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The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998
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Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso
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Microeconomics
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INFOTEXT
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1992-09-03
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The division of economics concerned with the
study of individual decision-making units
within an economy: a consumer, firm, or
industry. Unlike macroeconomics, it looks at
how individual markets work and how
individual producers and consumers make their
choices and with what consequences. This is
done by analysing how relevant prices of
goods are determined and the quantities that
will be bought and sold. For simplicity,
microeconomics begins by analysing a market
in which there is perfect competition, a
theoretical state which exists only when no
individual producer or consumer can influence
the market price. In the real world, there is
always imperfect competition for various
reasons (monopoly practices, barriers to
trade, and so on), and microeconomics
examines what effect these have on wages and
prices. Underlying these and other concerns
of microeconomics is the concept of
optimality, first advanced by Vilfredo Pareto
in the 19th century. Pareto's perception of
the most efficient state of an economy, when
there is no scope to reallocate resources
without making someone worse off, has been of
great influence.