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What does economics study?

Economics is a social science studying economy. Like the natural sciences and other social sciences, economics attempts to find laws and principles of economic functioning of society. Most students who take economics for the first time hardly can imagine the range of questions which this science studies. Some think that economics will teach them about the stock market, or what to do with their money. Others think that economics deals exclusively with problems like inflation and unemployment. In fact, it deals with all these subjects but they are parts of a much larger system.

Economics has deep roots in and close ties to, social philosophy. An issue of great importance to philosophers, for example, is distributional justice. Why are some people rich and others poor, and whatever the answer, is this fair? A number of nineteenth century social philosophers were trying to solve these questions and out of their speculations a separate discipline was born, namely economics. If you want to get quick idea of what economics studies, you should explore briefly the way economics is organized.

First of all, there are two major divisions of economics: microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics deals with the functioning of individual industries and the behaviour of individual economic decision making units: single business firms and households. Macroeconomics explores the decisions that individual businesses and consumers make. The choices of firms about what to produce and how much to charge and the choices of households about what to buy and how much of it to buy help to explain why the economy produces the things it does.

Another big question that microeconomics addresses is who gets the things that are produced. Wealthy households get more output then do poor households, and the forces that determine this distribution of output are outside the scope of microeconomics. Why do we have poverty? Who is poor? Why do some jobs pay more than others? Why do teachers or plumbers get paid for what they do? Think about all the things we consume in a day on the scale of a town, a whole country. Somebody decided to build the factories. Somebody decided to construct roads, build the housing, produce the cars, knit the shirts, and smoke the bacon. Why? What is going on in all those buildings? It is easy to see that understanding individual micro decisions is very important to any understanding of your society. Macroeconomics, in its turn, deals with the functioning of national economic complex and the behaviour of the main classes and social groups.

McConnell C.R., Brae S.L. Economics

Exercise 5. Answer the following questions.

  1. To what branch of science does economics belong to?

  2. Does economics have deep roots in social philosophy?

  3. What problems does economics deal with?

  4. Why, do you think, some people are poor and others are rich?

  5. Which two main divisions of economics do you know?

  6. What do micro- and macroeconomics deal with?

  7. Which issue of economics is of great importance to philosophers and why?

  8. What would you do to cope with inequality?

Exercise 6. Complete the sentences.

  1. Economics studies a wide _________ questions.

  2. Economics is closely tied with ________

  3. Many social philosophers were trying to solve a questions of ________

  4. Economics is subdivided into ________

  5. Microeconomics deals with ________ industries.

  6. A household can be considered as an _______

  7. The firm must make a ________ what to produce.

  8. Microeconomics doesn’t ______ with the questions of output distribution.

  9. The functioning of national economic complex is the sphere of ________

Exercise 7. Give English equivalents to the following words and phrases from the text.

Изучать экономику, иметь глубокие корни в, национальная экономика, отдельная самостоятельная экономическая единица, изучать проблему, домашнее хозяйство, отдельная предпринимательская фирма, получить представление, функционирование отдельных отраслей промышленности, социальная философия.

Exercise 8. Match synonyms in columns A and B.

A.

B.

range

question

part

piece

to produce

several

to deal with

to consider

to explore

comprehension

unemployment

outside the sphere

discipline

scope

firm

well - to do

wealthy

connection

province

subject

understanding

to manufacture

a number

company

tie

lack of jobs

issue

to examine

Exercise 9. Translate the following chains of words. Determine the part of speech and the way of word – building.

economy – economics – economist

economic – economical – economically

economize – economizer

science – scientist – scientific

employ – employment – unemployment – employer – employee

organize – organizer – organization – organizational

produce – producer – production – productive – productivity

Exercise 10. Translate the following sentences into Russian using the dictionary.

  1. Russia tries to base its relations with other countries on the peaceful principles.

  2. There is an objective need for all states of the world to live in peace with each other and to cooperate on a basis of equality and mutual benefit.

  3. An efficient economy is one that produces what people want and does so at the least possible cost.

  4. Britain needs raw materials for its industries.

  5. The country depends on foreign trade to supply raw materials for factories.

  6. Imports exceed exports in many developing countries.

  7. Invisible trade compensates the unfavorable balance of trade.

Exercise 11. Translate the following definitions into English.

Экономика – это наука, включающая две дисциплины: микроэкономику и макроэкономику.

Микроэкономика – это отрасль, которая изучает индивидуальных производителей, потребителей или рынки. Она также изучает, как деятельность правительства (регулирование и налоги) влияет на отдельные рынки. Микроэкономика пытается понять, какие факторы воздействуют на цены, заработную плату и прибыль.

Макроэкономика – это отрасль, которая изучает экономику в целом. В частности, она занимается общими цифрами производительности, безработицы и инфляции.

Exercise 12. Before you listen discuss the following questions with your partner.

    • If you live in a modern economy, life is quite easy.

    • Before the industrial revolution life was much harder.

    • In what ways was life more difficult?

Listen to someone talking about industrial revolution and do the tasks.

- Which of these things are mentioned?

1. length of live

2. housing

3. illnesses

4. work

5. food

6. having children

- Match the description with the numbers.

1. life expectancy

2. number of children who died

before they reached five years old

3. number of women who

died when they were giving birth

4. years since the industrial revolution

A. about 250

B. 1 in 10

C. 25

D. 1 in 3

Exercise 13. Discuss the following points.

  1. Do you sometimes listen to the economy news on TV or on the radio?

  2. What do you think of the state of economy in Russia?

  3. What do your parents (grandparents) think of economic reforms in Russia? Did they live better or worse before?

  4. What type of economy does Russia build?

  5. Do you think you have more opportunities to be well off than your grandparents?

Exercise 14. Read the text, do the exercises.

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