SADRAJ:

Areas of economicsENGLISH LANGUAGE

Higher School for Apllied and Law Sciences PrometheusBanja Luka, Knjaza Miloa 10a

- S E M I N A R P A P E R

FROM ENGLISH LANGUAGESUBJECT: AREAS OF ECONOMICS

Student: Mentor:Marijana trbac TI-222 Prof. Nataa obot

Banja Luka, June 2015.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS2PREAMBLE41. MICROECONOMICS51.1. Microeconomic topics62. MACROECONOMICS82.1. Output and income92.2. Unemployment92.3. Inflation and deflation102.4. Aggegate demand aggregate supply102.5. Macroeconomic policy113. FINANCIAL ECONOMICS133.1. Underlying economics133.2. Resultant models144. ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS154.1. Market failure154.2. Externality164.3. Common goods and public goods164.4. Valuation174.5. Solutions175. DEVELOPMENTAL ECONOMICS195.1. Mercantilism195.2. Economic nationalism205.3. Linear-stages-of-growth model205.4. Structural change theory215.5. Economic development and ethnicity215.6. Economic Development and its impact on ethnic conflict226. BUSINESS ECONOMICS236.1. Subject matter236.2. Ambiguity in the use of term237. MONETARY ECONOMICS247.1. Research areas247.2. Current state of monetary economics258. LABOUR ECONOMICS258.1. The macroeconomics of labour markets258.2. Neoclassical microeconomics of labour markets268.3. Criticism279. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS27CONCLUSION29References30

PREAMBLE

Economics is the study of how people behave and make decisions when there are limitations on products, goods and resources. After taking a certain number of preparatory courses at the undergraduate level, students who major in economics will often have the option of choosing a particular concentration within the field. Universities typically offer courses in a variety of areas of study to give students a broad introduction to the field.This seminar paper will show and explain the different areas of economics, such as microeconomics, macroeconomics, environmental economics, developmental, business, monetary economics etc. These are only the most important areas of study, Ill be explaining a few more also very significant and worth of mention: financial, labor and international economics.

1. MICROECONOMICS

Microeconomics (from Greek prefix mikro- meaning "small" and economics) is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of individuals and small impacting organizations in making decisions on the allocation of limited resources. Typically, it applies to markets where goods or services are bought and sold. Microeconomics examines how these decisions and behaviors affect the supply and demand for goods and services, which determines prices, and how prices, in turn, determine the quantity supplied and quantity demanded of goods and services.This is in contrast to macroeconomics, which involves the "sum total of economic activity, dealing with the issues of growth, inflation, and unemployment." Microeconomics also deals with the effects of national economic policies (such as changing taxation levels) on the aforementioned aspects of the economy. Particularly in the wake of the Lucas critique, much of modern macroeconomic theory has been built upon 'microfoundations'i.e. based upon basic assumptions about micro-level behavior.One of the goals of microeconomics is to analyze market mechanisms that establish relative prices amongst goods and services and allocation of limited resources amongst many alternative uses. Microeconomics also analyzes market failure, where markets fail to produce efficient results, and describes the theoretical conditions needed for perfect competition. Significant fields of study in microeconomics include general equilibrium, markets under asymmetric information, choice under uncertainty and economic applications of game theory. Also considered is the elasticity of products within the market system.

Picture 1. The supply and demand model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). The graph depicts a right-shift in demand from D1 to D2 along with the consequent increase in price and quantity required to reach a new market-clearing equilibrium point on the supply curve (S).[footnoteRef:1] [1: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Supply-demand-right-shift-demand.svg, visited on 20th June 2015]

1.1. Microeconomic topics

The study of microeconomics involves several "key" areas:

1.1.1. Demand, supply and equlibrium

Supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a perfectly competitive market. It concludes that in a perfectly competitive market with no externalities, per unit taxes, or price controls, the unit price for a particular good is the price at which the quantity demanded by consumers equals the quantity supplied by producers. This price results in a stable economic equilibrium.

1.1.2. Measurement od elasticities

Elasticity is the measurement of how responsive an economic variable is to a change in another variable. Elasticity can be quantified as the ratio of the percentage change in one variable to the percentage change in another variable, when the later variable has a causal influence on the former. It is a tool for measuring the responsiveness of a variable, or of the function that determines it, to changes in causative variables in unitless ways. Frequently used elasticities include price elasticity of demand, price elasticity of supply, income elasticity of demand, elasticity of substitution between factors of production and elasticity of intertemporal substitution.

1.1.3. Consumer demand theory

Consumer demand theory relates preferences for the consumption of both goods and services to the consumption expenditures; ultimately, this relationship between preferences and consumption expenditures is used to relate preferences to consumer demand curves. The link between personal preferences, consumption and the demand curve is one of the most closely studied relations in economics. It is a way of analyzing how consumers may achieve equilibrium between preferences and expenditures by maximizing utility subject to consumer budget constraints.

1.1.4. Theory of production

Production theory is the study of production, or the economic process of converting inputs into outputs. Production uses resources to create a good or service that is suitable for use, gift-giving in a gift economy, or exchange in a market economy. This can include manufacturing, storing, shipping, and packaging. Some economists define production broadly as all economic activity other than consumption. They see every commercial activity other than the final purchase as some form of production.

1.1.5. Costs of production

The cost-of-production theory of value states that the price of an object or condition is determined by the sum of the cost of the resources that went into making it. The cost can comprise any of the factors of production: labour, capital, land. Technology can be viewed either as a form of fixed capital (ex:plant) or circulating capital (ex:intermediate goods).

