‘Economics is the human activity that includes the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods and services. Linguistically, the term economy means mediating between extravagance and frugality.’ Definition Economics is a term that encompasses many concepts, including that economics is the concept studied by the economic sciences (economics), and the latter is based on economic and administrative theories to implement them. Sometimes the term economy can be considered an alternative to political economy The term also refers to the economy in the broad sense or the economic state of a country or region, meaning its economic situation, in terms of the economic cycle or its structural situation. In this sense, the term economy is synonymous with both a method (approach) or economic system and finally, in general, in Arabic, we use the term economy as a synonym for saving or reducing spending. Economy may actually be the result of increasing the efficiency of a company's internal organization or at the individual level A concept In general, the economy includes the economic system of a country or any other region, the Laboure, capital, natural resources, industry, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services in that region. The economy can also be described as a spatially limited social network in which goods and services are exchanged according to supply and demand between participants by barter or through a medium of exchange and using accepted values of debt and credit within that social network. Measuring Economic Performance There are a number of ways to measure the economic performance or activity of an economy. Some of these methods include Consumer spending Exchange rate Gross Domestic Product (GDP) GDP per capita Gross National Product Stock market or stock exchange Interest rate National debt Inflation Rate Trade balance Economics is a social science that studies human behaviors and well-being as a relationship between goals and objectives that have alternative uses, and between limited and scarce available resources. The above is not the only definition of the economy, as the economy has many definitions, including reaching self-sufficiency and achieving growth and abundance of money There are many definitions of the term (economy), but the most general and comprehensive definition of the characteristics of modern contemporary modern economics is the definition of (Lionel Robbins) in an article published in 1932, where he says: Economics is a science concerned with the study of human behaviors as a relationship between ends and scarce resources with multiple uses Scarce means or scarcity: Means the inadequacy of available resources to satisfy all human needs and desires. The incentives and resources that may influence the selection of this choice are often referred to as scarcity (the economic issue), in other words, the economic issue here is about choice Economics can be divided or categorized into several types, the most important of which are: Microeconomics and macroeconomics. Positive, descriptive and normative economics Other types of economic schools of thought - One of the uses of economics is to explain how economic systems work, and the relationships between the parts of these systems within society. Methods of economic analysis are increasingly being applied to areas that concern individuals (including officials) making choices within society, for example, crime, education, families, health, law, politics, religion, civil society organizations, and even war The beginnings of economics Although debates about the processes of production and distribution have taken place since the beginning of history, economics has crystallized in its current form as an independent scientific branch since Adam Smith published his famous book The Wealth of Nations in 1776. In his book, Adam Smith defines the term political economy as a branch of political science and legislation, and it aims at two main things The first is to provide individuals with a sufficient and continuous number of products, or to make them able to provide these products continuously Political Economy The second is to provide the state or enrich both individuals and governments. In his book The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith refers to economics as economics However, this term was gradually replaced in general usage by the term political economy after 1870, in addition to the first person to use the term political economy was a French cleric named Antoine de Montcretien, and the first to deal seriously with economics were the physiocrats, who believed in agriculture as a net source of profit. Fields of Economics The fields in which economics is researched can be categorized in a variety of ways, but it is mainly concerned with two types of economic analysis: microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics Microeconomic analysis studies the economic behaviors of economic agents (including individuals and firms) and how they interact through individual markets, resource scarcity, and government regulations. The market here can be a commodity produced, such as corn, or a service at the heart of production, such as construction. This analysis is based on the theory of studying the sum of the quantities of demand by buyers and supply by sellers at each possible price point for a unit of production. By studying supply and demand in isolation, microeconomic analysis is able to characterize how the market reaches an economic equilibrium of price and quantity, or responds to market changes over time. This is commonly called supply and demand analysis Market structure such as a perfectly competitive market and a monopoly market are factors that influence the degree of market efficiency. The concept of analysis is based on the simplistic assumption that the behaviors of other markets remain constant, this is called partial equilibrium analysis, while the theory of general equilibrium analysis allows for changes in various markets, including the movement of the market and its interaction towards economic Equilibrium Macroeconomic analysis is concerned with studying the economy as a whole, showing the impact of economic factors on a country's economy, such as the impact of national income, employment rates (employment rates), price inflation, the rate of total consumption and the rate of investment spending and its components. Macroeconomic analysis also examines the effects of monetary policy and fiscal policy. Since the 1960s, macroeconomic analysis has taken a more integrated approach, with new models such as micro-sectoral analysis, rationalization of economic actors, efficient use of market information, and imperfect competition. Macroeconomic analysis is also concerned with factors that have long-term effects on the economy and the growth of national income. Examples of such factors include capital accumulation, technological development, and the growth of the Laboure force Attempts to unify or de-differentiate these two branches have been an important catalyst in most economic thought in the recent period, especially in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Today, there is a