  
The following is an excerpt from the
undergraduate guide to the economics program at Harvard University.
It is a very well written overview of
the discipline and is an appropriate overview for the economics program at
Millersville University.
What Economics Is*
Economics is a social science that is
at once very broad in its subject matter and unified in its approach to
understanding the social world. An economic analysis begins from the premise
that individuals have goals and that they pursue those goals as best they can.
Economics studies the behavior of social systems – such as markets,
corporations, legislatures, and families – as the outcome of interactions
through institutions between goal-directed individuals. Ultimately, economists
make policy recommendations that they believe will make people better off.
Traditionally, economics has focused
on understanding prices, competitive markets, and the interactions between
markets. Important topics such as monopolies and antitrust, income inequality,
economic growth, and the business cycle continue to be central areas of inquiry
in economics. Recently, though, the subject matter of economics has broadened
so that economists today… address a remarkable variety of social science
questions.
In understanding what economics is,
it is crucial to keep in mind that economics today is a scientific discipline.
Bringing their particular perspective to the questions of social science,
economists formulate theories and collect evidence to test these theories
against alternative ideas. Doing economic research involves asking questions
about the social world and addressing those questions with data and clear-headed
logic, employing mathematical and statistical tools whenever possible to aid the
analysis. An undergraduate education in economics focuses on learning to
analyze the world in terms of tradeoffs and incentives –that is, to think like
an economist.
What Economics Is Not
Economics is not business. Business
classes teach professional skills that are useful for starting and operating
companies. Business strategy and financial management classes often exploit
insights from economics in providing better advice to businesses; much the way
clinical psychologists apply the relevant research from academic psychology to
help them treat their patients. Economics and business are related, but
business is professional training ultimately aimed at making profits, while
economics is a science that pursues an improved understanding of our social
world.
Economics is also not policy. It is
true that policy considerations often motivate economic analyses, that
economists often make policy recommendations on the basis of their analyses, and
that insights from economics are relevant to almost every policy debate.
However, economics analyses usually do not address moral, cultural, or political
considerations. As a result, although economic analysis is essential, it must
be supplemented by other perspectives for a fully informed policy evaluation.
Why Concentrate in Economics?
There are many good reasons to
concentrate in economics. For a student interested in international trade,
business cycles, or the stock market, economics is the natural choice. Someone
who seeks a quantitative, rigorous approach to social science will find
economics to be an exciting and vibrant discipline. Many students choose to
concentrate in economics because it provides an excellent background for
professional work in business, banking, law, and even medicine.
* Harvard Undergraduate Economics Department
Guide http://post.economics.harvard.edu/undergraduate/UndergradGuide.pdf
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