The term “economy” was first coined in ancient times. It was first introduced by Xenophonte (430-354 B.C.), a writer and historian of Athenian origin from Ancient Greece. This was the name given to the work he wrote on economic activity. Thus, the word has Greek roots and in translation means “the ability to manage a household”.

Active use of the term came in the 19th century – it was begun by British economists William Stanley Jevons and Alfred Marshall. Nowadays the word is used in two meanings, meaning, first, science, and second, the activity of society and of the individual.

The Science of Economics
Adam Smith singled out economics as a science in XVIII century, having written in 1776 the work “Wealth of Nations” (1776). The science of economics is divided into:

Macroeconomics, which studies economic activity on a national, national, and world scale;
microeconomics, which studies the activities of an individual entity.

Also economics studies the use of different resources, serving to meet different needs, is engaged in the analysis of the relations arising in the process of economic activity.

In a generalized sense of the word economics is interpreted as any social science, which studies the production of services and goods, their distribution and further consumption.

Economic sciences
All economic sciences are divided into branch, functional and information-analytical sciences.

The first group studies the branches of agriculture, construction, industry, etc. The circle of study of functional economic sciences is credit, finance, marketing. The last group studies statistics, analysis and audit, accounting.

In addition, economics is often related to other sciences. Thus, it is customary to distinguish economic geography, political economics, economic history, etc.

Functions of economics as a science
Any science is endowed with a list of functions designed to help or be responsible for something. Economics is endowed with a wide range of functions.

Among them:

Practical, designed to help economic activity, to develop it, to find ways of solving the issues at hand;
prognostic, helping to predict how economic processes will develop and, in accordance with the predictions, engage in the rational use of resources;
social, contributing to the welfare of society;
cognitive – it boils down to comprehension and analysis of the processes of economic activity;
worldview – it helps to form an opinion on the role of economic economy in the activity of a separate country or a friendly union, contributes to the search and finding of people’s place in the cycle of social productions
ideological – it forms a unified ideology in the society, associated with the expression of significant, immutable interests;
methodological – acting as a basis for the study of the science of economics itself, discovering the laws by which economic activity develops;
critical – considers different points of view, deals with the search for truth, proves the rightness or wrongness of judgments.

Methods used by the science of economics
The science of economics is guided by and uses various methods.

The method of scientific abstraction, which involves the appearance of generalized judgments and concepts.
The method of deduction and induction, facilitating the transition from the study of general economic phenomena to particular cases and vice versa.
Analysis and synthesis. Analysis divides the economic process into components and studies each part separately to then obtain generalized knowledge.
Analysis of social practice. Scientific tests are conducted with artificial recreation of the process in order to then study it and draw conclusions.
Unity of analysis (quantitative and qualitative) of occurring phenomena, etc.