Economics, 3rd Edition

17

THINKING LIKE AN 

ECONOMIST

INTRODUCTION

E

very field of study has its own language, its own processes, its methods of discovery and its own way 

of thinking. Economics is no different. As you embark on your study of economics, the understanding 

you bring to the discipline is going to be very different to that which your lecturer has. You will have to 

learn lots of new terms as is the case in any new subject area. You will also have to learn how economists 

go about their work and how new ideas in the subject are developed and refined over time. One of the 

challenges facing students of economics is that many terms used are also used in everyday language. 

In economics, however, these terms mean specific things. The challenge, therefore, is to set aside that 

everyday understanding and think of the term or concept as economists do.

Many of the concepts you will come across in this book are abstract. Abstract concepts are ones which 

are not concrete or real – they have no tangible qualities. We will talk about markets, efficiency, compar-

ative advantage and equilibrium, for example, but it is not easy to physically see these concepts. There 

are also some concepts that are fundamental to the subject – if you master these concepts they act as 

a portal which enables you to think like an economist. Once you have mastered these concepts you will 

never think in the same way again and you will never look at an issue in the same way.

These concepts are referred to as threshold concepts. You can read about this further in Meyer et al. 

(Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2005). ‘Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge 2: epistemological 

considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning’. Higher Education, 49: 373–388). As 

you work through your modules you will find that it is not always easy to think like an economist and that 

there will be times when you are confused, find some of the ideas and concepts being presented to you 

running contrary to common sense (i.e. they are counter intuitive). What you will be experiencing is what 

is called troublesome knowledge. Don’t worry about this – what you are experiencing is perfectly normal 

and a part of the learning journey. As you travel along this learning journey you will be provided with new 

information and as a result develop new and useful ways of thinking about the world in which you live.

This chapter discusses the field’s methodology. What is distinctive about how economists confront a 

question? What does it mean to think like an economist? What tools do economists use to explain the 

world we live in?