Define Socio-Economics
Socio-economics is a multidisciplinary approach to studying economic phenomena and the social implications and effects that result from those phenomena. Economists and sociologists have studied a range of social issues through an economic lens. One U.S. economist won a Nobel Prize for his work in the area of socio-economics.
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Identification
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Socio-economics is the study of the relationship between society and economic phenomena. The discipline draws on theories and research methods from sociology, economics and other social sciences. Socio-economics also is sometimes referred to as social economics or economic sociology.
Features
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Socio-economics recognizes that many topics once thought to be the province of sociology have an economic dimension and are thus appropriate for study by economists or in an economic context. These topics include education, health, child care, family life and worker training.
Many socio-economic studies examine the social effect of economic events, such as recessions, factory closings or international trade agreements. The social consequences of such explicitly economic events can be limited to a single community or can be regional, national or even international in scope. For example, a socio-economist might examine the social effects of the closing of manufacturing plants in an industrial region, such as the U.S. Midwest. Such an event not only affects the area in which the factories were located, but has broader economic and social consequences.
Theories/Speculation
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Socio-economic scholars view traditionally sociological topics such as child care and education as issues of human capital. Just as businesses invest in capital equipment with an eye toward reaping greater rewards, such as higher profits, human capital investment, such as education, is intended to bring greater rewards in the future.
History
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Early writings in the institutional school of economic thought form some of the roots of socio-economics. Institutional economists such as Thorstein Veblen brought sociological and psychological dimensions to the study of economics. Veblen, for example, saw consumer spending by the wealthy as an outward expression of social status.
Nobel Prize
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In 1992, University of Chicago economist Gary Becker won the Nobel Prize in economics, in part because of his work in socio-economics. Becker is respected for expanding economic analysis into traditionally sociological topics. Becker has applied socio-economic study to such areas as crime, household labor and family life, fertility and discrimination.
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