consensus that good macroeconomics should be built on solid microeconomic structures. In other words, the macroeconomic structure should be explicitly supported by the microeconomic Economic methods and quantitative economic mathematical methods Economics as an academic subject relies mainly on mathematical methods, as well as literary methods. Mathematical and quantitative methods are adopted for the purposes of analyzing an economy precisely, or for analyzing specific regions within an economy. Examples of such models and methods of analysis include Mathematical economics The term ‘mathematical economics refers to the application of mathematical methods to understand and interpret economic theory in scientific ways or to solve economic questions. Mathematical economics uses calculus and algebraic matrix methods Economic writers have hailed the great benefits of this method in allowing the key relationships in an economic model to be formulated and derived with clarity, rigour and simplicity. In his book ‘Fundamentals of Economic Analysis’ in 1947, (Paul Samuelson) identified the general mathematical structures in several economic fields through which economic questions and issues are analyzed in a quantitative manner that can be expressed by theories and equations as did some economists who won Nobel Prizes in economics such as John Forbes Nash who won the Nobel Prize for his theory ‘Equilibrium Theory’ and its main reliance was on the purely mathematical aspect. Econometrics Econometrics applies mathematical and statistical methods to analyses data from economic models. Example A theory may assume that an educated person earns a higher income on average than a person with similar characteristics who is uneducated (or less educated) Econometrics measures the strength and statistical significance of the relationship. Econometrics is used to make quantitative generalizations, such as finding a relationship between pre-existing data and predicting what it will be in the future National accounts National accounts (national accounting) is a method in which national accounts include the following branches: National income and production accounts produce estimates of the monetary value of the economy's outputs and inputs over a year or quarter, and national income accounts enable officials to track the performance of the economy and its components over economic cycles or longer periods. National accounts also include capital, national wealth, and international capital flows. Management was a practice, not a science Evolution of Schools of Economic Thought Early economic ideas Economic ideas were born with the birth of ancient civilizations such as Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese, Persian and Arab civilizations. Several writers belonging to these civilizations were famous, most notably Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, and Chanakya, 293-340 BC the prime minister of the first emperor of the Maurya Empire in East Asia, and the well-known Arab philosopher Ibn Khaldun, who lived in the fourteenth century AD (Ibn Khaldun's Introduction). The Czech writer (Josef Schumpeter) believes that late scholars between the 14th and 17th centuries were the true founders of the ‘science of economics. Joseph Schumpeter described Ibn Khaldun as the pioneer of modern economics, as many of his economic theories were unknown in Europe until relatively recently. Later, two economic schools, the naturalistic (physiocratic) and the mercantilist (mercantilist), developed and added new economic concepts, contributing to ‘economic nationalism’ and ‘modern capitalism’ in Europe Classical economics As is well known, the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations is considered the starting point for the birth of economics as a separate and specialized branch of science. The Wealth of Nations identified the factors of production as land, Laboure power, and capital, and considered that these three factors constitute the essence of the wealth that a nation possesses (Self-regulating Market System) From Adam Smith's point of view, the ideal economy is a self-regulating market system This system automatically satisfies the economic needs of individuals. Smith described the market mechanism as an ‘invisible hand’ that urges individuals to work to satisfy their personal needs and thus achieve the greatest possible benefit for society as a whole. In his writings, Adam Smith took some of the ideas and theories of the physiocratic school of economics and incorporated them into his theories, but he rejected the idea advocated by the physiocrats that only land (agriculture) is the source of production and wealth Keynesian economics This theory was founded by the British economist John Maynard Keynes. This theory focuses on the role of both the public and private sectors in the economy, i.e., the mixed economy, where Keynes disagrees with the free market (without state intervention), meaning that he is in favour of state intervention in some areas. In his theory, he believes that macroeconomic trends largely determine the behaviors of individuals at the microeconomic level. Like many classical economists, he has stressed the role of aggregate demand for goods and that this demand plays a key role in the economy, especially in periods of economic recession, as he believes that through aggregate demand, the government can fight unemployment and depression, especially during the Great Depression. He believes that the economy does not tend to move towards full employment naturally according to the principle of the invisible hand as the classics believed, and he was often content to thank the economist Smith for his writings The modern employment theory is strongly opposed to the classical theory, as the modern theory believes that the capitalist economic system does not contain a guarantee of achieving full employment and that the national economy may balance the national output despite the existence of large unemployment or high inflation, the state of full employment accompanied by relative price stability according to Keynesian thought is an occasional and not permanent state of verification. Other schools and branches of economics Economics can also be divided into many sub-branches, which do not always fit neatly into large rigorous categorization. These sub-branches include: International economics, Laboure economics, welfare economics, neuroeconomics, information economics, resource economics, environmental economics, managerial economics, financial economics, home economics, development economics, and economic geography There are also methodologies used by economists that are categorized according to important theories. The most important example may be econometrics, which applies statistical techniques to the study of economic data. Mathematical economics which relies on mathematical methods, this includes econometrics which uses concepts from social psychology such as microeconomics Another more modern trend, closer to neoclassical microeconomics is behavioral economics and methods (experimental economics) to understand deviations from the predictions of the economy. Public domain source - Wikipedia Read more