Tuesday 23 April 2013

Defining economics


Economics is broadly defined as being the study of scarce resource allocation by society. Various theorists have various definitions. Practically economics involves choice in the use of resources, and all these choices have consequences.

Everybody is an economist. We all make choices with regards to how we use time, consume, expend mental energy and transact with our fellow man plus environment. Economics has a problem in that it involves everything. Researchers therefore pick and choose what to study.

These 'schooled' economists follow different schools. No school can explain everything-all schools have limitation- schools related to finance make the most money as they serve financial services. This leaves other schools, with valuable lessons to teach, out in the cold.

The Zimbabwe economy suffered hyperinflation as a sequence of following various schools. The Zimbabwe dollar was removed to reduce inflationary pressures that had worsened the availability of resources. Zimbabwe needs to find more applicable schools of economics to suit its unique institutional setting.

As economics involves institutions, cultural beliefs, complex human behavior, historical influences, political forces, human desires and fears, its scope of study is unlimited. What works in one place, like a Structural Adjustment or Austerity Program, will not work in a different socio political setting. Resources might be limited, but ideas are not. Economic schools need to unlimit economic thought in accord with the laws of nature. They is no limit on thought and creativity which fuel human progress and enterprise.

Read widely-they is no limit to understanding the economy. We are all economists.

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