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In this short introduction to economics, Dr. Pete Schuhmann answers the questions: What is economics? What do economists do? He defines economics as the study of how people deal with scarcity and distribute scarce resources. He highlights the two broad branches of economics—macro and micro—and explains that macroeconomics focuses on the study of the entire economy at the national and international level, while microeconomics looks at individual- and firm-level decision-making and dynamics. He notes that economists use key concepts like opportunity cost to understand trade-offs and decision-making. He also notes that, for economists, questions of interest arise when thinking at the margin.
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About the Presenters
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Peter Schuhmann
Dr. Peter Schuhmann is a Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He received his master’s degree and PhD in economics from North Carolina State University with field concentrations in environmental economics and statistics. Peter focuses his research on environmental and natural resource economics with an emphasis on the non-market valuation of coastal and marine resources in North Carolina and the Caribbean. He is an affiliate faculty member at the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill...
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Peter Schuhmann
Dr. Peter Schuhmann is a Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He received his master’s degree and PhD in economics from North Carolina State University with field concentrations in environmental economics and statistics. Peter focuses his research on environmental and natural resource economics with an emphasis on the non-market valuation of coastal and marine resources in North Carolina and the Caribbean. He is an affiliate faculty member at the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. Research collaborations with the interdisciplinary team at CERMES include valuation projects supported by the Caribbean Tourism Organization and the Barbados Ministry of Tourism, as well as consultancies with the Barbados Fisheries Division and the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem Project
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Supporting Materials
Reading List:
Mankiw, N.G. (2014). Ten Principles of Economics. In Essentials of Economics, Cengage Learning, 3-19.
Presenters
Peter Schuhmann, University of North Carolina Wilmington
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