1.1.6. Perfect competition

Perfect competition describes markets such that no participants are large enough to have the market power to set the price of a homogeneous product. A good example would be that of digital marketplaces, such as eBay, on which many different sellers sell similar products to many different buyers.A monopoly (from Greek monos (alone or single) + polein (to sell)) exists when a single company is the only supplier of a particular commodity. An oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers (oligopolists). Oligopolies can create the incentive for firms to engage in collusion and form cartels that reduce competition leading to higher prices for consumers and less overall market output.

1.1.7. Market structure

The market structure can have several types of interacting market systems. Different forms of markets is a feature of capitalism and advocates of socialism often criticize markets and aim to substitute markets with economic planning to varying degrees. Competition is the regulatory mechanism of the market system.

Monopolistic competition, also called competitive market, where there is a large number of firms, each having a small proportion of the market share and slightly differentiated products. Oligopoly, in which a market is run by a small number of firms that together control the majority of the market share. Duopoly, a special case of an oligopoly with two firms. Monopsony, when there is only one buyer in a market. Oligopsony, a market where many sellers can be present but meet only a few buyers. Monopoly, where there is only one provider of a product or service. Natural monopoly, a monopoly in which economies of scale cause efficiency to increase continuously with the size of the firm. A firm is a natural monopoly if it is able to serve the entire market demand at a lower cost than any combination of two or more smaller, more specialized firms. Perfect competition, a theoretical market structure that features no barriers to entry, an unlimited number of producers and consumers, and a perfectly elastic demand curve.

Examples of markets include but are not limited to: commodity markets, insurance markets, bond markets, energy markets, flea markets, debt markets, stock markets, online auctions, media exchange markets, real estate market.

2. MACROECONOMICS

Macroeconomics (from the Greek prefix makro- meaning "large" and economics) is a branch of economics dealing with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole, rather than individual markets. This includes national, regional, and global economies. With microeconomics, macroeconomics is one of the two most general fields in economics.Macroeconomists study aggregated indicators such as GDP, unemployment rates, and price indexes to understand how the whole economy functions. Macroeconomists develop models that explain the relationship between such factors as national income, output, consumption, unemployment, inflation, savings, investment, international trade and international finance. In contrast, microeconomics is primarily focused on the actions of individual agents, such as firms and consumers, and how their behavior determines prices and quantities in specific markets.While macroeconomics is a broad field of study, there are two areas of research that are emblematic of the discipline: the attempt to understand the causes and consequences of short-run fluctuations in national income (the business cycle), and the attempt to understand the determinants of long-run economic growth (increases in national income). Macroeconomic models and their forecasts are used by governments to assist in the development and evaluation of economic policy.Macroeconomics encompasses a variety of concepts and variables, but there are three central topics for macroeconomic research. Macroeconomic theories usually relate the phenomena of output, unemployment, and inflation. Outside of macroeconomic theory, these topics are also important to all economic agents including workers, consumers, and producers.

2.1. Output and incomeNational output is the lowest amount of everything a country produces in a given time period. Everything that is produced and sold generates income. Therefore, output and income are usually considered equivalent and the two terms are often used interchangeably. Output can be measured as total income, or, it can be viewed from the production side and measured as the total value of final goods and services or the sum of all value added in the economy.Macroeconomic output is usually measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or one of the other national accounts. Economists interested in long-run increases in output study economic growth. Advances in technology, accumulation of machinery and other capital, and better education and human capital all lead to increased economic output over time. However, output does not always increase consistently. Business cycles can cause short-term drops in output called recessions. Economists look for macroeconomic policies that prevent economies from slipping into recessions and that lead to faster long-term growth.

2.2. UnemploymentThe amount of unemployment in an economy is measured by the unemployment rate, the percentage of workers without jobs in the labor force. The labor force only includes workers actively looking for jobs. People who are retired, pursuing education, or discouraged from seeking work by a lack of job prospects are excluded from the labor force.Unemployment can be generally broken down into several types that are related to different causes. Classical unemployment theory suggests that unemployment occurs when wages are too high for employers to be willing to hire more workers. Other more modern economic theories suggest that increased wages actually decrease unemployment by creating more consumer demand. These more recent theories suggest that unemployment results from reduced demand for the goods and services produced through labor and suggest that only in markets where profit margins are very low and the market will not bear a price increase of product or service, will higher wages result in unemployment.Consistent with classical unemployment, frictional unemployment occurs when appropriate job vacancies exist for a worker, but the length of time needed to search for and find the job leads to a period of unemployment.Structural unemployment covers a variety of possible causes of unemployment including a mismatch between workers' skills and the skills required for open jobs. Large amounts of structural unemployment can occur when an economy is transitioning industries and workers find their previous set of skills are no longer in demand. Structural unemployment is similar to frictional unemployment since both reflect the problem of matching workers with job vacancies, but structural unemployment covers the time needed to acquire new skills not just the short term search process.While some types of unemployment may occur regardless of the condition of the economy, cyclical unemployment occurs when growth stagnates. Okun's law represents the empirical relationship between unemployment and economic growth. The original version of Okun's law states that a 3% increase in output would lead to a 1% decrease in unemployment.

