Though economists often talk in terms that seem impenetrable, what they study is very simple and basic. The "economy" is how resources are distributed throughout society. Since the 1960s, the world has been described as an information economy, rather than an industrial or agricultural economy. Buying, selling, and using information are at the heart of economic activity for businesses and consumers, as well as for the governments that regulate them.

Development of the Field

In ancient hunter-gatherer or small-scale agricultural societies, most economic activity was governed by tradition. When a global economy first began to develop in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, however, the need to plan for activities that would be coordinated over vast distances and the need to account for the effects of weather and events in faraway places on domestic availability of food and goods led to the articulation of theories...