what is economics the typical first-year student walks into his first economics
class with very little idea
what economics its you might have heard something like
economics is the study of money or economics is another word for accounting
or economics is hard don’t take that class
but none of those are troop
economics is the study the use of scarce resources that have alternative uses
that’s the classic definition and economics
basically there are people and people need resources to fulfill their desires
these resources cannot be infinite but the desires can be
so people need to make choices about how to use their scarce resources
economists studied these choices up
all economic questions fall into one of two categories
positive and normative positive economics describes what is
and normative economics argues for what ought to be
so question like why do people use money
is positive question and should people use money
is a normative question a general rule of thumb is that if you economic model
has no value judgments
its positive economics whereas if it does have value judgments
its normative economics since to tell someone what he ought to do
you first have to judge what is best for up
economics is also divided in the micro economics
and macroeconomics micro-economic study the behavior individual agents and markets
well macro economic studies the behavior of the entire economy
economists also have their own branch of statistics called econometrics
that specialized in analyzing economic data
since economic data usually comes from the real world and not from controlled experiments
econometrics faces mathematical challenges that other fields might not
the tools economists have developed to study human behavior brought uses
outside about we would traditionally consider economics
economist study not only markets but things like crime
war the family religion culture
politice low and even genetics
that’s why it’s not unusual to see papers by psychologists
sociologists criminologists political scientists
anthropologists biologists neuroscientists
or legal scholars being caught there by economists