Introduction

Economics studies the allocation of scarce productive resources (e.g. workers, machines, land) to different productive activities (e.g. factories, offices, farms, labour, machinery) whose purpose is to generate commodities that will satisfy consumers’ needs. In the economists’ own jargon, economics examines how scarce, or limited, ‘factors of production’ (usually defined as land, labour and capital) can be used wisely when there are many competing uses. In brief, economics is hailed as the science of rational choice under conditions of scarcity.