Inequality is at the centre stage of economic policy debate across the globe, as government tax and spending policies have significant effects on income distribution. In advanced economies, taxes and transfers decrease income inequality by one-third, with most of this being achieved via public social spending (such as pensions and family benefits.)
Other branches of economics
Public economics
Main article: Public economicsPublic economics is the field of economics that deals with economic activities of a public sector, usually government. The subject addresses such matters as tax incidence (who really pays a particular tax), cost–benefit analysis of government programmes, effects on economic efficiency and income distribution of different kinds of spending and taxes, and fiscal politics. The latter, an aspect of public choice theory, models public-sector behaviour analogously to microeconomics, involving interactions of self-interested voters, politicians, and bureaucrats.
Much of economics is positive, seeking to describe and predict economic phenomena. Normative economics seeks to identify what economies ought to be like.
Welfare economics is a normative branch of economics that uses microeconomic techniques to simultaneously determine the allocative efficiency within an economy and the income distribution associated with it. It attempts to measure social welfare by examining the economic activities of the individuals that comprise society.
International economics
Main article: International economicsInternational trade studies determinants of goods-and-services flows across international boundaries. It also concerns the size and distribution of gains from trade. Policy applications include estimating the effects of changing tariff rates and trade quotas. International finance is a macroeconomic field which examines the flow of capital across international borders, and the effects of these movements on exchange rates. Increased trade in goods, services and capital between countries is a major effect of contemporary globalisation.
Labour economics
Main article: Labour economicsLabour economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the markets for wage labour. Labour markets function through the interaction of workers and employers. Labour economics looks at the suppliers of labour services (workers), the demands of labour services (employers), and attempts to understand the resulting pattern of wages, employment, and income. In economics, labour is a measure of the work done by human beings. It is conventionally contrasted with such other factors of production as land and capital. There are theories which have developed a concept called human capital (referring to the skills that workers possess, not necessarily their actual work), although there are also counter posing macro-economic system theories that think human capital is a contradiction in terms.
Development economics
Main article: Development economicsDevelopment economics examines economic aspects of the economic development process in relatively low-income countries focusing on structural change, poverty, and economic growth. Approaches in development economics frequently incorporate social and political factors.
Related subjects
Main articles: Law and economics, Natural resource economics, Philosophy and economics, and Political economyEconomics is one social science among several and has fields bordering on other areas, including economic geography, economic history, public choice, energy economics, cultural economics, family economics and institutional economics.
Law and economics, or economic analysis of law, is an approach to legal theory that applies methods of economics to law. It includes the use of economic concepts to explain the effects of legal rules, to assess which legal rules are economically efficient, and to predict what the legal rules will be. A seminal article by Ronald Coase published in 1961 suggested that well-defined property rights could overcome the problems of externalities.
Political economy is the interdisciplinary study that combines economics, law, and political science in explaining how political institutions, the political environment, and the economic system (capitalist, socialist, mixed) influence each other. It studies questions such as how monopoly, rent-seeking behaviour, and externalities should impact government policy. Historians have employed political economy to explore the ways in the past that persons and groups with common economic interests have used politics to effect changes beneficial to their interests.
Energy economics is a broad scientific subject area which includes topics related to energy supply and energy demand. Georgescu-Roegen reintroduced the concept of entropy in relation to economics and energy from thermodynamics, as distinguished from what he viewed as the mechanistic foundation of neoclassical economics drawn from Newtonian physics. His work contributed significantly to thermoeconomics and to ecological economics. He also did foundational work which later developed into evolutionary economics.
The sociological subfield of economic sociology arose, primarily through the work of Émile Durkheim, Max Weber and Georg Simmel, as an approach to analysing the effects of economic phenomena in relation to the overarching social paradigm (i.e. modernity). Classic works include Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) and Georg Simmel's The Philosophy of Money (1900). More recently, the works of James S. Coleman, Mark Granovetter, Peter Hedstrom and Richard Swedberg have been influential in this field.
Gary Becker in 1974 presented an economic theory of social interactions, whose applications included the family, charity, merit goods and multiperson interactions, and envy and hatred. He and Kevin Murphy authored a book in 2001 that analysed market behaviour in a social environment.
Profession
Main article: EconomistThe professionalisation of economics, reflected in the growth of graduate programmes on the subject, has been described as "the main change in economics since around 1900". Most major universities and many colleges have a major, school, or department in which academic degrees are awarded in the subject, whether in the liberal arts, business, or for professional study. See Bachelor of Economics and Master of Economics.
In the private sector, professional economists are employed as consultants and in industry, including banking and finance. Economists also work for various government departments and agencies, for example, the national treasury, central bank or National Bureau of Statistics. See Economic analyst.
There are dozens of prizes awarded to economists each year for outstanding intellectual contributions to the field, the most prominent of which is the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, though it is not a Nobel Prize.
Contemporary economics uses mathematics. Economists draw on the tools of calculus, linear algebra, statistics, game theory, and computer science. Professional economists are expected to be familiar with these tools, while a minority specialise in econometrics and mathematical methods.
Women in economics
Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) was a widely-read populariser of classical economic thought. Mary Paley Marshall (1850–1944), the first women lecturer at a British economics faculty, wrote The Economics of Industry with her husband Alfred Marshall. Joan Robinson (1903–1983) was an important post-Keynesian economist. The economic historian Anna Schwartz (1915–2012) coauthored A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960 with Milton Friedman. Three women have received the Nobel Prize in Economics: Elinor Ostrom (2009), Esther Duflo (2019) and Claudia Goldin (2023). Five have received the John Bates Clark Medal: Susan Athey (2007), Esther Duflo (2010), Amy Finkelstein (2012), Emi Nakamura (2019) and Melissa Dell (2020).