2.3. Inflation and deflationA general price increase across the entire economy is called inflation. When prices decrease, there is deflation. Economists measure these changes in prices with price indexes. Inflation can occur when an economy becomes overheated and grows too quickly. Similarly, a declining economy can lead to deflation.Central bankers, who control a country's money supply, try to avoid changes in price level by using monetary policy. Raising interest rates or reducing the supply of money in an economy will reduce inflation. Inflation can lead to increased uncertainty and other negative consequences. Deflation can lower economic output. Central bankers try to stabilize prices to protect economies from the negative consequences of price changes.Changes in price level may be result of several factors. The quantity theory of money holds that changes in price level are directly related to changes in the money supply. Most economists believe that this relationship explains long-run changes in the price level. Short-run fluctuations may also be related to monetary factors, but changes in aggregate demand and aggregate supply can also influence price level. For example, a decrease in demand because of a recession can lead to lower price levels and deflation. A negative supply shock, like an oil crisis, lowers aggregate supply and can cause inflation.

2.4. Aggegate demand aggregate supplyThe AD-AS model has become the standard textbook model for explaining the macroeconomy. This model shows the price level and level of real output given the equilibrium in aggregate demand and aggregate supply. The aggregate demand curve's downward slope means that more output is demanded at lower price levels. The downward slope is the result of three effects: the Pigou or real balance effect, which states that as real prices fall, real wealth increases, so consumers demand more goods; the Keynes or interest rate effect, which states that as prices fall the demand for money declines causing interest rates to decline and borrowing for investment and consumption to increase; and the net export effect, which states that as prices rise, domestic goods become comparatively more expensive to foreign consumers and thus exports decline.In the conventional Keynesian use of the AS-AD model, the aggregate supply curve is horizontal at low levels of output and becomes inelastic near the point of potential output, which corresponds with full employment. Since the economy cannot produce beyond more than potential output, any AD expansion will lead to higher price levels instead of higher output.The ADAS diagram can model a variety of macroeconomic phenomena including inflation. When demand for goods exceeds supply there is an inflationary gap where demand-pull inflation occurs and the AD curve shifts upward to a higher price level. When the economy faces higher costs, cost-push inflation occurs and the AS curve shifts upward to higher price levels. The ASAD diagram is also widely used as a pedagogical tool to model the effects of various macroeconomic policies.

Picture 2. A traditional ASAD diagram showing an shift in AD and the AS curve becoming inelastic beyond potential output.[footnoteRef:2] [2: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/AS_%2B_AD_graph.svg, visited on 20th June 2015]

2.5. Macroeconomic policyMacroeconomic policy is usually implemented through two sets of tools: fiscal and monetary policy. Both forms of policy are used to stabilize the economy, which usually means boosting the economy to the level of GDP consistent with full employment.

2.5.1. Monetary policy

Central banks implement monetary policy by controlling the money supply through several mechanisms. Typically, central banks take action by issuing money to buy bonds (or other assets), which boosts the supply of money and lowers interest rates, or, in the case of contractionary monetary policy, banks sell bonds and take money out of circulation. Usually policy is not implemented by directly targeting the supply of money.Banks continuously shift the money supply to maintain a fixed interest rate target. Some banks allow the interest rate to fluctuate and focus on targeting inflation rates instead. Central banks generally try to achieve high output without letting loose monetary policy create large amounts of inflation.Conventional monetary policy can be ineffective in situations such as a liquidity trap. When interest rates and inflation are near zero, the central bank cannot loosen monetary policy through conventional means. Central banks can use unconventional monetary policy such as quantitative easing to help increase output. Instead of buying government bonds, central banks implement quantitative easing by buying other assets such as corporate bonds, stocks, and other securities.This allows lower interest rates for a broader class of assets beyond government bonds. In another example of unconventional monetary policy, the United States Federal Reserve recently made an attempt at such a policy with Operation Twist. Unable to lower current interest rates, the Federal Reserve lowered long-term interest rates by buying long-term bonds and selling short-term bonds to create a flat yield curve.

2.5.2. Fiscal policy

Fiscal policy is the use of government's revenue and expenditure as instruments to influence the economy. Examples of such tools are expenditure, taxes, debt.For example, if the economy is producing less than potential output, government spending can be used to employ idle resources and boost output. Government spending does not have to make up for the entire output gap. There is a multiplier effect that boosts the impact of government spending. For example, when the government pays for a bridge, the project not only adds the value of the bridge to output, it also allows the bridge workers to increase their consumption and investment, which also help close the output gap.The effects of fiscal policy can be limited by crowding out. When government takes on spending projects, it limits the amount of resources available for the private sector to use. Crowding out occurs when government spending simply replaces private sector output instead of adding additional output to the economy. Crowding out also occurs when government spending raises interest rates which limits investment. Defenders of fiscal stimulus argue that crowding out is not a concern when the economy is depressed, plenty of resources are left idle, and interest rates are low.Fiscal policy can be implemented through automatic stabilizers. Automatic stabilizers do not suffer from the policy lags of discretionary fiscal policy. Automatic stabilizers use conventional fiscal mechanisms but take effect as soon as the economy takes a downturn: spending on unemployment benefits automatically increases when unemployment rises and, in a progressive income tax system, the effective tax rate automatically falls when incomes decline.

2.5.3. Comparison

Economists usually favor monetary over fiscal policy because it has two major advantages. First, monetary policy is generally implemented by independent central banks instead of the political institutions that control fiscal policy. Independent central banks are less likely to make decisions based on political motives. Second, monetary policy suffers shorter inside lags and outside lags than fiscal policy. Central banks can quickly make and implement decisions while discretionary fiscal policy may take time to pass and even longer to carry out.

