This article presents possible categorizations of economic systems.
Please note that there is often a strong correlation between certain ideologies, political systems and certain economic systems (for example, consider the meanings of the term "communism"). Many economic system overlap each other in various areas (for example, the term "mixed economy" can be argued to include elements from various systems). There are also various mutually exclusive hierarchical categorizations.
The four most basic and general economic systems are:
An etymologist's approach to economic system, this list will attempt to sort all possible economic systems in alphabetical order, without any attempt at hierarchization. If a given economic system has several names, all are listed with a note beside each of them informing the reader that it is one of several alternate listed names.
Typically, "left-wing" economic systems involve a greater role for society and/or the government to determine what gets produced, how it gets produced, and who gets the produced goods and services, with the aim of ensuring social justice and a more equitable distribution of wealth (see welfare state). Meanwhile, "right-wing" economic systems give more power to certain private individuals (or corporations) to make those decisions, rather than leaving them up to society as a whole, and often limit government involvment in the economy.
The primary concern of "left" economic systems is usually egalitarianism, while the primary concern of "right" economic systems is usually private property.
The following list divides the main economic systems into "left-wing" and "right-wing" and it attempts to structure the systems in a given section by alphabetical order and in a vertical hierarchy where possible.
This is an alphabetical list of well-known economists.
Despite the extreme controversy surrounding larger economic issues, there is significant agreement among mainstream economists on the fundamentals of the subject, especially as reflected in microeconomics as opposed to macroeconomics.
Stanley Engerman is an economist and economic historian at the University of Rochester.
Economics is said to be positive when it attempts to explain the consequences of different choices given a set of assumptions, or a given set of observations, and normative when it prescribes that a certain action should be taken.
Economics may in principle be, and increasingly is, applied to any problem that involves choice under scarcity or determining economic value, in fact, the allocation of scarcity is considered basic to many definitions of economics.
The term economics was coined around 1870 and popularized by influential "neoclassical" economists such as Alfred Marshall, as a substitute for the earlier term political economy, which referred to "the economy of polities" – competing states.
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