microeconomicsn.
/ˌmʌɪkrəʊˌiːkəˈnɒmɪks/, /ˌmʌɪkrəʊˌɛkəˈnɒmɪks/, U.S. /ˈˌmaɪkroʊˌɛkəˈnɑmɪks/, /ˈˌmaɪkroʊˌikəˈnɑmɪks/ Economics.
That branch of economics that deals with small-scale economic factors; the economics of the individual firm, product, consumer, etc., rather than the aggregate of such individuals. Cf. macroeconomics n.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > management of money > management of national resources > [noun] > political economy > branches or models of
statics1848
classical economics1885
bioeconomics1913
welfare economics1920
econometry1926
econometrics1931
microeconomics1943
macroeconomics1945
development economics1959
microsimulation1966
public choice1968
1943 Econometrica 11 59 To what extent does the characteristically Keynesian case hold when the critic makes a first step back toward microeconomics by segregating earning assets into broad subclasses?
1948 K. E. Boulding Econ. Anal. (rev. ed.) xiii. 259 There are two main branches of modern economic analysis, to which the names ‘microeconomics’ and ‘macroeconomics’ may conveniently be given. Microeconomics is the study of particular firms, particular households, individual prices, wages, incomes; individual industries, particular commodities.
1960 A. Cairncross Introd. Econ. (ed. 3) ii. 23 When he is talking about the decisions made in an individual business the economist is in the realm of micro-economics.
1974 Sci. Amer. Jan. 27/2 A social decision, one not based entirely on microeconomics must be made on the value of the land to the society as a whole.
1987 Amer. Econ. Rev. 77 340/2 The CGE framework provides a simple laboratory for evaluating a number of aspects of the practices of applied microeconomics.
1996 Ecol. Applic. 6 979/1 Textbooks at the time barely mentioned the environment and concentrated instead on the microeconomics of supply, demand, and price formation.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1943