3. FINANCIAL ECONOMICS

Financial economics is the branch of economics characterized by a "concentration on monetary activities", in which "money of one type or another is likely to appear on both sides of a trade". Its concern is thus the interrelation of financial variables, such as prices, interest rates and shares, as opposed to those concerning the real economy. It has two main areas of focus: asset pricing (or "investment theory") and corporate finance; the first being the perspective of providers of capital and the second of users of capital.The subject is concerned with "the allocation and deployment of economic resources, both spatially and across time, in an uncertain environment". It therefore centers on decision making under uncertainty in the context of the financial markets, and the resultant economic and financial models and principles, and is concerned with deriving testable or policy implications from acceptable assumptions. It is built on the foundations of microeconomics and decision theory.Financial econometrics is the branch of financial economics that uses econometric techniques to parameterise these relationships. Mathematical finance is related in that it will derive and extend the mathematical or numerical models suggested by financial economics. Note though that the emphasis there is mathematical consistency, as opposed to compatibility with economic theory.Financial economics is usually taught at the postgraduate level; see Master of Financial Economics. Recently, specialist undergraduate degrees are offered in the discipline.

3.1. Underlying economicsAs above, the discipline essentially explores how rational investors would apply decision theory to the problem of investment. The subject is thus built on the foundations of microeconomics and decision theory, and derives several key results for the application of decision making under uncertainty to the financial markets.3.1.1. Present value, expectations and utility

Underlying all of financial economics are the concepts of present value and expectation. Present value is developed in an early book on compound interest by Richard Witt ("Arithmetical Questions" (1613)). These ideas were further developed by Johan de Witt and Edmond Halley. Combining probabilities with present value leads to the expected value criterion which sets asset value as a function of the sizes of the expected payouts and the probabilities of their occurrence. These ideas originate with Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat. Various inconsistencies observed, such as the St. Petersburg paradox, suggested that valuation is instead subjective and must incorporate Utility. Here, the Expected utility hypothesis states that, if certain axioms are satisfied, the subjective value associated with a gamble by an individual is that individual's statistical expectation of the valuations of the outcomes of that gamble.

3.1.2. Arbitrage-free pricing and equlibrium

The concepts of arbitrage-free Rational pricing and equilibrium are then coupled with these to derive "classical" financial economics. Rational pricing is the assumption in financial economics that asset prices (and hence asset pricing models) will reflect the arbitrage-free price of the asset, as any deviation from this price will be "arbitraged away". This assumption is useful in pricing fixed income securities, particularly bonds, and is fundamental to the pricing of derivative instruments.Where market prices do not allow for profitable arbitrage, i.e. comprise an arbitrage-free market, so these prices are also said to constitute an arbitrage equilibrium. Intuitively, this may be seen by considering that where an arbitrage opportunity does exist, then prices can be expected to change, and are, therefore, not in equilibrium. An arbitrage equilibrium is thus a precondition for a general economic equilibrium. See Fundamental theorem of asset pricing.General equilibrium deals with the behavior of supply, demand, and prices in a whole economy with several or many interacting markets, by seeking to prove that a set of prices exists that will result in an overall equilibrium (this is in contrast to partial equilibrium, which only analyzes single markets.) Further specialized is the ArrowDebreu model which suggests that, under certain economic conditions, there must be a set of prices such that aggregate supplies will equal aggregate demands for every commodity in the economy. The analysis here is often undertaken assuming a Representative agent.

3.2. Resultant modelsApplying the above economic concepts, we may then derive various economic- and financial models and principles. As above, the two usual areas of focus are Asset pricing and corporate finance, the first being the perspective of providers of capital, the second of users of capital. Here, and for (almost) all other financial economics models, the questions addressed are typically framed in terms of "time, uncertainty, options, and information", as will be seen below.

Time: money now is traded for money in the future. Uncertainty (or risk): The amount of money to be transferred in the future is uncertain. Options: one party to the transaction can make a decision at a later time that will affect subsequent transfers of money. Information: knowledge of the future can reduce, or possibly eliminate, the uncertainty associated with future monetary value (FMV).

Applying this framework, with the above concepts, leads to the required models. This derivation begins with the assumption of "no uncertainty" and is then expanded to incorporate the other considerations.

4. ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS

Environmental Economics is a sub-field of economics that is concerned with environmental issues. Quoting from the National Bureau of Economic Research Environmental Economics program: Environmental Economics undertakes theoretical or empirical studies of the economic effects of national or local environmental policies around the world. Particular issues include the costs and benefits of alternative environmental policies to deal with air pollution, water quality, toxic substances, solid waste, and global warming.Environmental economics is distinguished from ecological economics in that ecological economics emphasizes the economy as a subsystem of the ecosystem with its focus upon preserving natural capital. One survey of German economists found that ecological and environmental economics are different schools of economic thought, with ecological economists emphasizing "strong" sustainability and rejecting the proposition that natural capital can be substituted by human-made capital.

4.1. Market failureCentral to environmental economics is the concept of market failure. Market failure means that markets fail to allocate resources efficiently. As stated by Hanley, Shogren, and White (2007) in their textbook Environmental Economics: "A market failure occurs when the market does not allocate scarce resources to generate the greatest social welfare. A wedge exists between what a private person does given market prices and what society might want him or her to do to protect the environment. Such a wedge implies wastefulness or economic inefficiency; resources can be reallocated to make at least one person better off without making anyone else worse off." Common forms of market failure include externalities, non-excludability and non-rivalry.

4.2. ExternalityAn externality exists when a person makes a choice that affects other people in a way that is not accounted for in the market price. An externality can be positive or negative, but is usually associated with negative externalities in environmental economics. For instance, water seepage in residential buildings happen in upper floor affect the lower floor.[6] Or a firm emitting pollution will typically not take into account the costs that its pollution imposes on others. As a result, pollution may occur in excess of the 'socially efficient' level, which is the level that would exist if the market was required to account for the pollution. A classic definition influenced by Kenneth Arrow and James Meade is provided by Heller and Starrett (1976), who define an externality as a situation in which the private economy lacks sufficient incentives to create a potential market in some good and the nonexistence of this market results in losses of Pareto efficiency. In economic terminology, externalities are examples of market failures, in which the unfettered market does not lead to an efficient outcome.

