Main navigation
- Programs
- Subjects
- Universities
- Destinations
- Advice
Economics examines how societies manage production, consumption, and resource distribution when facing limited availability. As economist Steven Landsburg famously stated, "Incentives drive human behavior—everything else is background." This discipline divides into two main branches: macroeconomics, which analyzes overall economic performance, and microeconomics, which focuses on individual and business economic choices. Macroeconomics explores broad phenomena like growth trends, price level changes, employment fluctuations, trade balances, and the effectiveness of governmental monetary policies. Conversely, microeconomics primarily investigates how to optimally distribute limited resources among competing needs, studying price formation through consumer and business decisions—where individuals aim to maximize satisfaction and companies strive for profit.