What Are the Main Branches of Economics?

Economics is the study of how modern economies work. There are two main branches of economics, macro- and microeconomics, but there are other divisions. Within these branches, the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services are analyzed in order to understand how economies and people within those economies interact and function.

Microeconomics
Microeconomics focuses on the economic behaviors of individuals in many aspects, including decision making, production distribution, and market results. Microeconomics, as the name suggests, deals with small units or individuals or smaller companies. It deals with concepts such as markets, which can be for products or services; production, which exchanges commodities for consumption in return for money or other services; cost; specialization, which refers to divisions of labor; and supply and demand.
Macroeconomics
Macroeconomics studies economic systems on a larger scale, including national income, consumption, investment, large-scale behavioral patterns in regards to economic growth, employment, inflation, and national and international trading. It is concerned with an overall economy and an economy's Gross National Product, or GNP. Factors such as stability, means of production, technology all come into play when analyzing economies in accordance with macroeconomics.

Positive Economics
Positive economics is a branch which focuses on objective analysis. This takes the past economic picture into account when envisioning and making decisions for the future. This is opposed to normative economics, which relies on value judgments rather than empirical evidence. With empirical evidence, positive economics can evaluate how economies have reacted to certain variables in the past and then apply these reactions to how future economies will react under similar situations.
Applied Economics
This is the branch of economics which employs economic theory into business practice. This occurs in a range of fields and turns abstract ideas into concrete practices. Applying theory to practice helps show the true status of a company's economy whereas pure theoretical thought does not show the true picture of a current or emerging economic position.