Women's authorship share in prominent economic journals reduced from 1940 to the 1970s, but has subsequently risen, with different patterns of gendered coauthorship. Women remain globally under-represented in the profession (19% of authors in the RePEc database in 2018), with national variation.
See also
- Asymmetric cointegration
- Critical juncture theory
- Democracy and economic growth
- Economic democracy
- Economic ideology
- Economic union
- Economics terminology that differs from common usage
- Free trade
- Glossary of economics
- Happiness economics
- Humanistic economics
- Index of economics articles
- List of academic fields § Economics
- List of economics awards
- List of economics films
- Outline of economics
- Socioeconomics
- Solidarity economy
Notes
- "Capital" in Smith's usage includes fixed capital and circulating capital. The latter includes wages and labour maintenance, money, and inputs from land, mines, and fisheries associated with production.
- "This science indicates the cases in which commerce is truly productive, where whatever is gained by one is lost by another, and where it is profitable to all; it also teaches us to appreciate its several processes, but simply in their results, at which it stops. Besides this knowledge, the merchant must also understand the processes of his art. He must be acquainted with the commodities in which he deals, their qualities and defects, the countries from which they are derived, their markets, the means of their transportation, the values to be given for them in exchange, and the method of keeping accounts. The same remark is applicable to the agriculturist, to the manufacturer, and to the practical man of business; to acquire a thorough knowledge of the causes and consequences of each phenomenon, the study of political economy is essentially necessary to them all; and to become expert in his particular pursuit, each one must add thereto a knowledge of its processes." (Say 1803, p. XVI)
- "And when we submit the definition in question to this test, it is seen to possess deficiencies which, so far from being marginal and subsidiary, amount to nothing less than a complete failure to exhibit either the scope or the significance of the most central generalisations of all." (Robbins 2007, p. 5)
- "The conception we have adopted may be described as analytical. It does not attempt to pick out certain kinds of behaviour, but focuses attention on a particular aspect of behaviour, the form imposed by the influence of scarcity. (Robbins 2007, p. 17)
- Compare with Nicholas Barr (2004), whose list of market failures is melded with failures of economic assumptions, which are (1) producers as price takers (i.e. presence of oligopoly or monopoly; but why is this not a product of the following?) (2) equal power of consumers (what labour lawyers call an imbalance of bargaining power) (3) complete markets (4) public goods (5) external effects (i.e. externalities?) (6) increasing returns to scale (i.e. practical monopoly) (7) perfect information (in The Economics of the Welfare State (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. pp. 72–79. ISBN 978-0-19-926497-1.).
• Joseph E. Stiglitz (2015) classifies market failures as from failure of competition (including natural monopoly), information asymmetries, incomplete markets, externalities, public good situations, and macroeconomic disturbances (in "Chapter 4: Market Failure". Economics of the Public Sector (4th International Student ed.). W.W. Norton & Company. 2015. pp. 81–100. ISBN 978-0-393-93709-1.).
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Further reading
- Anderson, David A. (2019). Survey of Economics. New York: Worth. ISBN 978-1-4292-5956-9.
- Blanchard, Olivier; Amighini, Alessia; Giavazzi, Francesco (2017). Macroeconomics: a European perspective (3rd ed.). Pearson. ISBN 978-1-292-08567-8.
- Blaug, Mark (1985). Economic Theory in Retrospect (4th ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521316446.
- McCann, Charles Robert Jr. (2003). The Elgar Dictionary of Economic Quotations. Edward Elgar. ISBN 978-1840648201.
- Post, Louis F. (1927), The Basic Facts of Economics: A Common-Sense Primer for Advanced Students. United States: Columbian Printing Company, Incorporated.
- Economics public domain audiobook at LibriVox.
External links
Library resources aboutEconomics
General information
- Economic journals on the web. Archived 10 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- Economics Archived 25 June 2022 at the Wayback Machine at Encyclopædia Britannica
- Economics A–Z. Archived 14 February 2022 at the Wayback Machine Definitions from The Economist.
- Economics Online Archived 28 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine (UK-based), with drop-down menus at top, incl. Definitions.
- Intute: Economics: Internet directory of UK universities.
- Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) Archived 16 August 2000 at the Wayback Machine
- Resources For Economists Archived 11 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine: American Economic Association-sponsored guide to 2,000+ Internet resources from "Data" to "Neat Stuff", updated quarterly.
Institutions and organizations
- Economics Departments, Institutes and Research Centers in the World Archived 30 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- Organization For Co-operation and Economic Development (OECD) Statistics
- United Nations Statistics Division Archived 24 January 2002 at the Wayback Machine
- World Bank Data Archived 27 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine
- American Economic Association Archived 20 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine
Study resources
- Anderson, David; Ray, Margaret (2019). Krugman's Economics for the AP Course (3rd ed.). New York: BFW. ISBN 978-1-319-11327-8. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- McConnell, Campbell R.; et al. (2009). Economics. Principles, Problems and Policies (PDF) (18th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-337569-4. Archived from the original (PDF contains full textbook) on 6 October 2016.
- Economics at About.com Archived 2 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- Economics textbooks on Wikibooks
- MERLOT Learning Materials: Economics Archived 14 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine: US-based database of learning materials
- Online Learning and Teaching Materials Archived 9 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine UK Economics Network's database of text, slides, glossaries and other resources
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