What Is A Wicked Problem

Economics is often called the "science of decision making." The decisions that economists analyze range from personal decisions such as how big a pizza to order or whether to buy or lease a new car to the decisions the federal government makes about things like the size of our military. Economists use information about these, and other decisions, to develop indicators that can be used to determine the health of our economy. Just as a physician relies on indicators such as temperature, blood pressure and heart rate to determine the health of a patient, economists use indicators like gross domestic product growth, the unemployment rate and the rate of inflation to predict our

15. According to Oliver and Sapiro (1995) the “wealth gap” between blacks and whites is

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s in their book: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, portray how economics is an important tool in studying society. What remains common to all the stories is the message that every situation can be dealt with easily if one has the ability to view things in a new way. Random topics related to economics are dealt with in it’s various chapters. Some of them include how cheating is a common factor between sumo wrestlers and teachers, information asymmetry and why drug dealers live their moms. All these topics deal with a common aspect i.e., how economics represents morality. The first three chapters of the book indicate the same.

A wicked problem that deeply dissatisfies me is the act of animal abuse and neglect. The main challenge with this problem is the morality of the action. Animals trust humans to care for them because we domesticated them and they can no longer survive on their own. Abusing or neglecting these animals because of lack of funds or lack of caring betrays that trust causing animals to become violent towards humans creating a threatening environment. Also, a number of suffering animals looks bad on our society from an outside point of view. This would create problems with people wanting to move into a community with a large abuse issue. To better understand this problem, the academic disciplines of behavioral sociology, nutrition, and veterinary

There clearly is a problem right now in American schools. The gap in educational outcomes between students of different races and ethnicities is fairly substantial. Although there could be numerous explanations of why this inconsistency exists, I have chosen to focus on one issue stemming from an economic obstacle.

What is economic? Economic is a study of how people make choices among the alternatives. Since the resources that are available to world are very scarce, it is important to study economic in order to make the best choice that can maximize the total profits. Real life cases are the best examples for studying economic concepts. In this paper, there are three real life cases that illustrate economic concepts base on the Case in Point boxes from the Course Reader. The first case will define the economic concepts: choice, scarcity, and cost. The second case will describe how the stock market puts supply and demand to work. The last case will present the effects can be caused by private and external costs.

One could assert that the economic gap between the races and regions could be caused by underfunded inner city schools primarily found in the north

The economics of how we make our micro-level decisions is a fascinating study. Normally we think of GDP and other macroeconomic subjects as economics, so it is interesting to see the link between microeconomics, macro and the real world decisions we always make. This unique element of economic study takes the familiar economic concept of opportunity cost and shows us how we use it all the time.

Observing the world around me it is clear to see the vital role economics plays in every aspect of life. A glimpse of a newspaper headline will tell you the influences that economics has on the country. This has taken me to the idea of pursuing economics in university to widen my knowledge on such an intricate subject.

When people talk about the general status of society, they usually throw into the conversation a frequently misunderstood word: economy. Ironically, its definition is not what confuses people; the problem for them is understanding economics itself. Understanding economics, the study of how the economy works, is much less complicated than most people would think. As Henry Hazlitt aptly states: “The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.”

Whether we realize it or not, economics is a prevalent factor in our lives every day, but there are few of us who understand or even consider the factors that determine our own decisions and the decisions of those around us. In The Undercover Economist, author Tim Harford explains basic economic concepts through in-depth real world examples, helping the reader to really grasp an understanding of the economic principles we are faced with daily. Throughout the ten chapters of this book, Harford discusses and demonstrates the underlying economic influences that are present in our everyday lives ranging from the purchase of your morning coffee to China’s current economy and everything else in-between. The words featured on the cover of the book,

If 10 people with 10 different occupations are asked to define economics, one would receive 10 different answers because the concept of economics confuses people. “Economics is the study of the choices consumers, business managers, and government officials make to attain their goals, given their scarce resources,” (Hubbard & O’Brien, 2010, p. 4). Oftentimes, people do not realize how many economic decisions they regularly make. People make daily economic decisions by comparing marginal benefits and marginal costs in conjunction with their current economic market system.

Mankiw explains that economics is the study of how society manages its scarce resources. And, how the combined choices of millions of households and firms determine how those resources are allocated. To understand these complex concepts, economists must study how people make decisions, how people interact with other people, and the forces and trends that affect the entire economy (p. 16). To do so, economists assume many roles.

Quoting Michael Yates, “The subject matter of economics is the production and distribution of output…” (Yates, 2003). So what does this say to me? Simplifying, this says to me that Economics is a way of explaining the world. With studies dating as far back as Aristotle’s interest in the various forms of state, how can one ever fully understand the complexities of economic thought and how could one definition ever sum up the entirety of what economists endeavour to understand? (Meikle, Scott, 1995) The study of economics attempts to understand and to explain how and why the wealth of the world is produced,

To begin with, I shall start with the definition of economics. There is no exact definition of economics as it varies from the opinions among economist. However, many have chosen to agree with Alfred Marshall, a leading 19th century English economist, that economics is “a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life; it examines that part of individual and social action