As I refresh my knowledge on the vast, yet somehow focused subject that is economics, I’ve often wondered whether I could answer what the hell economics actually is off the top of my head. When I think about it, I’ve actually studied Economics at O-Levels, and recently, A-Levels, and am about to embark upon a mathematically-intensive economics degree in some university in September 2006. A question as basic as this should be second nature. Yes… should.

But while this topic is probably the very first one any economics student will encounter, few actually pay attention to it in lectures, or bother to even glance at the corresponding topic in textbooks. Heck, I know I didn’t bother at least. To me, economics, then, was an academic subject of its own, separate from history and moral studies (unlike pre-Smith and Marshallian times), that focused exclusively on money, money, and yet more money. Yes, this is the most oft-used, yet incomplete definition applied to economics.

So, what is economics?

Well, we’ve started our first Library topic just to answer this question (plus a host of other related questions actually). The topic is entitled Introduction to Economics, and it will cover issues such as the modern definition of economics, positive vs. normative economics, macro vs. microeconomics, and economic agents.

While it might not answer every question you may have on the topic, it’ll definitely be able to answer most of the more popular ones for A-Level Economics students. Don’t believe me? Here’s a snippet of our whole answer for the question I posed earlier:

economics - one accepted by many academics is that economics is the study of how people manage scarce economic resources in their daily routine of living in a society. In other words, economics concerns the decisions we make in the face of scarcity.

So, why are you still here? Get moving to our first Library topic now!