 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ] Next Last |
Economics is usually divided into two main branches:
Attempts to join these two branches or to refute the distinction between them have been important motivators in much of recent economic thought, especially in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Today, the consensus view is arguably that good macroeconomics has solid microeconomic foundations; i.e. its premises have theoretical and evidential support in microeconomics.
Economics can also be divided into numerous subdisciplines that do not always fit neatly into the macro/micro categorization. Some of these subdisciplines include: international economics, labour economics, welfare economics, resource economics, environmental economics, managerial economics, financial economics, urban economics, and spatial economics.
There are also methodologies used by economists whose underlying theories are important.
Other subdivisions are possible. Finance has traditionally been considered a part of economics – as its body of results emerges naturally from microeconomics – but has today effectively established itself as a separate, though closely related, discipline.
There has been an increasing trend for ideas and methods from economics to be applied in wider contexts. Since economics analysis focuses on decision making, it can be applied (with varying degrees of success) to any field where people are faced with alternatives – education, marriage, health, etc. Public Choice Theory studies how economic analysis can apply to those fields traditionally considered outside of economics. The areas of investigation in Economics therefore overlap with other social sciences, including political science and sociology. See political economy for the study of economics in the context of political science. The most prevalent political economy is loosely called capitalism.
Main article: Supply and demand.
In microeconomic theory supply and demand attempts to describe, explain, and predict the price and quantity of goods sold in competitive markets. It is one of the most fundamental economic models, ubiquitously used as a basic building block in a wide range of more detailed economic models and theories.
In general the theory claims that where goods are traded in a market at a price where consumers demand more goods than firms are prepared to supply, this shortage will tend to increase the price of the goods. Those consumers that are prepared to pay more will bid up the market price. Conversely prices will tend to fall when the quantity supplied exceeds the quantity demanded. This price/quantity adjustment mechanism causes the market to approach an equilibrium point, a point at which there is no longer any impetus to change. This theoretical point of stability is defined as the point where producers are prepared to sell exactly the same quantity of goods as the consumers want to buy.
The theory of supply and demand is important in the functioning of a market economy in that it explains the mechanism by which many resource allocation decisions are made.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|