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Economics is the social science that analyzes the production distribution and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek (oikonomia "management of a household administration") from (oikos "house") + (nomos "custom" or "law") hence "rules of the house(hold)".1 Current economic models emerged from the broader field of political economy in the late 19th century. A primary stimulus for the development of modern economics was the desire to use an empirical approach more akin to the physical sciences.2

Economics aims to explain how economies work and how economic agents interact. Economic analysis is applied throughout society in business finance and government but also in crime3 education4 the family health law politics religion5 social institutions war6 and science.7 The expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism.8

Common distinctions are drawn between various dimensions of economics. The primary textbook distinction is between microeconomics which examines the behavior of basic elements in the economy including individual markets and agents (such as consumers and firms buyers and sellers) and macroeconomics which addresses issues affecting an entire economy including unemployment inflation economic growth and monetary and fiscal policy. Other distinctions include: between positive economics (describing "what is") and normative economics (advocating "what ought to be"); between economic theory and applied economics; between mainstream economics (more "orthodox" dealing with the "rationality-individualism-equilibrium nexus") and heterodox economics (more "radical" dealing with the "institutions-history-social structure nexus");9 and between rational and behavioral economics. Contents 1 Microeconomics 1.1 Markets 1.2 Production cost and efficiency 1.3 Specialization 1.4 Supply and demand 1.5 Firms 1.6 Uncertainty and game theory 1.7 Market failure 1.8 Public sector 2 Macroeconomics 2.1 Growth 2.2 Business cycle 2.3 Inflation and monetary policy 2.4 Fiscal policy and regulation 3 International economics 4 Practice 4.1 Theory 4.2 Empirical investigation 4.3 Profession 5 Related subjects 6 History 6.1 Classical political economy 6.2 Marxism 6.3 Neoclassical economics 6.4 Keynesian economics 6.5 Chicago School of economics 6.6 Other schools and approaches 7 Criticism 7.1 Criticism of assumptions 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links Microeconomics Economists study trade production and consumption decisions such as those that occur in a traditional marketplace. Main article: Microeconomics Markets

Microeconomics like macroeconomics is a fundamental method for analyzing the economy as a system. It treats households and firms interacting through individual markets as irreducible elements of the economy given scarcity and government regulation. A market might be for a product say fresh corn or the services of a factor of production say bricklaying. The theory considers aggregates of quantity demanded by buyers and quantity supplied by sellers at each possible price per unit. It weaves these together to describe how the market may reach equilibrium as to price and quantity or respond to market changes over time. Such analysis includes the theory of supply and demand. It also examines market structures such as perfect competition and monopoly for implications as to behavior and economic efficiency. Analysis of change in a single market often proceeds from the simplifying assumption that relations in other markets remain unchanged that is partial-equilibrium analysis. General-equilibrium theory allows for changes in different markets and aggregates across all markets including their movements and interactions toward equilibrium.10 Production cost and efficiency Main articles: Production theory basics Opportunity cost Economic efficiency and Production-possibility frontier In microeconomics production is the conversion of inputs into outputs. It is an economic process that uses inputs to create a commodity 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 defense small-pox vaccinations etc.) or private goods (new computers bananas etc.) and "guns" vs. "butter". Opportunity cost refers to the economic cost of production: the value of the next best opportunity foregone. Choices must be made between desirable yet mutually exclusive actions. It has been described as expressing "the basic relationship between scarcity and choice.".11 The opportunity cost of an activity is an element in ensuring that scarce resources are used efficiently such that the cost is weighed against the value of that activity in deciding on more or less of it. Opportunity costs are not restricted to monetary or financial costs but could be measured by the real cost of output forgone leisure or anything else that provides the alternative benefit (utility).12 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 describes 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 or in other words the amount of "waste" is reduced. 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. An example PPF with illustrative points marked 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) showing 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.13 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 organization 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 organize society for the most efficient use of resources has been described as the "essence of economics" where the subject "makes its unique contribution."14 Specialization Main articles: Division of labour Comparative advantage and Gains from trade Specialization 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 specialize 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 specialization in similar but differentiated product lines to the overall benefit of respective trading parties or regions.15 The general theory of specialization 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.16 An example that combines features above is a country that specializes in the production of high-tech knowledge products as developed countries do and trades with developing nations for goods produced in factories where labor 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.17 Such specialization 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.18 Supply and demand Main article: Supply and demand The 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 D1 to D2 along with the consequent increase in price and quantity required to reach a new equilibrium point on the supply curve (S). Prices and quantities have been described as the most directly observable attributes of goods produced and exchanged in a market economy.19 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 maximization' (with income and wealth as the constraints on demand). Here utility refers to the hypothesized 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 of it (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. 