What is economics?
Answer:
Economics is the social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services and with the theory and management of economies or economic systems.
The branch of social science that deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management
Lionel Robbins in a 1932 essay defines economics as "the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.” Somehow, some people can’t understand how good economy is translated to the economic living of the common people.
Economics is the study of how to satisfy unlimited wants with limited resources. If the this is for a school project you should also include the concept of choices and opportunity costs ( the cost of making a choice)
There are many branches of economics.
The problem with the standard definition of economics is that it does not distinguish between politics and economics: - politics too is about the production and distribution of goods.
Lately, the difference between the two social sciences is that one is oriented more towards mathematics, while the other studies actual human beings. The former tends to support the ruling class while the latter tends to criticize it.
The common definition also confuses business with economics. Economics does not really tell you how to run a business, it is rather like a physicist telling someone how to play pool. Yet business is all about the production and distribution of things. When Henry Truman wanted to take over the steal yards economists, political scientists, lawyers and representatives of the steel business all complained.
The common definition can be excellent if you know what is to be maximized and what the constraints are. But Engineers also do this. If you needed to minimize traffic routes subject to a maze of roads would you call an Engineer or Economist? Both can be trained to do this. City planning and Development can be made by both Economists, Political Scientists and Engineers.
But the best examples of maximization - that of an individual's happiness - is perfectly unclear -- and one wonders why we are forced to model these with our own preferred functions in order to call this 'economics'.
The 'mathematization' from economics has invaded all the other sciences: psychology, sociology, anthropology, law, engineering. If I study death rates among right handers it is psychology, but if it is by occupation, am I an economist or psychologist? If I believe that all people are rational is this a statement by a psychologist or economist?
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