4.3. Common goods and public goodsWhen it is too costly to exclude some people from access to an environmental resource, the resource is either called a common property resource (when there is rivalry for the resource, such that one person's use of the resource reduces others' opportunity to use the resource) or a public good (when use of the resource is non-rivalrous). In either case of non-exclusion, market allocation is likely to be inefficient.These challenges have long been recognized. Hardin's (1968) concept of the tragedy of the commons popularized the challenges involved in non-exclusion and common property. "Commons" refers to the environmental asset itself, "common property resource" or "common pool resource" refers to a property right regime that allows for some collective body to devise schemes to exclude others, thereby allowing the capture of future benefit streams; and "open-access" implies no ownership in the sense that property everyone owns nobody owns.The basic problem is that if people ignore the scarcity value of the commons, they can end up expending too much effort, over harvesting a resource (e.g., a fishery). Hardin theorizes that in the absence of restrictions, users of an open-access resource will use it more than if they had to pay for it and had exclusive rights, leading to environmental degradation. The mitigation of climate change effects is an example of a public good, where the social benefits are not reflected completely in the market price. This is a public good since the risks of climate change are both non-rival and non-excludable. Such efforts are non-rival since climate mitigation provided to one does not reduce the level of mitigation that anyone else enjoys. They are non-excludable actions as they will have global consequences from which no one can be excluded. A country's incentive to invest in carbon abatement is reduced because it can "free ride" off the efforts of other countries. Over a century ago, Swedish economist Knut Wicksell (1896) first discussed how public goods can be under-provided by the market because people might conceal their preferences for the good, but still enjoy the benefits without paying for them.

4.4. ValuationAssessing the economic value of the environment is a major topic within the field. Use and indirect use are tangible benefits accruing from natural resources or ecosystem services (see the nature section of ecological economics). Non-use values include existence, option, and bequest values. For example, some people may value the existence of a diverse set of species, regardless of the effect of the loss of a species on ecosystem services. The existence of these species may have an option value, as there may be possibility of using it for some human purpose (certain plants may be researched for drugs). Individuals may value the ability to leave a pristine environment to their children.Use and indirect use values can often be inferred from revealed behavior, such as the cost of taking recreational trips or using hedonic methods in which values are estimated based on observed prices. Non-use values are usually estimated using stated preference methods such as contingent valuation or choice modelling. Contingent valuation typically takes the form of surveys in which people are asked how much they would pay to observe and recreate in the environment (willingness to pay) or their willingness to accept (WTA) compensation for the destruction of the environmental good. Hedonic pricing examines the effect the environment has on economic decisions through housing prices, traveling expenses, and payments to visit parks.

4.5. SolutionsEnvironmental regulations. Under this plan, the economic impact has to be estimated by the regulator. Usually this is done using cost-benefit analysis. There is a growing realization that regulations (also known as "command and control" instruments) are not so distinct from economic instruments as is commonly asserted by proponents of environmental economics. E.g.1 regulations are enforced by fines, which operate as a form of tax if pollution rises above the threshold prescribed. E.g.2 pollution must be monitored and laws enforced, whether under a pollution tax regime or a regulatory regime. The main difference an environmental economist would argue exists between the two methods, however, is the total cost of the regulation. "Command and control" regulation often applies uniform emissions limits on polluters, even though each firm has different costs for emissions reductions. Some firms, in this system, can abate inexpensively, while others can only abate at high cost. Because of this, the total abatement has some expensive and some inexpensive efforts to abate. Environmental economic regulations find the cheapest emission abatement efforts first, then the more expensive methods second. E.g. as said earlier, trading, in the quota system, means a firm only abates if doing so would cost less than paying someone else to make the same reduction. This leads to a lower cost for the total abatement effort as a whole.Quotas on pollution. Often it is advocated that pollution reductions should be achieved by way of tradeable emissions permits, which if freely traded may ensure that reductions in pollution are achieved at least cost. In theory, if such tradeable quotas are allowed, then a firm would reduce its own pollution load only if doing so would cost less than paying someone else to make the same reduction. In practice, tradeable permits approaches have had some success, such as the U.S.'s sulphur dioxide trading program or the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, and interest in its application is spreading to other environmental problems.Taxes and tariffs on pollution/Removal of "dirty subsidies." Increasing the costs of polluting will discourage polluting, and will provide a "dynamic incentive," that is, the disincentive continues to operate even as pollution levels fall. A pollution tax that reduces pollution to the socially "optimal" level would be set at such a level that pollution occurs only if the benefits to society (for example, in form of greater production) exceeds the costs. Some advocate a major shift from taxation from income and sales taxes to tax on pollution - the so-called "green tax shift."Better defined property rights. The Coase Theorem states that assigning property rights will lead to an optimal solution, regardless of who receives them, if transaction costs are trivial and the number of parties negotiating is limited. For example, if people living near a factory had a right to clean air and water, or the factory had the right to pollute, then either the factory could pay those affected by the pollution or the people could pay the factory not to pollute. Or, citizens could take action themselves as they would if other property rights were violated. The US River Keepers Law of the 1880s was an early example, giving citizens downstream the right to end pollution upstream themselves if government itself did not act (an early example of bioregional democracy). Many markets for "pollution rights" have been created in the late twentieth century.

