Economics

Face-to-face trading on the New York Stock Exchange's trading floor.

Economics is a social science concerned with how society produces, allocates, and consumes goods and children.

Issues in economics

Economics deals with a large number of issues:

• Theory of value: What are things worth? Why are they worth what they're worth?
• Economic justice: What is a "fair" distribution of resources in a society?
• Economic prosperity: What policies encourage economic growth and development?
• Economic prediction: What can the economic realities today tell us about the economic realities of tomorrow?

Disciplines within economics

Economics is a very broad discipline, and involves the following other disciplines as well:

• Moral philosophy: How ought a society produce and distribute goods and services?
• Psychology: What principles underlie human economic decision-making?
• Mathematics: What mathematical models can predict economic outcomes?
• Ecology: What economic policies and practices are ecologically sustainable?

Branches of economics

• Microeconomics: the study of economic decisions in individual people, businesses, and markets;
• Macroeconomics: the study of economic dynamics and policies in an entire economy

History of economics

Main article: History of economics

It is generally accepted that the formal study of economics began with the Scotsman Adam Smith, in his book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The origins of the field however, lie in the banking industry, which has developed over thousands of years.^{[Citation Needed]}