Although the two disciplines share similarities, commerce and economics have important differences. Although economics, like commerce, looks at issues of trade in an open market system in which consumers interact with producers, economics explores broader issues. Commerce largely confines its scope to the world of business, while economics explores not only business, but also issues of public policy and even daily life. Issues ranging from environmental conservation to the division of labor in a family have economic dimensions and have been studied by economists.
In a conceptual sense, commerce, or the exchange of goods between producers and consumers, is a central element of a capitalist economy. Economics, meanwhile, examines not only trade and exchange, but also production and consumption, as well as how societies allocate resources, which are finite, to satisfy needs and wants.
Commerce, as used in a higher education context, often serves as another way of referring to a school of business administration or a program of business studies. Some colleges and universities, such as Washington and Lee University in Virginia, refer to their business and economics departments as economics and commerce. Other schools, such as the University of Melbourne in Australia and the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia, offer degrees in commerce.
A degree program in commerce, such as the bachelor of commerce degree offered at Melbourne, includes studies in business economics, quantitative analytical methods, and organizational theory. These studies prepare students for business careers or for further study in economics or business.
As a field, economics has a broad number of sub-fields or specialties in which students majoring in the field can concentrate their studies. Specialties within economics include business economics (similar in subject matter to studies in business or commerce), international economics, public economics, macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic history, health economics and public finance.