Economic theory as a science studieseconomic problems and patterns taking place within the economic system, which is an important part of the social order. The economic system is conditionally divided into spheres of activity: production, consumption, distribution and exchange.
Therefore, economic theory as a science studiespart of the whole social system - the economic system. At the same time, economic theory in the system of sciences is a general theoretical discipline and serves as a theoretical basis for many economic sciences: accounting, economic statistics, finance and credit, international economic relations and others. Economic theory plays a dominant role in the system of sciences.
Do not forget that economic theoryhow science studies the behavior of organizations and people in the economic system. Proceeding from the foregoing, it is possible to give a more precise formulation of the subject of economic theory. The subject is resources and needs. At what, as resources there are non-material and material opportunities, satisfying requirements. Their main feature in the limited, ie. they are not enough to meet all the ever growing needs of society. At the same time, the fact of their limitation is principled in order that the economic theory emerged and developed as a science. The classification of resources includes the following:
Labor, expressed in human resources.In other words, it is the labor force that exists in society and is used in production. Labor (Labor) as a factor of production implies people of a certain qualification, possessing knowledge, skills and experience relevant to a particular production.
Capital is expressed by the fact that it isforce in the production process: buildings, equipment, machines, tools, vehicles, etc. In other words, capital is man-made labor, grouped in two categories: real capital-expressed in physical form and money-capital-is expressed by the amount of money needed to purchase real capital.
Earth. It should be taken into account that economic science under this concept implies all natural resources: land as agricultural land, water resources, minerals, forests, etc.
Entrepreneurial ability is considered as a factor of production, allowing to combine private factors in a particular production, with the ability to introduce new technologies and ideas.
Under the needs of economic scienceimplies a need or a lack of something necessary for the life and development of the individual, a group of people and the whole society. It is the requirements that stimulate people to produce the products necessary for life. They are rather difficult to classify. Conventionally, the following groups can be distinguished:
Socio-cultural
Material
Intangible
Individual
Public.
It should be noted that the needs are changing in accordance with the development of society: some disappear, and others appear in return. There are much more needs than opportunities for meeting them.
In economic theory, general and privatemethods. Common methods include general philosophical approaches and principles used in the analysis of the economy. They are formed within the dialectical method.
In addition, private methods also rely ondialectical method. Private methods of economic science include: abstraction, analysis and synthesis, assumption, deduction and induction, the unity of historical and logical, as well as statistical and mathematical methods.
The subject and method of economic science are applied at different levels of analysis in the economy, at the macro and microeconomic levels of the world economy.
