Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek οἰκονομία (oikonomia, "management ofa household, administration") from οἶκος (oikos, "house") + νόμος (nomos, "custom" or "law"), hence "rules of the house(hold)".[1] Political economy was the earlier name for the subject, buteconomists in the late 19th century suggested 'economics' as a shorter term for 'economic science' that also avoided a narrow political-interest connotation and as similar in form to 'mathematics', 'ethics',and so forth.[2]
A focus of the subject is how economic agents behave or interact and how economies work. Consistent with this, a primary textbook distinction is between microeconomics andmacroeconomics. Microeconomics examines the behavior of basic elements in the economy, including individual agents (such as households and firms or as buyers and sellers) and markets, and their interactions.Macroeconomics analyzes the entire economy and issues affecting it, including unemployment, inflation, economic growth, and monetary and fiscal policy.
Other broad distinctions include those betweenpositive economics (describing "what is") and normative economics (advocating "what ought to be"); between economic theory and applied economics; between rational and behavioral economics; and betweenmainstream economics (more "orthodox" and dealing with the "rationality-individualism-equilibrium nexus") and heterodox economics (more "radical" and dealing with the "institutions-history-socialstructure nexus").[3][4]
Economic analysis may be applied throughout society, as in business, finance, health care, and government, but also to such diverse subjects as crime,[5] education,[6] the family,law, politics, religion,[7] social institutions, war,[8] and science.[9] At the turn of the 21st century, the expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic...