ABSTRACT
We begin with the apparently easy question: What is economics? A simple answer is that economics is the study of the production and distribution of goods and wealth. Like most dictionary definitions, this gets us started – but what do the additional words in the definition mean? They look reasonably familiar: production is about ‘making’ things, distribution is about ‘dividing things up’, and goods are various sorts of things, usually the kinds we can see or use (plates, watches, trucks). Wealth is a bit trickier: it may refer to ‘money’ generally, or more specifically to ‘financial investments’ – like stocks and bonds. Or it may refer to ‘riches’ in the broadest possible sense.
