ABSTRACT
Economics, according to a standard definition, is a social science which deals with society’s use of scarce resources to satisfy material wants. This definition is somewhat limited, particularly when it comes to problems related to economic growth controlling inflation and unemployment, and achieving a fair distribution of society’s output among individual households. However, it is a particularly apt description of what microeconomics is all about. This broad area of economics, which embraces most of the problems in the economics of forests, is concerned above all else with efficiency--getting the most out of our resources. Microeconomics abhor waste. Waste means that by using resources differently society can have a larger output with no more resource inputs, including labor power, capital, and natural resources. As far as society’s output is concerned, an equivalent situation exists if either (1) resources are used inefficiently; or (2) some resources are simply not utilized; or (3) all resources are used efficiently, but some of the output is set aside to be destroyed. This perhaps explains the microeconomist’s fetish for avoiding inefficient use of resources.
