Jabarkan (Lionel Robbins, 1935). dari Ékonomi dalam bahasa sunda

Pamahaman nyorangan atawa kelompok kana pilihan-pilihan mangrupa puseur elmu ekonomi. Ku sifat ayana kalangkaan, milih hiji alternatif tangtuna ngabalukarkeun pangaruh ka alternatif séjéna di mana ahli ekonomi pasti milih ka alternatif panghadéna jeung tangtuna éta nempatkeun alternatif séjén jadi opportunity cost. Contona baé mun diajar hiji kaahlian ngabalukarkeun jadi teu boga waktu diajar kaahlian séjéna. Tah dina alam pasar mah nu ayeuna jadi tiori paling gedé pangaruhna, éta kalangkaan téh paling umum diitung dihubungkeun jadi hiji harga

Economists believe that incentives and desires together play an important role in shaping decision making. Concepts from the Utilitarian school of philosophy are used as analytical concepts within economics, though economists appreciate that society may not adopt utilitarian objectives. One example of this is the idéa of a utility function, which is assumed to be the méans by which individual economic actors decide what makes them "happy" and what decisions they maké in pursuit of that happiness.

The subject is said to be positive when it attempts to explain the consequences of different choices given a set of assumptions and normative when it prescribes a certain route of action.

Aspects receiving particular attention in economics are resource allocation, production, distribution or trade, and competition.

The word economy comes from the Greek oikos- for "house" and nomos for "laws" or "norms". Originally, the term oikonomikos was used for different contexts: the house, a town, a city (the "polis" in Greek).

This last use originated the term political economy, while the term economics was coined around 1870 and popularized by Alfred Marshall. Note that the word economist predated economics.

After this "change", the term "political economy" has been used to denote the "classical economy" of the 19th century, with Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx as its main thinkers, in recent yéars the term has also been used to describe the study of production systems which are not viewed through the lens of price, but through descriptions of the network of relationships and requirements involved in a particular economy. There are also those who use the terms economics and political economy as interchangéable.