Mainstream economics is the term used to distinguish the economics profession in general from advocates of various heterodox schools, including Austrian economics and Marxian economics. Mainstream economists do not, in general, identify themselves as members of a particular school of economics, though they may be associated with schools of thought on particular topics within economics such as rational expectations. Buyers bargain for good prices while sellers put forth their best front in Chichicastenango Market, Guatemala. ... Heterodox economics refers to schools of economic thought which do not conform to the dominant paradigm of neoclassical economics. ... The Austrian School is a school of economic thought which rejects opposing economists reliance on methods used in natural science for the study of human action, and instead bases its formalism of economics on relationships through logic or introspection called praxeology. ... Marxian economics refers to a body of economic thought stemming from the work of Karl Marx. ... Rational expectations is a theory in economics originally proposed by John F. Muth (1961). ...

The term came into use in the second half of the 20th century following the synthesis of neoclassical microeconomics and Keynesian macroeconomics associated with economists such as John Hicks, and the development of theories of market failure which allowed for a range of views on the desirability or otherwise of government intervention. Neoclassical economics refers to a general approach (a metatheory) to economics based on supply and demand which depends on individuals (or any economic agent) operating rationally, each seeking to maximize their individual utility or profit by making choices based on available information. ... Microeconomics (literally, very small economics) is a social science which involves study of the economic distribution of production and income among individual consumers, firms, and industries. ... Keynesian economics, or Keynesianism, is an economic theory based on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes, as put forward in his book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in 1936 in response to the Great Depression of the 1930s. ... Macroeconomics is the economics sub-field of study that considers aggregate behavior, and the study of the sum of individual economic decisions. ... Sir John Richard Hicks (April 8, 1904 – May 20, 1989) was one of the most important and influential economists of the twentieth century. ... Market failure is a situation in which markets do not efficiently organize production or allocate goods and services to consumers (for example, a failure to allocate goods in a way some see as socially or morally preferable). ...

Although the neoclassical viewpoint remains dominant, the development of theories of asymmetric information and the increasing importance of game theory have provided a countervailing influence to the general neoclassical presumption in favour of laissez-faire. In economics, information asymmetry occurs when one party to a transaction has more or better information than the other party. ... Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that studies strategic situations where players choose different actions in an attempt to maximize their returns. ... Laissez-faire is short for laissez faire, laissez passer, a French phrase meaning to let things alone, let them pass. First used by the eighteenth century Physiocrats as an injunction against government interference with trade, it is now used as a synonym for strict free market economics. ...