What is economics? There are various answers to the definition of this concept. Then, how to write an economics paper in life? Here is what I have compiled. Let's have a look!
Economy is an ancient topic, which can be traced back to Aristotle in the west and Confucius in China. However, if the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations in 1776 is regarded as the symbol of the birth of economics, it is only 200 years old.
What is economics? There are various answers to the definition of this concept. For example, economics discusses what goods to produce, how to produce them and for whom. Samuelson wrote in his famous book Economics: "Economics studies how society uses scarce resources to produce valuable goods and distribute them among different people." In the book Management Economics, I pointed out from the perspectives of fairness and efficiency, production and distribution, etc., "Economics is a social science that studies how to allocate economic resources effectively and how to distribute national wealth fairly to meet personal or social goals." To sum up, all kinds of arguments are inseparable from the thinking that economics is to make limited resources use in the most reasonable way, so as to increase the total wealth of society and make society more and more affluent.
This understanding of economics has three meanings: first, the purpose or desire of individuals or society is endless, while economic resources are limited and scarce in absolute sense. Due to the rapid increase of population, the adjustment and development of industry and agriculture, and the increasingly serious pollution, renewable resources such as forests and groundwater and non-renewable resources such as minerals are increasingly scarce, and even air and river water that were once considered inexhaustible have become scarce due to pollution. Second, although scarce resources have various uses, once they are used for one purpose, they cannot be used for other purposes. Therefore, people's economic activities all involve the question of choice. Here, efficiency means that a country's economy should organize its production and consumption units, so that society can obtain the largest number of needed goods and services, and make full use of economic resources within the scope of existing customs, laws and systems. Third, under the goal of maximizing social welfare, we can seek a fair distribution scheme through systems such as "equal opportunity" or "equal result". Under the condition of market economy, the "prosperity" brought by competition can be realized through the rules of fair game with equal opportunities.
In just over 200 years, economics has established its own logical system of language and writing according to scientific norms. A set of initial concepts, a set of axioms, precise definitions and strict logic, so that people without professional training can rarely understand economic papers, especially those without a certain mathematical foundation, let alone expect to understand papers in authoritative economic academic journals. Economics has become the "Chun Xue" of human society, and it is difficult to popularize it to ordinary people.
At the turn of the century, economic reform has become a global popular trend of thought. With the transformation of the original planned economy country to the market economy system, this trend of thought has increasingly become a universal social action. Learning, researching, imparting and applying economics has become an important aspect of this social action. Economists study economics seriously, practice economics boldly, spare no effort to spread economics, and provide a large number of economic management talents for economic construction. They have become or are becoming the main body of the cross-century market economy. Nearly 100 colleges and universities in China offer economic management majors, which provide a large number of talents for the construction of market economy. The painstaking research and in-depth discussion of economic theory by various research institutions at all levels has greatly enriched the treasure house of economic theory, pointed out the direction and provided theoretical basis for China's economic construction.
However, bookstores, large and small, wandering in the streets and whose shelves are full of books, readers and series named after the economy, are in danger of flooding. However, even the author himself is not sure about all these publications. In the busy schedule, people choose several books to read to improve their quality of life. After reading it, they are often disappointed. Explaining simple facts with abstract theory often means that the author adds weight to the evaluation of professional titles. Such books and articles are usually written for scholars and students on campus, not for the general public. Even if you have read it patiently, it will not help your actual work and life. You will get almost nothing except spending time. The development of economics needs academic research, but it also needs enlightenment education and application to the public. Throughout the world, people's economic literacy has become an important symbol to measure a country's economic vitality. It is the call of the times and the urgent need of social development to uncover the mystery of economics and let economics go out of economists' research.
Professor Chen Daisun, a famous economist in China, once said, "Economics is a practical knowledge to help people". But how to spread economics widely and make chorus become a popular note? This is a problem that I often think of when I am engaged in economics teaching and research. After I was awarded the title of professor, this problem bothered me more and affected me. Especially after the course of Western Economics, which I presided over, was rated as a first-class excellent course in Jiangsu Province, I had the impulse to write an inspiring book on popular economics. As an economic theorist, he has no time to revel in the gilded certificate and breathe more leisurely air, so he is ready to devote himself to the intense "amateur" creative work.
Under this background, I started the planning and design of this project, trying to popularize the basic knowledge of modern economic thoughts, theories and methods to readers with examples around me and in popular language. From the perspective of economics, we should observe and think about the little things in life in the way of economic thinking, instead of instilling them systematically like textbooks. In order to enable my graduate students to apply what they have come into contact with and learned to practice, instead of being shelved and enjoying themselves and becoming the spiritual aristocrat of economics, I arranged for them to discuss the writing content and write the first draft after making a detailed work plan and writing outline. On the basis of the first draft, I revised, unified and finalized it and named it Economics in Life. This book is edited by Xu Changxin and Song Min, Lin Hao, Xu Xing, Wang Jia, Zhuang Huijuan,,, Jin, Zhang Zibin and Zhang Mengshuo. Their specific work is clearly signed by the author at the back of the relevant chapters.
My good friend Zhang Jun called and invited me to publish this book in China Knowledge Economy Publishing House. Considering that popularizing economic knowledge is also an important aspect of knowledge economy, I readily agree.
When the book was finalized, the calendar had quietly pointed to the New Year's Day of 1999, and I felt a sense of relief. From writing to publishing, this book has been assisted and supported in many ways, and the gratitude is beyond words. Because it is the first time for me to set foot in the writing of economics enlightenment books, there must be many defects in the books, but we hope to give readers more aftertaste and less regret. When readers settle down to read this book in their busy schedules, they will look back and reflect, hoping to be suddenly enlightened.
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