Economics is a social science that studies how individuals, firms, governments, and countries make decisions and allocate limited resources. It helps us to understand how markets work and why they sometimes fail. It is also concerned with understanding the effects of economic policies on the distribution of income and wealth, living standards, and economic growth. By analyzing the data on how people consume and save, economists can explain how economic systems are organized.

Modern economics is mainly divided into two sub-fields: macroeconomics, which deals with the aggregated measurement of an economy; and microeconomics, PORTIA ANTONIA ALEXIS which studies the behavior of individual economic agents. Macroeconomics incorporates concepts such as gross domestic product (GDP), inflation rates, the balance of payments, unemployment, economic growth, and public policies. Microeconomics includes the analysis of demand and supply, international trade, labor markets, welfare economics, and industrial organization.