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Decades of controversy about the nature and appropriate boundaries of his discipline led the economist Jacob Viner to observe that "economics is what economists do." Somewhat more precisely, economists engage in systematic inquiry into the effects of those human activities which are grouped under three broad headings: production, exchange, and consumption. The nature and magnitude of these activities and their implications for individual and social welfare constitute the focus of economics and the policy prescriptions …

…would compromise any Keynesian resort to a public-works solution. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** Canterbury, E. Ray, The Making of Economics, 3d ed. (1987); Fusfeld, Daniel R., Economics, 3d ed. (1987); Galbraith, J. K., Economics in Perspective: A Critical History (1987); Heilbroner, Robert, Behind the Veil of Economics (1988); Rima, Ingrid H., Development of Economic Analysis, 3d ed. (1978); Samuelson, Paul, Economics, 11th ed. (1980); Samuelson, Paul, and Nordhaus, W. D., Economics, 13th ed. (1989); Schumpeter, Joseph A., Ten Great Economists (1965); Silk, Leonard, The Economists (1976).