Economics
the industrial economy concerns those activities combining factors of production (facilities, supplies, work, knowledge) to produce material goods intended for the market.
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History & Future
Future
We project the world economy to grow at an average of just over 3% per annum in 2014 – 50, doubling in size by 2037 and nearly tripling by 2050. But we expect a slowdown in global growth after 2020, as the rate of expansion in China and some other major emerging economies moderates to a more sustainable long-term rate and working-age population growth slows in many large economies. The global economic power shift away from the established advanced economies in North America, Western Europe, and Japan will continue over the next 35 years. China already overtook the US in 2014 to become the largest economy in purchasing power parity (PPP2) terms. In market exchange rate (MER) terms, China is projected to overtake the US in 2028 despite its projected growth slowdown. India has the potential to become the second-largest economy in the world by 2050 in PPP terms (third in MER terms), although this requires a sustained program of structural reforms.
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The effective birth of economics as a separate discipline may be traced to the year 1776, when the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. In the 19th century economics was the hobby of gentlemen of leisure and the vocation of a few academics; economists wrote about economic policy but were rarely consulted by legislators before decisions were made. Today there is hardly a government, international agency, or large commercial bank that does not have its own staff of economists.
