People who study or are experts in economics, which is how money, resources, and trade work in societies.
From Greek 'oikonemikos' (household management), combining 'oikos' (house) and 'nemein' (to manage). Economics originally meant managing a household budget on a larger scale.
Economists study 'the economy' which literally means 'household management' in Greek—yet they try to predict and manage systems with billions of people, which is hilariously ambitious when you think about how hard it is to manage an actual household.
Economics professionalized in the 19th–20th centuries with men dominating academic positions and policy influence. Women's economic contributions (household management, informal markets, care work) were theoretically excluded from 'the economy' itself, rendering women economists invisible until recent decades.
Use 'economists' inclusively; when referencing history, acknowledge women economists' exclusion and parallel scholarship.
Women like Joan Robinson, Hedy Lamarr (inventor), and contemporary scholars have shaped economic thought while being sidelined; actively crediting them corrects the record.
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