LibGuides: Economics: Home

Background Information

The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Sciences defines economics as,

The study of how individuals, house holds, and societies choose to use their scarce resources efficiently in order to satisfy their diverse wants. By definition, economics is a social or behavioral science because it studies human behavior just like other social sciences, but it emphasizes the need to make wise choices in order to use scarce resources in an efficient way to satisfy diverse wants.
Resources are the factors of production, the inputs, and managerial skills that are required to produce goods and services. These are land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurial skill. The factors of production are scarce because of the limitless wants of economic agents and the competing uses to which the resources can be committed. Scarcity is therefore a relative concept, meaning that economic resources are scarce relative to limitless wants and the competing demands for available resources…
The two broad categories of economics are microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics is the study of individuals, households, and firms, while macroeconomics studies the aggregate economy and aggregate variables, such as national income, national saving, the general price level, and the national employment rate. (Credo)

Selected Books

Internet Economics by Joseph P. Bailey (Editor); Lee W. McKnight (Editor) The Internet has rapidly become an important element of the economic system. The lack of accepted metrics for economic analysis of Internet transactions is therefore increasingly problematic. This book, one of the first to bring together research on Internet engineering and economics, attempts to establish such metrics. The chapters, which developed out of a 1995 workshop held at MIT, include architectural models and analyses of Internet usage, as well as alternative pricing policies. The book is organized into six sections: 1) Introduction to Internet Economics, 2) The Economics of the Internet, 3) Interconnection and Multicast Economics, 4) Usage Sensitive Pricing, 5) Internet Commerce, and 6) Internet Economics and Policy. Contributors Loretta Anania, Joseph P. Bailey, Nevil Brownlee, David Carver, David Clark, David W. Crawford, Ketil Danielsen, Deborah Estrin, Branko Gerovac, David Gingold, Jiong Gong, Alok Gupta, Shai Herzog, Clark Johnson, Martyne M. Hallgren, Frank P. Kelly, Charlie Lai, Alan K. McAdams, Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason, Lee W. McKnight, Gennady Medvinsky, Liam Murphy, John Murphy, B. Clifford Neuman, Jon M. Peha, Joseph Reagle, Mitrabarun Sarkar, Scott Shenker, Marvin A. Sirbu, Richard Jay Solomon, Padmanabhan Srinagesh, Dale O. Stahl, Hal R. Varian, Qiong Wang, Martin Weiss, Andrew B. Whinston
Call Number: E-Book
ISBN: 0262279576
Publication Date: 2015
Economics of Sustainable Energy by Jaan S. Islam; M. R. Islam; Meltem Islam; M. A. H. Mughal Every year, as soon as reports on global economic inequality remind us about the direction our civilization is heading, there is a hysterical reaction, but hysteria dies down within weeks and we go back to the lifestyle that brought us here today. Often the blame is laid on the Millennial generation for their "apathy," "lust for comfort," and "bratty" attitude. Yet, business insider surveys indicate it's the same Millennial generation that overwhelmingly cares for the state of the world and the direction in which our civilization is heading. Nearly 50% of them ranked climate change and destruction of nature as their primary concern. This is followed by concern for war and global conflict, and then global economic inequality. The vast majority of those surveyed are willing and eager to make lifestyle changes. This book breaks open the hypocrisy of our civilization and stops the blame game in its tracks and identifies the root causes of today's world economy, ecology, and global politics. The book demonstrates that changes in lifestyle are necessary but not sufficient. No economic policy or technology development mode has a chance to survive, let alone thrive unless supported by the political establishment. In this process, the government plays a pivotal role. The challenge is to change the attitude of the government from a 'self-serving' controlling mode to a representative philanthropic mode. This new system of economic development and political governance is inspired by a long-forgotten understanding of political economics: medieval Islamic economics. In reviewing the history of economics from trade, currencies, and interest, the strengths and weaknesses of various economic developments over our centuries are evaluated. Based on the historical analysis, a step by step procedure is outlined for this fundamental change in our society today. As a whole, this book is the first of modern era to offer such a comprehensive analysis, complete with solutions to the entire crisis of today's civilization. Whether for the student, engineer in the field, economist, or even layperson interested in the subject, this groundbreaking new work is a must-have.  Covering one of the most important subjects in our world today, it is a valiant attempt at solving one of the biggest problems facing all of us. 
Call Number: E-Book
ISBN: 9781119525974
Publication Date: 2018-09-14
Common Sense Economics by James D. Gwartney; Richard L. Stroup; Dwight R. Lee; Tawni H. Ferrarini "The authors tell us what everyone should know about economics in language we can all understand. It's refreshing when four of the best in the profession avoid the all-too-common practice of writing in a code that only other economists can comprehend." ---Robert McTeer, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas With the global economy recovering from a steep recession, those who fail to grasp basic economic principles such as gains from trade, the role of profit and loss, and the secondary effects of government spending, taxes, and borrowing risk falling behind in their professional careers--even their personal lives.Common Sense Economics discusses key principles and uses them to show how to make wise personal and policy choices. This new edition of a classic from James D. Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, Dwight R. Lee, and Tawni H. Ferrarini, with reflections on the recent recession and the policy response to it, illuminates our world and what might be done to make it better.
Call Number: HB95 .G9 2010
ISBN: 9780312644895
Publication Date: 2010-08-03