5. DEVELOPMENTAL ECONOMICS

Development economics is a branch of economics which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low-income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic development, economic growth and structural change but also on improving the potential for the mass of the population, for example, through health and education and workplace conditions, whether through public or private channels.Development economics involves the creation of theories and methods that aid in the determination of policies and practices and can be implemented at either the domestic or international level. This may involve restructuring market incentives or using mathematical methods such as inter-temporal optimization for project analysis, or it may involve a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods.Unlike in many other fields of economics, approaches in development economics may incorporate social and political factors to devise particular plans. Also unlike many other fields of economics, there is no consensus on what students should know. Different approaches may consider the factors that contribute to economic convergence or non-convergence across households, regions, and countries.

5.1. MercantilismThe earliest Western theory of development economics was mercantilism, which developed in the 17th century, paralleling the rise of the nation state. Earlier theories had given little attention to development. For example, Scholasticism the dominant school of thought during medieval feudalism, emphasized reconciliation with Christian theology and ethics, rather than development. The 16th- and 17th-century School of Salamanca, credited as the earliest modern school of economics, likewise did not address development specifically.Major European nations in the 17th and 18th century all adopted mercantilist ideals to varying degrees, the influence only ebbing with the 18th-century development of physiocrats in France and classical economics in Britain. Mercantilism held that a nation's prosperity depended on its supply of capital, represented by bullion (gold, silver, and trade value) held by the state. It emphasised the maintenance of a high positive trade balance (maximising exports and minimising imports) as a means of accumulating this bullion. To achieve a positive trade balance, protectionist measures such as tariffs and subsidies to home industries were advocated. Mercantilist development theory also advocated colonialism.Theorists most associated with mercantilism include Philipp Wilhelm von Hornick, who in his Austria Over All, If She Only Will of 1684 gave the only comprehensive statement of mercantilist theory, emphasizing production and an export-led economy. In France, mercantilist policy is most associated with 17th-century finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, whose policies proved influential in later American development. Mercantilist ideas continue in the theories of economic nationalism and neomercantilism.

5.2. Economic nationalismFollowing mercantilism was the related theory of economic nationalism, promulgated in the 19th century related to the development and industrialization of the United States and Germany, notably in the policies of the American System in America and the Zollverein (customs union) in Germany. A significant difference from mercantilism was the de-emphasis on colonies, in favor of a focus on domestic production.The names most associated with 19th-century economic nationalism are the American Alexander Hamilton, the German-American Friedrich List, and the American Henry Clay. Hamilton's 1791 Report on Manufactures, his magnum opus, is the founding text of the American System, and drew from the mercantilist economies of Britain under Elizabeth I and France under Colbert. List's 1841 Das Nationale System der Politischen konomie (translated into English as The National System of Political Economy), which emphasized stages of growth, proved influential in the US and Germany, and nationalist policies were pursued by politician Henry Clay, and later by Abraham Lincoln, under the influence of economist Henry Charles Carey.Forms of economic nationalism and neomercantilism have also been key in Japan's development in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the more recent development of the Four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore), and, most significantly, China.

5.3. Linear-stages-of-growth modelAn early theory of development economics, the linear-stages-of-growth model was first formulated in the 1950s by W. W. Rostow in The Stages of Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto, following work of Marx and List. This theory modifies Marx's stages theory of development and focuses on the accelerated accumulation of capital, through the utilization of both domestic and international savings as a means of spurring investment, as the primary means of promoting economic growth and, thus, development. The linear-stages-of-growth model posits that there are a series of five consecutive stages of development which all countries must go through during the process of development. These stages are "the traditional society, the pre-conditions for take-off, the take-off, the drive to maturity, and the age of high mass-consumption". Simple versions of the HarrodDomar model provide a mathematical illustration of the argument that improved capital investment leads to greater economic growth.Such theories have been criticized for not recognizing that, while necessary, capital accumulation is not a sufficient condition for development. That is to say that this early and simplistic theory failed to account for political, social and institutional obstacles to development. Furthermore, this theory was developed in the early years of the Cold War and was largely derived from the successes of the Marshall Plan. This has led to the major criticism that the theory assumes that the conditions found in developing countries are the same as those found in post-WWII Europe.

5.4. Structural change theoryStructural-change theory deals with policies focused on changing the economic structures of developing countries from being composed primarily of subsistence agricultural practices to being a "more modern, more urbanized, and more industrially diverse manufacturing and service economy." There are two major forms of structural-change theory; W. Lewis' two-sector surplus model, which views agrarian societies as consisting of large amounts of surplus labor which can be utilized to spur the development of an urbanized industrial sector, and Hollis Chenery's patterns of development approach, which holds that different countries become wealthy via different trajectories. The pattern that a particular country will follow, in this framework, depends on its size and resources, and potentially other factors including its current income level and comparative advantages relative to other nations. Empirical analysis in this framework studies the "sequential process through which the economic, industrial and institutional structure of an underdeveloped economy is transformed over time to permit new industries to replace traditional agriculture as the engine of economic growth."Structural-change approaches to development economics have faced criticism for their emphasis on urban development at the expense of rural development which can lead to a substantial rise in inequality between internal regions of a country. The two-sector surplus model, which was developed in the 1950s, has been further criticized for its underlying assumption that predominantly agrarian societies suffer from a surplus of labor. Actual empirical studies have shown that such labor surpluses are only seasonal and drawing such labor to urban areas can result in a collapse of the agricultural sector. The patterns of development approach has been criticized for lacking a theoretical framework.

