የ 9ኛ ክፍል ኢኮኖሚክስ
በአማረኛ እና በእንግሊዝኛ
Thank You
የ 9ኛ ክፍል ኢኮኖሚክስ
በአማረኛ እና በእንግሊዝኛ
Unit 1: Introduction to Economics
Part One
1.1 Meaning of Economics
Definition of Economics
• The term economics is originally derived from the ancient Greek
word oikonomia, meaning the management of a family or a household
('household management'. This reveals that the subject of economics
was first studied in ancient Greece.
• Economics is a branch of social sciences. Economics is an important
discipline, and its prominence has increased in recent years in
response to worldwide economic problems.
• Poverty, unemployment, inflation, recession, etc., are worldwide
problems. In order to understand and find solutions to such problems,
an in-depth knowledge of economics is essential.
Cont.
• The definition of economics has developed through time.
• Economic theory has advanced over time, and different themes have
gradually been included in the field.
• There is no completed definition of economics yet, and the definition
is essentially under improvement in areas such as the wealth
definition, the welfare definition, and the scarcity definition.
• Based on the above considerations, economics can be defined as
follows.
• Economics is a branch of social science that studies the
efficient allocation of scarce resources so as to attain the
maximum fulfillment of human needs.
• As a science of choice, economics studies how people choose to
use scarce or limited productive resources (land, labor,
equipment, technical knowledge, etc.) to produce various
commodities.
The following statements are derived from the above definition
of economics:
• Economics studies about scarce resources;
• It studies about allocation of resources;
• Allocation of resources should be efficient;
• Human needs are unlimited.
• The objective of economics is to study how to satisfy the
unlimited human needs up to the maximum possible degree
through allocating the scarce resources efficiently.
The Nature of Economics
• The lack of uniformity in defining economics emanates from the
shifting views about the subject matter over time. Some
economists consider economics as a ‘science’ while others
consider it an “art.”
Economics as a Science
• Science produces a systematic and organized body of knowledge
that links causes and effects. This knowledge can be regarded as
the knowledge of “what is”.
• In economics, several facts are systematically collected,
classified, analyzed, and interpreted to make predictions about the
future. In this sense, economics could be considered a science.
Economics as an Art
• One of the important definitions of art is a technique or a way of
doing or achieving something.
• When dealing with problems such as unemployment, poverty,
and inflation, economics provides principles and methods
through which these problems can be solved.
• Hence, economics extensively examines the nature and causes
of economic problems and sets the procedures for finding their
solutions. From this perspective, we can consider economics as
an art.
1.2 Branches of Economics
• The field and scope of economics is growing rapidly and has
come to encompass a wide range of themes. Accordingly,
different new branches of the subject have emerged over
time.
• Some of these branches are: development economics,
environmental economics, industrial economics,
international economics, labor economics, mathematical
economics, monetary economics, welfare economics,
resource economics, behavioral economics, experimental
economics, health economics, etc.
• However, the foundation of modern economics rests on two
of its major branches, namely, microeconomics and
macroeconomics.
