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searchEconomics can be seen in action at this
bazaar in
Ashgabat,
Turkmenistan.
Economics is the
social science that studies the production,
distribution, and consumption of
goods and services. The term economics comes from the
Greek for oikos (house) and nomos (custom or law), hence "rules of the house(hold)."
[1]Current economic models developed out of the broader field of
political economy in the late 19th century, owing to a desire to use an
empirical approach more akin to the physical sciences.
[2] 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."
[3] 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 defined involves the study of
choices as they are affected by incentives and resources.
Areas of economics may be divided or classified into various types, including:
microeconomics and
macroeconomicspositive economics ("what is") and
normative economics ("what ought to be")
mainstream economics and
heterodox economics