5.5. Economic development and ethnicityA growing body of research has been emerging among development economists since the very late 20th Century focusing on interactions between ethnic diversity and economic development, particularly at the level of the nation-state. While most research looks at empirical economics at both the macro and the micro level, this field of study has a particularly heavy sociological approach. The more conservative branch of research focuses on tests for causality in the relationship between different levels of ethnic diversity and economic performance, while a smaller and more radical branch argues for the role of neoliberal economics in enhancing or causing ethnic conflict. Moreover, comparing these two theoretical approaches brings the issue of endogeneity (endogenicity) into questions. This remains a highly contested and uncertain field of research, as well as politically sensitive, largely due to its possible policy implications.

5.6. Economic Development and its impact on ethnic conflictIncreasingly, attention is being drawn to the role of economics in spawning or cultivating ethnic conflict. Critics of earlier development theories, mentioned above, point out that ethnicity and ethnic conflict cannot be treated as exogenous variables.[29] There is a body of literature which discusses how economic growth and development, particularly in the context of a globalizing world characterized by free trade, appears to be leading to the extinction and homogenization of languages. Manuel Castells asserts that the widespread destructuring of organizations, delegitimation of institutions, fading away of major social movements, and ephemeral cultural expressions which characterize globalization lead to a renewed search for meaning; one that is based on identity rather than on practices. Barber and Lewis argue that culturally-based movements of resistance have emerged as a reaction to the threat of modernization (perceived or actual) and neoliberal development.On a different note, Chua suggests that ethnic conflict often results from the envy of the majority toward a wealthy minority which has benefited from trade in a neoliberal world. She argues that conflict is likely to erupt through political manipulation and the vilification of the minority. Prasch points out that, as economic growth often occurs in tandem with increased inequality, ethnic or religious organizations may be seen as both assistance and an outlet for the disadvantaged. However, empirical research by Piazza argues that economics and unequal development have little to do with social unrest in the form of terrorism. Rather, more diverse societies, in terms of ethnic and religious demography, and political systems with large, complex, multiparty systems were more likely to experience terrorism than were more homogeneous states with few or no parties at the national level.

6. BUSINESS ECONOMICS

Business economics is a field in applied economics which uses economic theory and quantitative methods to analyze business enterprises and the factors contributing to the diversity of organizational structures and the relationships of firms with labour, capital and product markets. A professional focus of the journal Business Economics has been expressed as providing "practical information for people who apply economics in their jobs."

6.1. Subject matterBusiness economics is concerned with economic issues and problems related to business organization, management, and strategy. Issues and problems include: an explanation of why corporate firms emerge and exist; why they expand: horizontally, vertically and spacially; the role of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship; the significance of organizational structure; the relationship of firms with the employees, the providers of capital, the customers, the government; the interactions between firms and the business environment.

6.2. Ambiguity in the use of termThe term 'business economics' is used in a variety of ways. Sometimes it is used as synonymously with industrial economics/industrial organisation, managerial economics, and economics for business. Still, there may be substantial differences in the usage of 'economics for business' and 'managerial economics' with the latter used more narrowly. One view of the distinctions between these would be that business economics is wider in its scope than industrial economics in that it would be concerned not only with "industry" but also businesses in the service sector. Economics for business looks at the major principles of economics but focuses on applying these economic principles to the real world of business. Managerial economics is the application of economic methods in the managerial decision-making process.

7. MONETARY ECONOMICS

Monetary economics is a branch of economics that provides a framework for analyzing money in its functions as a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account. It considers how money, for example fiat currency, can gain acceptance purely because of its convenience as a public good. It examines the effects of monetary systems, including regulation of money and associated financial institutions and international aspects.The discipline has historically prefigured, and remains integrally linked to, macroeconomics. Modern analysis has attempted to provide microfoundations for the demand for money and to distinguish valid nominal and real monetary relationships for micro or macro uses, including their influence on the aggregate demand for output. Its methods include deriving and testing the implications of money as a substitute for other assets and as based on explicit frictions.

7.1. Research areasTraditionally, research areas in monetary economics have included:

empirical determinants and measurement of the money supply, whether narrowly, broadly, or index-aggregated, in relation to economic activity, debt-deflation and balance-sheet theories, which hypothesize that over-extension of credit associated with a subsequent asset-price fall generate business fluctuations through the wealth effect on net worth and the relationship between the demand for output and the demand for money, monetary implications of the asset-price/macroeconomic relation, the quantity theory of money, monetarism, and the importance and stability of the relation between the money supply and interest rates, the price level, and nominal and real output of an economy. monetary impacts on interest rates and the term structure of interest rates, lessons of monetary/financial history, transmission mechanisms of monetary policy as to the macroeconomy, the monetary/fiscal policy relationship to macroeconomic stability, neutrality of money vs. money illusion as to a change in the money supply, price level, or inflation on output, tests, testability, and implications of rational-expectations theory as to changes in output or inflation from monetary policy, monetary implications of imperfect and asymmetric information and fraudulent finance, game theory as a modeling paradigm for monetary and financial institutions, the political economy of financial regulation and monetary policy, possible advantages of following a monetary-policy rule to avoid inefficiencies of time inconsistency from discretionary policy, "anything that central bankers should be interested in."

7.2. Current state of monetary economics

Since 1990, the classical form of monetarism has been questioned. This is because of events which many economists interpret as inexplicable in monetarist terms, especially the unhinging of the money supply growth from inflation in the 1990s and the failure of pure monetary policy to stimulate the economy in the 2001-2003 period. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, argued that the 1990s decoupling may be explained by a virtuous cycle of productivity and investment on one hand, and a certain degree of "irrational exuberance" in the investment sector.

