Every day people make decisions that belong within the realm of economics. What to buy?

What
to make and sell? How many hours to work? We have all participated in the economy as
consumers, many of us as workers, some of us also as producers. We have paid taxes. We have
saved our earnings in a bank account. All of these activities (and many more) belong to the realm
of economics. Households and firms are the basic units of an economy and are concerned with
the economic problem: how best to satisfy unlimited wants using the limited resources that are
available? As such, economics is the study of how society uses its scarce resources. Its aim is to
provide insight into the processes governing the production, distribution and consumption of
goods and services in an exchange economy. The previous paragraph could be taken to imply
that the ‘realm of economics’ is limited and clearly defined. However, if economics is viewed as
a way of thinking, or a set of tools that can be used to analyse human behaviour and the world
around us, then you will find that the principles of economics can be applied to many different
areas of life. The scope is thus very broad, but the principles of analysis are well defined and
these are what you will become familiar with through undertaking this course. Although the
course provides some information that is descriptive, such as how the banking system works, for
example, its main focus is on introducing models and concepts which are used as tools of
economic analysis. Concepts such as opportunity cost and approaches such as marginal analysis
can be widely applied and prove very useful in understanding various aspects of society and
people’s lives. Studying economics doesn’t just impart knowledge; it also develops skills such as
logical and analytical thinking and problem-solving skills, which are useful beyond the formal
study of economics. For some of you, economics is not the main area of study, and you may not
be intending to pursue a career as an economist. However, we are sure that an understanding of
basic economic concepts will still prove useful to you in whatever direction your studies and
subsequent career may take.
 This course is designed as an introduction to the study of economics. Participants
will be exposed to
 The early part of the course focuses on microeconomic analysis including the
behavior of consumers and producers.
 The later part of the course moves on to macroeconomic concepts such as national
production, employment,
 We explore models that determine long-run growth and short-term fluctuations in
national economies.
 We then discuss the role of government regulation, monetary policy, and fiscal
policy.

Economics is a social science that studies how people satisfy unlimited wants with scarce resources.
It involves the analysis of choice and trade through the use of intuitive graphs and mathematical
elements. The discipline is divided into two sections: microeconomics (micro)
and macroeconomics (macro).

Microeconomics studies small-scale economies. That is, from the individual level on up to the
industry level. Microeconomics is concerned with how consumers (buyers) and producers (sellers)
come together to exchange goods and services, how much is produced, what to produce, and the
going prices. It focuses on the actions of individuals and firms, like the dynamics between buyers
and sellers, borrowers and lenders.
Macroeconomics is the branch that studies large-scale economies. Macroeconomics observes and
analyzes how entire countries, full of many industries and consumers, function. It is not simply the
sum of many "microeconomics"; many of the concepts are entirely different.
Economics involves several recurring themes:

 Trade - buying and selling goods and services

 Models - simplistic situations to understand complex ones
 Utility - a measure of people's happiness
 Choices - choosing the best allocation of resources
 Efficiency - maximizing production and profits
 Scarcity - the premise that people only have so much to work with
 Costs - "there is no such thing as a free lunch"
 Money - who has money, access to it, how it is used, etc.
 Consumption - the buyers in the market who form the demand
 Production - the sellers in the market who form the supply
 Rationality - people doing things with good and logical reasoning

Economics is a social science which deals with the production, distribution and consumption of
goods and services. Also economics is the study of choices i.e. how individuals make choices
between scarce resources and unlimited wants.Generally we can divide economics in two main
categories which are :

Macroeconomics: we study about aggregate level like choices made by large groups.

Microeconomics: we study about individual level like household/individual's decisions