Economics is the study of how human societies allocate resources that are scarce relative to the wants and needs they generate. Parameters: the set of scarce resources under consideration, the population whose allocation is examined, and the allocation mechanism (market, command, custom, or hybrid). Economics persists as a discipline through formal education, professional practice, mathematical modelling, and the ongoing publication of empirical and theoretical work. [formal: oeconomicus | substrate: mind | horizon: a life | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
economics
Economics is the study of how human societies allocate resources that are scarce relative to the wants and needs they generate. Parameters: the set of scarce resources under consideration, the population whose allocation is examined, and t…
Definition
Why it is in scope
Human-made discipline that studies how agents allocate scarce resources among competing ends. Persists through academic institutions, textbooks, and formal training that transmit its methods and theories across generations.
Names and aliases
- economicsen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrh0duup00ii8aeh2a3yoi6kDEPENDS_ON →
Economics studies allocation of scarce resources. Per the removal test (Law 8): remove scarcity and economics ceases to operate — without scarcity, resource allocation is abundance management, not economics. The discipline's entire subject-matter is the tension between limited means and competing ends.
Relations to this entry
- cmrqxxay30025q89d42vk8r52← DERIVED_FROM
rent-seeking existed as an economic concept after economics itself was established as a discipline. Economics is older and more general; rent-seeking emerged from economic theory. Law 7: which came first?
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 21, 2026, 10:33 AM UTC
- Content hash
- 55c389ba72ca1c2d8f7aa645d7a813e0737374022d26a2a08c513dd193878032