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 hypothesized to be profit-maximizers 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 directly-proportional relation between price and quantity supplied (other things 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. 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 stabilize 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. For a given quantity of a consumer good the point on the demand curve indicates the value or marginal utility to consumers for that unit. It measures what the consumer would be prepared to pay for that unit.20 The corresponding point on the supply curve measures marginal cost 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 perfectly competitive market supply and demand equate marginal cost and marginal utility at equilibrium.21 On the supply side of the market some factors of production are described as (relatively) variable in the short run which affects the cost of changing output levels. Their usage rates can be changed easily such as electrical power raw-material inputs and over-time and temp work. Other inputs are relatively fixed such as plant and equipment and key personnel. In the long run all inputs may be adjusted by management. These distinctions translate to differences in the elasticity (responsiveness) of the supply curve in the short and long runs and corresponding differences in the price-quantity change from a shift on the supply or demand side of the market. Marginalist theory such as above describes the consumers as attempting to reach most-preferred positions subject to income and wealth constraints while producers attempt to maximize profits subject to their own constraints including demand for goods produced technology and the price of inputs. For the consumer that point comes where marginal utility of a good net of price reaches zero leaving no net gain from further consumption increases. Analogously the producer compares marginal revenue (identical to price for the perfect competitor) against the marginal cost of a good with marginal profit the difference. At the point where marginal profit reaches zero further increases in production of the good stop. For movement to market equilibrium and for changes in equilibrium price and quantity also change "at the margin": more-or-less of something rather than necessarily all-or-nothing. Other applications of demand and supply include the distribution of income among the factors of production including labour and capital through factor markets. In a competitive labour market for example the quantity of labour employed and the price of labour (the wage rate) depends on the demand for labour (from employers for production) and supply of labour (from potential workers). Labour economics examines the interaction of workers and employers through such markets to explain patterns and changes of wages and other labour income labour mobility and (un)employment productivity through human capital and related public-policy issues.22 Demand-and-supply analysis is used to explain the behavior of perfectly competitive markets but as a standard of comparison it can be extended to any type of market. It can also be generalized to explain variables across the economy for example total output (estimated as real GDP) and the general price level as studied in macroeconomics.23 Tracing the qualitative and quantitative effects of variables that change supply and demand whether in the short or long run is a standard exercise in applied economics. Economic theory may also specify conditions such that supply and demand through the market is an efficient mechanism for allocating resources.24 Firms Main articles: Theory of the firm Industrial organization Business economics and Managerial economics In Virtual Markets buyer and seller are not present and trade via intermediates and electronic information. Pictured: So Paulo Stock Exchange. 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 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.25 Firms combine labour and capital and can achieve far greater economies of scale (when producing two or more things is cheaper than one thing) 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 organization generalizes from that special case to study the strategic behavior 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.26 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 optimize business decisions including unit-cost minimization and profit maximization given the firm's objectives and constraints imposed by technology and market conditions.27 Uncertainty and game theory Main articles: Information economics Game theory and Financial economics Uncertainty in economics is an unknown prospect of gain or loss whether quantifiable as risk or not. Without it household behavior 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.28 Given its different forms there are various ways of representing uncertainty and modelling economic agents' responses to it.29 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 organization discussed above to model different types of firm behavior for example in an oligopolistic 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. As a method heavily used in behavioral economics it postulates that agents choose strategies to maximize their payoffs given the strategies of other agents with at least partially conflicting interests.3031 In this it generalizes maximization approaches developed to analyze 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 formulation of nuclear strategies ethics political science and evolutionary biology.32 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 analyzes the pricing of financial instruments the financial structure of companies the efficiency and fragility of financial markets33 financial crises and related government policy or regulation.34 Some market organizations 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.35 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 behavior (say more reckless driving). Both problems may raise insurance costs and reduce efficiency in 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.36 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.3730 Market failure Main articles: Market failure Government failure Information economics Environmental economics and Agricultural