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Economics is a subject that studies as to how to use the scarce resources in the best way to satisfy unlimited wants. The resources (factors of production) can be broadly classified into — land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship talent. Since all the resources are scarce, some price is paid to the owners of these factors of production for the usage of resources. The prices paid to the land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship talent are rent, wages, interest and profits.
The two broad branches of economics are microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics studies the behavior of micro aspects of the economy, while macroeconomics studies the behavior of the economy as a whole.
Opportunity cost refers to the best opportunity lost because of choosing an alternative. For example, the opportunity cost for a farmer in producing wheat is the value of rice that would have been produced by the farmer had the land been used for production of rice.