Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek  (, "management of a household, administration") from (, "house") + (, "custom" or "law"), hence "rules of the house(hold)". Political economy was the earlier name for the subject, but economists in the latter 19th century suggested 'economics' as a shorter term for 'economic science' that also avoided a narrow political-interest connotation and as similar in form to 'mathematics', 'ethics', and so forth.