economics Pollution can be a simple example of market failure. If costs of production are not borne by producers but are by the environment accident victims or others then prices are distorted. The 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.38 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. The problem is described as one where the more of a product is made the greater the unit costs are. This means it only makes economic sense to have one producer. Public goods are goods which are undersupplied 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 subsidize or otherwise promote the purchase of goods that have positive externalities in an effort to correct the price distortions caused by these externalities.39 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.40 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 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 perfect competition. Macroeconomic instability addressed below is a prime source of market failure whereby a general loss of business confidence or external shock can grind production and distribution to a halt undermining ordinary markets that are otherwise sound. Environmental scientist sampling water Some specialised fields of economics deal in market failure more than others. The economics of the public sector is one example since where markets fail some kind of regulatory or government programme is the remedy. 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.41 Public sector Main articles: Economics of the public sector and Public finance See also: Welfare economics Public finance is the field of economics that deals with budgeting the revenues and expenditures of a public sector entity usually government. The subject addresses such matters as tax incidence (who really pays a particular tax) cost-benefit analysis of government programs 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 behavior analogously to microeconomics involving interactions of self-interested voters politicians and bureaucrats.42 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.43 Macroeconomics A depiction of the circular flow of income Main article: Macroeconomics Macroeconomics 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.44 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 characterized by further integration as to micro-based modeling of sectors including rationality of players efficient use of market information and imperfect competition.45 This has addressed a long-standing concern about inconsistent developments of the same subject.46 Macroeconomic analysis also considers factors affecting the long-term level and growth of national income. Such factors include capital accumulation technological change and labor force growth.47 Growth World map showing GDP real growth rates Main article: Economic growth Growth 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.48 Business cycle Main article: Business cycle See also: Circular flow of income Aggregate supply Aggregate demand Unemployment and Great Depression The economics of a depression were the spur for the creation of "macroeconomics" as a separate discipline field of study. 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 stabilize output over the business cycle49 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 the understanding of the business cycle has branched into various schools related to or opposed to Keynesianism. The neoclassical synthesis refers to the reconciliation of Keynesian economics with neoclassical economics stating that Keynesianism is correct in the short run with the economy following neoclassical theory in the long run. The New classical school critiques the Keynesian view of the business cycle. It includes Friedman's permanent income hypothesis view on consumption the "rational expectations revolution"50 spearheaded by Robert Lucas and real business cycle theory. In contrast the New Keynesian school 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. Inflation and monetary policy The Federal Reserve sets monetary policy as the central bank of the United States. Main articles: Inflation and Monetary policy See also: Money Quantity theory of money Monetary policy History of money and Milton Friedman Money is a means of final payment for goods in most price system economies and the unit of account in which prices are typically stated. 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. As a medium of exchange money facilitates trade. Its economic function can be contrasted with barter (non-monetary exchange). Given a diverse array of produced goods and specialized 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.51 At the level of an economy theory and evidence are consistent with a positive relationship running from the total money supply to the nominal value of total output and to the general price level. For this reason management of the money supply is a key aspect of monetary policy.52 Fiscal policy and regulation Main articles: Fiscal policy Government spending Regulation and National accounts National accounting is a method for summarizing aggregate economic activity of a nation. The national accounts are double-entry accounting systems that provide detailed underlying measures of such information. These include the national income and product accounts (NIPA) which provide estimates for the money value of output and income per year or quarter. NIPA allows for tracking the performance of an economy and its components through business cycles or over longer periods. Price data may permit distinguishing nominal from real amounts that is correcting money totals for price changes over time.53 The national accounts also include measurement of the capital stock wealth of a nation and international capital flows.54 International economics Main articles: International economics and Economic system International 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 globalization.55 World map showing GDP (PPP) per capita. The distinct field of development economics examines economic aspects of the 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.56 Economic systems is the branch of economics that studies the methods and institutions by which societies determine the ownership direction and allocation of economic resources. An economic system of a society is the unit of analysis. Among contemporary systems at different ends of the organizational spectrum are socialist systems and capitalist systems in which most production occurs in respectively state-run and private enterprises. In between are mixed economies. A common element is the interaction of economic and political influences broadly described as