Economics is often misunderstood. At its heart, economics is a social science that seeks to explain human behavior.
Far from being limited to questions of unemployment, interest rates, and the demand for goods and services, economics seeks to answer questions spanning a wide range of issues. These include poverty, discrimination, crime, pollution, education, international trade, international finance, taxation, natural resources and many other issues. Unlike the study of business management that focuses on improvements for a single firm or industry, economics takes a societal view that examines the impact of decisions or policies on individuals, households, businesses, taxpayers, the environment, and the country as a whole.