ABSTRACT
When an economist examines a problem within a partial economic context, he focuses his attention on one or more segments or sectors of the economy. The sector in question may be an industry broadly defined; it may be a couple of interacting firms; or it may be a particular investment project being mooted by the government. The essential feature of partial economic analysis is that, being directed towards a very small part of the total economy, it considers it reasonable to ignore the repercussions on the remainder of the economy of the particular adjustments being contemplated in the relatively small segment or sector of the economy. To be more explicit, these repercussions are imagined to spread themselves so thinly over the rest of the economy that for all practical purposes they can be ignored.
