Economics classes make extensive use of supply and demand graphs like this one to teach about markets. In this graph, S and D refer to supply and demand and P and Q refer to the price and quantity.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to economics:
Economics can be described as all of the following:
Academic discipline – body of knowledge given to, or received by, a disciple (student); a branch or sphere of knowledge, or field of study, that an individual has chosen to specialize in.
Field of science – widely recognized category of specialized expertise within science, and typically embodies its own terminology and nomenclature. Such a field will usually be represented by one or more scientific journals, where peer-reviewed research is published. There are many economics-related scientific journals.
Social science – field of academic scholarship that explores aspects of human society.
Branches of economics
Macroeconomics – branch of economics dealing with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole, rather than individual markets.
Microeconomics – branch of economics that studies the behavior of individuals and firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of limited resources.
Mesoeconomics In-between macroeconomics and microeconomics with a focus on the intermediate level of analysis.
Economy – system of human activities related to the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods and services of a country or other area.
Economies, by political & social ideological structure
Policy mix – combination of a country's monetary policy and fiscal policy. These two channels influence growth and employment, and are generally determined by the central bank and the government (e.g., the United States Congress) respectively.
Perfect competition, in which the market consists of a very large number of firms producing a homogeneous product.
Monopolistic competition, also called competitive market, where there are a large number of independent firms which have a very small proportion of the market share.
Monopoly, where there is only one provider of a product or service.
Monopsony, when there is only one buyer in a market.
Milton Friedman won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1976 for "his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy".
Robert Fogel and Douglass North won the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1993 for "having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change".
