Chapter 1

What Does Economics Have to Do with Running a Business?

What Is Economics All About?

Mention the word “economist” and one conjures up a vision of an academic who scours over macroeconomic data and utilizes sophisticated statistical techniques to make forecasts. Indeed, many economists do just that. But some people may be surprised to learn that economics is a social science, not a business science. Like psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the other social sciences, economics studies human behavior. That includes consumer behavior, firm behavior, and the behavior of markets.

Economic theory is mired in simple logic. We assume people pursue a goal and things get in the way. How they deal with the constraints is the discipline of ...

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