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Is Economics a Science?

Is Economics a science? In order to answer that question, we must first understand what "science" is.  Science is "the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment." But what are the types of sciences?

 Hard Sciences

  • Follow laws
  • Replicable results
  • Biology, chemistry, physics, etc.


 Social Sciences

  • Do not follow laws
  • Results are not replicable (people are squirrely)
  • Psychology, sociology, etc.

Economics is not consistent - that is to say it doesn't follow laws and it isn't replicable. It depends on people, and people are squirrely. This means that Economics is not a hard science. Instead, it is a social science.

Just like there are two types of sciences, there are also two types of Economics.

Macroeconomics
  • Larger scale
  • State, regional, and national
  • The whole economy, overall
  • Difficult to go on a higher level
  • Invented in the 1930s

Microeconomics
  • Smaller scale
  • Consumer-level
  • Driven by demand and supply (not supply and demand)
  • Buying things
  • Traditional economics


The economy can be driven or affected by incentives. Incentives are things that you give to someone in order to provoke a certain behavior. For example, if a company wants people to buy its phones, it may advertise "Buy one, get a free phone case!"







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