Here's a breakdown of that definition:
* People: Economics focuses on individuals, households, firms, and governments as decision-makers.
* Choices: Everyone faces choices, from what to eat for breakfast to how to spend their income.
* Scarcity: We have limited resources (time, money, raw materials) to satisfy our unlimited wants and needs. This creates a fundamental problem in economics.
* Study: Economists use various tools and methods to analyze, predict, and understand how people make choices in the face of scarcity.
Key areas of study in economics include:
* Microeconomics: Focuses on individual economic agents like households and firms.
* Macroeconomics: Examines the economy as a whole, including topics like inflation, unemployment, and economic growth.
* International Economics: Studies economic interactions between countries, including trade and finance.
* Development Economics: Focuses on economic growth and development in developing countries.
In essence, economics is about understanding how people make decisions given constraints, and the resulting consequences for individuals, businesses, and the economy as a whole.