Game theory is a mathematical attempt to analyze the interactions of strategic, rational agents. Though it has many applications, one of the broadest is in economics. Voting, cartels, auctions, social networking and bankruptcy can all be analyzed using game theory. Economic game theory asks questions about the players--such as who they are, when they play, what strategies they can use and what they stand to gain--to predict their decisions. Game theory can be subdivided into studies of cooperative and non-cooperative games; decision theory, which investigates games involving a single individual; general equilibrium theory, which deals with trade and production; and mechanism design theory, which studies what happens when you adjust the rules of a game.
Sometimes an economist may focus on the market of a specific country, region, or city. Emerging markets generally offer interesting areas of research because they tend to display economic effects rapidly, rather than over long periods of time, and they provide insight into economic formation. Country comparison can demonstrate the advantages or disadvantages of certain resources, location, regulations or other factors. Economists might also focus on a specific good, known as a niche market. These markets may depend on a specific demographic subset, or they may make use of tailored marketing strategies, especially through the Internet.
According to the International Encyclopedia of Economic Sociology, economic anthropology is "the study of economic institutions and behavior using ethnographic methods, [which] entails an in-depth, holistic and longitudinal study of one society." Economic anthropology endeavors to study a society's economic pursuits in an empirical way. There are three primary operating theories in economic anthropology: formalism, which most closely follows neoclassical economics, culturalism, which holds that Western economic theories should not be so universally applied, and substantivism, which offers a compromise between the two.
Economics can also investigate how the market treats various minorities, such as women, African Americans or the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community. Some specific projects might include the economics of slavery, the economics of racial stereotyping or the economics of the changing status of women. Economists might also compare the economics of a region or city that openly accepts its LGBT community or allows women to participate in the workforce to a region or city that does not.