Fisheries economics – case studies- Winter School on Towards Ecosystem Based Management of Marine Fisheries – Building Mass Balance Trophic and Simulation Models

Abstract

Economics is the study of how human beings in a society go about achieving their wants and desires. It is also defined as the study of allocation of scarce resources to satisfy individual wants or desires. The latter is perhaps the best way to broadly define the study of economics in general. Economists analyse questions and issues on the basis of trade off i.e. they compare the cost and the benefits of every issue and make decisions based on those costs and benefits. Broadly, economics may be divided into macroeconomics and microeconomics. Macroeconomics as the name suggests is the study of the overall economy and its aggregates such as Gross National Product, Inflation, Unemployment, Exports, Imports, Taxation policy etc. Microeconomics deals with individual actors in the economy such as firms and individuals. Further the market is perhaps the most important and complex institution playing a vital role in the decision making process of any economy.