Economics
The objective of economics is to understand the well-being of individuals and organisations in a society and of the society as a whole. When resources are limited, decisions must be made about allocating them. Economics is the study of the resource allocation choices we make as individuals and as a society and investigates how these choices affect our well-being.
There are several key areas in economics:
- Microeconomics concerns the behaviour of micro units in an economy such as households and businesses and their interaction in markets.
- Macroeconomics is the study of the performce of national economies and the government policies intended to improve economic performance. Macroeconomics investigates things like interest rates, exchange rates, unemployment and inflation.
- Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to analyse data. Econometric methods allows us to analyse, describe and understand the factors determining economic outcomes, test theories on how the economy works and undertake economic forecasting.
Economists are employed in the government sector including Treasury or the Reserve Bank, financial institutions, insurance companies, large businesses and not-for-profit organisations.