What is economics?

Cards (15)

  • Econometrics
    Specializes in analyzing economic data
  • People need to make choices about how to use their scarce resources
  • Question like "Should people use money?"
    Is a normative question
  • Positive economics
    Describes what is
  • Fields economists study
    • Markets
    • Crime
    • War
    • The family
    • Religion
    • Culture
    • Politics
    • Law
    • Genetics
  • Normative economics
    Argues for what ought to be
  • Papers by various professionals are co-authored by economists due to the interdisciplinary nature of economics
  • Microeconomics
    Studies the behavior of individual agents and markets
  • Economists study the choices people make regarding their scarce resources
  • The typical first student walks into his first economics class with very little idea of what economics is
  • All economic questions fall into one of two categories: positive and normative
  • Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources that have alternative uses
  • Macroeconomics
    Studies the behavior of the entire economy
  • Question like "Why do people use money?"
    Is a positive question
  • The tools economists have developed to study human behavior have broad uses outside of traditional economics