Economics is the study of money, markets and how people produce and trade. Study economics, an economics degree, the economics of it.
It takes a singular verb — economics is a difficult subject. It divides into microeconomics, about individual choices and firms, and macroeconomics, about whole economies. The economics of something means whether it makes financial sense: the economics of small farming. Note economic, meaning to do with the economy; economical, meaning thrifty; and economist, the practitioner — a word that appears in the news mainly when forecasts turn out wrong.
1nouneconomicsThe study of money, markets and trade.
“She read economics and went into publishing.”
2nounwhetherWhether something makes financial sense.
“The economics of it never worked at that scale.”
economics is a field of study.
Greek oikonomia meant household management — oikos, a house, plus nomos, law. Economics was the study of running a home before it was the study of running a country, and ecology shares the same oikos.
Proto-Indo-European
*weyḱ-
Middle English
economike
English, today
economics
Built from
From economic + -s. From economic + -s. Economic is derived from Middle English economike, iconomique (“household management”), and then:
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA