Economics
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[edit] Introduction to Economics
Social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Dimensions of production include measurement, including “how much” (such as of GDP components), “how efficiently,” and “for whom” (that is, 'distribution'). The word 'economics' is from the Greek for οἶκος (oikos: house) and νόμος (nomos: custom or law), hence "rules of the house(hold)."
Although discussions about production and distribution have a long history, economics in its modern sense is conventionally dated from the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations in 1776. There Smith defines the subject in practical terms:
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.
Smith referred to the subject as 'political economy', but that term was gradually replaced by 'economics' with the rise of neoclassical economics after 1870.
A definition that captures much of modern economics is that of Lionel Robbins in a 1932 essay: "the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." Scarcity means that available resources are insufficient to satisfy all wants and needs. Absent scarcity and alternative uses of available resources, there is no economic problem. The subject thus involves the study of choice, as affected by incentives and resources.
Areas of economics may be divided or classified in various ways, including:
- microeconomics and macroeconomics
- positive economics ("what is") and normative economics ("what ought to be")
- fields and broader categories within economics.
Another division is between mainstream economics, used to distinguish economics in general, and heterodox approaches, for example, Austrian economics, Marxian economics, and institutional economics, which proceed from their own perspectives. Thus, in Marx’s labour theory of value, value is considered as a measure of labor exploitation,[1] rather than of price.
Methods of economic analysis have been increasingly applied to fields that involve people (officials included) making choices in a social context, such crime, education, the family, politics, health, law, religion, social institutions, and war. (from wikipedia)
[edit] Top Economics Programs
- MIT
- University of Chicago
- University of California–Berkeley
- Princeton
- Stanford
- Harvard