political economy. Comparative economic systems studies the relative performance and behavior of different economies or systems.57 Practice Main articles: Mathematical economics Economic methodology and Schools of economics Contemporary economics uses mathematics. Economists draw on the tools of calculus linear algebra statistics game theory and computer science.58 Professional economists are expected to be familiar with these tools while a minority specialize in econometrics and mathematical methods. Theory Mainstream economic theory relies upon a priori quantitative economic models which employ a variety of concepts. Theory typically proceeds with an assumption of ceteris paribus which means holding constant explanatory variables other than the one under consideration. When creating theories the objective is to find ones which are at least as simple in information requirements more precise in predictions and more fruitful in generating additional research than prior theories.59 In microeconomics principal concepts include supply and demand marginalism rational choice theory opportunity cost budget constraints utility and the theory of the firm.6061 Early macroeconomic models focused on modeling the relationships between aggregate variables but as the relationships appeared to change over time macroeconomists were pressured to base their models in microfoundations. The aforementioned microeconomic concepts play a major part in macroeconomic models  for instance in monetary theory the quantity theory of money predicts that increases in the money supply increase inflation and inflation is assumed to be influenced by rational expectations. In development economics slower growth in developed nations has been sometimes predicted because of the declining marginal returns of investment and capital and this has been observed in the Four Asian Tigers. Sometimes an economic hypothesis is only qualitative not quantitative.62 Expositions of economic reasoning often use two-dimensional graphs to illustrate theoretical relationships. At a higher level of generality Paul Samuelson's treatise Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947) used mathematical methods to represent the theory particularly as to maximizing behavioral 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.63 Empirical investigation Main articles: Econometrics and Experimental economics Economic theories are frequently tested empirically largely through the use of econometrics using economic data.64 The controlled experiments common to the physical sciences are difficult and uncommon in economics65 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 hypothesized 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. Criticism based on professional standards and non-replicability of results serve as further checks against bias errors and over-generalization6166 although much economic research has been accused of being non-replicable and prestigious journals have been accused of not facilitating replication through the provision of the code and data.67 Like theories uses of test statistics are themselves open to critical analysis68 although critical commentary on papers in economics in prestigious journals such as the American Economic Review has declined precipitously in the past 40 years. This has been attributed to journals' incentives to maximize citations in order to rank higher on the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI).69 In applied economics input-output models employing linear programming methods are quite common. Large amounts of data are run through computer programs to analyze the impact of certain policies; IMPLAN is one well-known example. Experimental economics has promoted the use of scientifically controlled experiments. This has reduced long-noted distinction of economics from natural sciences allowed direct tests of what were previously taken as axioms.70 In some cases these have found that the axioms are not entirely correct; for example the ultimatum game has revealed that people reject unequal offers. In behavioral economics psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky have won Nobel Prizes in economics for their 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.71 These techniques have led some to argue that economics is a "genuine science."8 Profession Main article: Economist The professionalization of economics reflected in the growth of graduate programs on the subject has been described as "the main change in economics since around 1900".72 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 Master of Economics. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (commonly known as 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 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 Bureau of Statistics. Related subjects Main articles: Philosophy of economics Law and Economics Political economy and Natural resource economics Economics is one social science among several and has fields bordering on other areas including economic geography economic history public choice energy economics cultural 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.73 A seminal article by Ronald Coase published in 1961 suggested that well-defined property rights could overcome the problems of externalities.74 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 behavior and externalities should impact government policy.75 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.76 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.77 The sociological subfield of economic sociology arose primarily through the work of mile 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).78 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 Mark Granovetter Peter Hedstrom and Richard Swedberg have been influential in this field. History Main article: History of economic thought See also: History of macroeconomic thought Economic writings date from earlier Mesopotamian Greek Roman Indian Chinese Persian and Arab civilizations. Notable writers from antiquity through to the 14th century include Aristotle Xenophon Chanakya (also known as Kautilya) Qin Shi Huang Thomas Aquinas and Ibn Khaldun. The works of Aristotle had a profound influence on Aquinas who in turn influenced the late scholastics of the 14th to 17th centuries.79 Joseph Schumpeter described the latter 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.80 1638 painting of a French seaport during the heyday of mercantilism Two groups later 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 cheap 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.81 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.82 Modern economic analysis is customarily said to have begun with Adam Smith (17231790).83 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.84 Classical political economy Main article: Classical economics Publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations in 1776 has been described as "the effective birth of economics as a separate discipline."85 The book identified land labor and capital as the three factors of production and the major contributors to a nation's wealth. Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations Smith discusses the benefits of the specialization by division of labour. 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."86 To Smith has also been ascribed "the most important substantive proposition in all of economics" and foundation of resource-allocation theory that under competition owners of resources (labor land and capital) will use them most profitably resulting in an equal rate of return in equilibrium for all uses (adjusted for apparent differences arising from such factors as training and unemployment).87 In Smith's view the ideal economy is a self-regulating market system that automatically satisfies the economic needs of the populace. He described the market mechanism as an "invisible hand" that leads all individuals in pursuit of their own self-interests to produce the greatest benefit for society as a whole. Smith incorporated some of the Physiocrats' ideas including laissez-faire into his own economic theories but rejected the idea that only agriculture was productive. In his famous invisible-hand analogy Smith argued for the seemingly paradoxical notion that competitive markets tended to advance broader social interests although driven by narrower self-interest. The general approach that Smith helped initiate was called political economy and later classical economics. It included such notables as Thomas Malthus David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill writing from about 1770 to 1870.88 The period from 1815 to 1845 was one of the richest in the history of economic thought.89 While Adam Smith emphasized the production of income David Ricardo focused on the distribution of income among landowners workers and capitalists. Ricardo saw an inherent conflict between landowners on the one hand and labor 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. Malthus cautioned law makers on the effects of poverty reduction policies Thomas Robert Malthus used the idea 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 labor. 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. Malthus also questioned the automatic tendency of a market economy to produce full employment. He blamed unemployment upon the economy's tendency to limit its spending by saving too much a theme that lay forgotten until John Maynard Keynes revived it in the 1930s. Coming at the end of the Classical tradition John Stuart Mill 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" as influenced by its scarcity. Smith maintained that with rent and profit other costs besides wages also enter the price of a commodity.90 Other classical economists presented variations on Smith termed the 'labour theory of value'. Classical economics focused on the tendency of markets to move to long-run equilibrium. Marxism Main article: Marxian economics The Marxist school of economic thought comes from the work of German economist Karl Marx. Marxist (later Marxian) economics descends from classical economics. It derives from the work of Karl Marx. The first volume of Marx's major work Das Kapital was published in German in 1867. In it Marx focused on the labour theory of value and what he considered to be the exploitation of labour by capital.91 The labour theory of value held that the value of an exchanged commodity was determined by the labor that went into its production. Neoclassical economics Main article: Neoclassical economics A body of theory later termed 'neoclassical economics' or 'marginalism' formed from about 1870 to 1910. The term 'economics' was popularized by such neoclassical economists as Alfred Marshall as a concise synonym for 'economic science' and a substitute for the earlier broader term 'political economy'.92 This corresponded to the influence on the subject of mathematical methods used in the natural sciences.2 Neoclassical economics systematized supply and demand 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 labour theory of value inherited from classical economics in favor of a marginal utility theory of value on the demand side and a more general theory of costs on the supply side.93 In the 20th century neoclassical theorists moved away from an earlier notion suggesting that total utility for a society could be measured in favor of ordinal utility which hypothesizes merely behavior-based relations across persons.2194 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.21 In macroeconomics it is reflected in an early and lasting neoclassical synthesis with Keynesian macroeconomics.95 Neoclassical economics is occasionally referred as orthodox economics whether by its critics or sympathizers. Modern mainstream economics builds on neoclassical economics but with many refinements that either supplement or generalize earlier analysis such as econometrics game theory analysis of market failure and imperfect competition and the neoclassical model of economic growth for analyzing long-run variables affecting national income. Keynesian economics Main articles: Keynesian economics and Post-Keynesian economics John Maynard Keynes (right) was a key theorist in economics. Keynesian 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.96 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. Such terms as "revolutionary" have been applied to the book in its impact on economic analysis.97 Keynesian economics has two successors. Post-Keynesian economics also concentrates 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 University of Cambridge and the work of Joan Robinson.98 New-Keynesian economics 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 the models rather than simply assumed as in older Keynesian-style ones. Chicago School of economics Main article: Chicago school (economics) The Chicago School of economics is best known for its free market advocacy and monetarist ideas. According to Milton Friedman and monetarists market economies are inherently stable if left to themselves and depressions result only from government intervention.99 Friedman for example argued that the Great Depression was result of a contraction of the money supply controlled by the Federal Reserve and not by the lack of investment as Keynes had argued. Ben Bernanke current Chairman of the Federal Reserve is among the economists today generally accepting Friedman's analysis of the causes of the Great Depression.100 Milton Friedman effectively took many of the basic principles set forth by Adam Smith and the classical economists and modernized them. One example of this is his article in the September 1970 issue of The New York Times Magazine where he claims that the social responsibility of business should be to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits...(through) open and free competition without deception or fraud. 101 Other schools and approaches Main article: Schools of economics 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 Austrian School the Freiburg School the School of Lausanne post-Keynesian economics and the Stockholm school. Contemporary mainstream economics is 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 appearance in the literature; classical economics Keynesian economics the neoclassical synthesis post-Keynesian economics monetarism new classical economics and supply-side economics. Alternative developments include ecological economics institutional economics evolutionary economics dependency theory structuralist economics world systems theory econophysics and biophysical economics.102 Criticism "The dismal science" is a derogatory alternative name for economics devised by the Victorian historian Thomas Carlyle in the 19th century. It is often stated that Carlyle gave economics the nickname "the dismal science" as a response to the late 18th century writings of The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus who grimly predicted that starvation would result as projected population growth exceeded the rate of increase in the food supply. However the actual phrase was coined by Carlyle in the context of a debate with John Stuart Mill on slavery in which Carlyle argued for slavery while Mill opposed it. Some economists like John Stuart Mill or 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 and politics.103 In The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith addressed many issues that are currently also the subject of debate and dispute. Smith repeatedly attacks groups of politically aligned individuals who attempt to use their collective influence to manipulate a government into doing their bidding. In Smith's day these were referred to as factions but are now more commonly called special interests a term which can comprise international bankers corporate conglomerations outright oligopolies monopolies trade unions and other groups.104 Economics per se as a social science is independent of the political acts of any government or other decision-making organization however many policymakers or individuals holding highly ranked positions that can influence other people's lives are known for arbitrarily using a plethora of economic concepts and rhetoric as vehicles to legitimize agendas and value systems and do not limit their remarks to matters relevant to their responsibilities.citation needed The close relation of economic theory and practice with politics105 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.106 Notwithstanding economics legitimately has a role in informing government policy. It is indeed in some ways an outgrowth of the older field of political economy. Some academic economic journals are currently focusing increased efforts on gauging the consensus of economists regarding certain policy issues in hopes of effecting a more informed political environment. Currently there exists a low approval rate from professional economists regarding many public policies. Policy issues featured in a recent survey of AEA economists include trade restrictions social insurance for those put out of work by international competition genetically modified foods curbside recycling health insurance (several questions) medical malpractice barriers to entering the medical profession organ donations unhealthy foods mortgage deductions taxing internet sales Wal-Mart casinos ethanol subsidies and inflation targeting.107 In Steady State Economics 1977 Herman Daly argues that there exist logical inconsistencies between the emphasis placed on economic growth and the limited availability of natural resources.108 Issues like central bank independence central bank policies and rhetoric in central bank governors discourse or the premises of macroeconomic policies109 (monetary and fiscal policy) of the state are focus of contention and criticism.110 Deirdre McCloskey has argued that many empirical economic studies are poorly reported and while her critique has been well-received she and Stephen Ziliak argue that practice has not improved.111 This latter contention is controversial.112 A 2002 International Monetary Fund study looked at consensus forecasts (the forecasts of large groups of economists) that were made in advance of 60 different national recessions in the 90s: in 97% of the cases the economists did not predict the contraction a year in advance. On those rare occasions when economists did successfully predict recessions they significantly underestimated their severity.113 Criticism of assumptions Economics has been subject to criticism that it relies on unrealistic unverifiable or highly simplified assumptions in some cases because these assumptions simplify the proofs of desired conclusions. Examples of such assumptions include perfect information profit maximization and rational choices.114 115 The field of information economics includes both mathematical-economical research and also behavioral economics akin to studies in behavioral psychology.116 Nevertheless prominent mainstream economists such as Keynes117 and Joskow have observed that much of economics is conceptual rather than quantitative and difficult to model and formalize quantitatively. In a discussion on oligopoly research Paul Joskow pointed out in 1975 that in practice serious students of actual economies tended to use "informal models" based upon qualitative factors specific to particular industries. Joskow had a strong feeling that the important work in oligopoly was done through informal observations while formal models were "trotted out ex post". He argued that formal models were largely not important in the empirical work either and that the fundamental factor behind the theory of the firm behavior was neglected.118 Despite these concerns mainstream graduate programs have become increasingly technical and mathematical.119120 See also Economics portal Book: Economics Wikipedia Books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. Bachelor of Economics Budget Cand.oecon. 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