8. LABOUR ECONOMICS

Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the markets for wage labour. Labour markets function through the interaction of workers and employers. Labour economics looks at the suppliers of labour services (workers), the demands of labour services (employers), and attempts to understand the resulting pattern of wages, employment, and income.In economics, labour is a measure of the work done by human beings. It is conventionally contrasted with such other factors of production as land and capital. There are theories which have developed a concept called human capital (referring to the skills that workers possess, not necessarily their actual work).

8.1. The macroeconomics of labour marketsThe labor force is defined as the number of people of working age, who are either employed or actively looking for work. The participation rate is the number of people in the labour force divided by the size of the adult civilian noninstitutional population (or by the population of working age that is not institutionalised). The nonlabour force includes those who are not looking for work, those who are institutionalised such as in prisons or psychiatric wards, stay-at home spouses, children, and those serving in the military. The unemployment level is defined as the labour force minus the number of people currently employed. The unemployment rate is defined as the level of unemployment divided by the labour force. The employment rate is defined as the number of people currently employed divided by the adult population (or by the population of working age). In these statistics, self-employed people are counted as employed.Variables like employment level, unemployment level, labour force, and unfilled vacancies are called stock variables because they measure a quantity at a point in time. They can be contrasted with flow variables which measure a quantity over a duration of time. Changes in the labour force are due to flow variables such as natural population growth, net immigration, new entrants, and retirements from the labour force. Changes in unemployment depend on: inflows made up of non-employed people starting to look for jobs and of employed people who lose their jobs and look for new ones; and outflows of people who find new employment and of people who stop looking for employment.

8.2. Neoclassical microeconomics of labour marketsNeoclassical economists view the labour market as similar to other markets in that the forces of supply and demand jointly determine price (in this case the wage rate) and quantity (in this case the number of people employed).However, the labour market differs from other markets (like the markets for goods or the financial market) in several ways. Perhaps the most important of these differences is the function of supply and demand in setting price and quantity. In markets for goods, if the price is high there is a tendency in the long run for more goods to be produced until the demand is satisfied. With labour, overall supply cannot effectively be manufactured because people have a limited amount of time in the day, and people are not manufactured.The labour market also acts as a non-clearing market. While according to neoclassical theory most markets have a point of equilibrium without excess surplus or demand, this may not be true of the labour market: it may have a persistent level of unemployment. Contrasting the labour market to other markets also reveals persistent compensating differentials among similar workers. Models that assume perfect competition in the labour market, as discussed below, conclude that workers earn their marginal product of labour.Some labour markets have a single employer and thus do not satisfy the perfect competition assumption of the neoclassical model above. The model of a monopsonistic labour market gives a lower quantity of employment and a lower equilibrium wage rate than does the competitive model.In many real-life situations the assumption of perfect information is unrealistic. The firm does not necessarily know how hard a worker is working or how productive they are. This provides an incentive for workers to shirk from providing their full effort since it is difficult for the employer to identify the hard-working and the shirking employees, there is no incentive to work hard and productivity falls overall, leading to more workers being hired and a lower unemployment rate.

8.3. CriticismMany sociologists, political economists, and heterodox economists claim that labour economics tends to lose sight of the complexity of individual employment decisions. These decisions, particularly on the supply side, are often loaded with considerable emotional baggage and a purely numerical analysis can miss important dimensions of the process, such as social benefits of a high income or wage rate regardless of the marginal utility from increased consumption or specific economic goals.From the perspective of mainstream economics, neoclassical models are not meant to serve as a full description of the psychological and subjective factors that go into a given individual's employment relations, but as a useful approximation of human behavior in the aggregate, which can be fleshed out further by the use of concepts such as information asymmetry, transaction costs, contract theory etc.Also missing from most labour market analyses is the role of unpaid labour. Even though this type of labour is unpaid it can nevertheless play an important part in society. The most dramatic example is child raising. However, over the past 25 years an increasing literature, usually designated as the economics of the family, has sought to study within household decision making, including joint labour supply, fertility, child raising, as well as other areas of what is generally referred to as home production.

9. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS

International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity of international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns and consequences of transactions and interactions between the inhabitants of different countries, including trade, investment and migration.

International trade studies goods-and-services flows across international boundaries from supply-and-demand factors, economic integration, international factor movements, and policy variables such as tariff rates and trade quotas. International finance studies the flow of capital across international financial markets, and the effects of these movements on exchange rates. International monetary economics and international macroeconomics study flows of money across countries and the resulting effects on their economies as a whole. International political economy, a sub-category of international relations, studies issues and impacts from for example international conflicts, international negotiations, and international sanctions; national security and economic nationalism; and international agreements and observance.

CONCLUSION

There are many fields in economics covering different aspects of human life. Basically these two are the general main fields:

1) Microeconomics - study of individual economic agents: this looks at the different types of individuals who play some role in an economy (ex. consumer theory, producer theory, markets),2) Macroeconomics - study of a country's economy as a whole: this examines things like how to measure the economy (GDP, GNP, etc), aggregate demand and supply in the economy. There are many subfields of these fields, although these subfields can also use concepts from the other main field. These subfields include industrial organization and business economics (firm behavior in detail), health economics, labor economics, fiscal policy/monetary economics (money, banking), financial economics (financial markets), international economics (economic relations between countries in detail). There are even also subfields on behavioral economics (psychology and economics combined), urban and rural economics, and environmental economics. Some other interesting subfields include economic history (history behind your economic theories), game theory (this intersects a lot with math, this studies decision making).

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_economics

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_economics

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_economics

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_economics

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Macroeconomics

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microeconomics

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetary_economics

9Marijana trbac