[a][citation needed] In continental Europe, the earlier work of the physiocrats in France formed a distinct tradition, as did the later work of the historical school of economics in Germany, and throughout the 19th century there were debates in British economics, notably the opposition underconsumptionist school.
[12] While most macroeconomists had predicted the burst of the housing bubble, according to The Economist "they did not expect the financial system to break.
However, much of modern economic mainstream modeling consists of exploring the effects that complicating factors have on models, such as imperfect and asymmetric information, bounded rationality, incomplete markets, imperfect competition, heterogeneous agents[16] and transaction costs.
Individuals and firms were generally defined as units with a common goal: maximisation through rational behaviour.
[19] Yet, mainstream economics now includes descriptive theories of market and government failure and private and public goods.
"[21] Economics has been initially shaped as a discipline concerned with a range of issues revolving around money and wealth.
In 1931, Lionel Robbins famously wrote "Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses".
Economists like Gary Becker began to study seemingly distant fields including crime,[23] the family,[24] law,[25] politics,[25] and religion.