Q.Distinguish between Microeconomics and Macroeconomics.

Micro : Slicing method :: Macro : Lumping method.

Prof. Ragnar Frisch popularised the twin terms. Microeconomics examines the behaviour of small, individual economic units — a single consumer, firm, household or commodity — by cutting the economy into slices, which is why it is called the slicing method (a piecemeal or partial view).

Macroeconomics instead lumps together all the individual units and studies the economy in its totality — aggregate demand, national income, general price level, total employment. Because it clubs the parts into one whole, it is called the lumping method (an aggregative or general view).

Microeconomics uses the slicing method — it slices off a single unit (a consumer, a firm, an industry, one price) from the whole economy and studies it in detail. The aggregative (lumping) method is used by macroeconomics. Correct option: Only c.

Why: The term was popularised by Prof. Boulding. Microeconomics looks at the economy the way you would examine one slice of a cake rather than the whole cake — it isolates a small individual part (a household's demand, a firm's output, the price of one commodity) while treating the rest as background. This is exactly opposite to the lumping / aggregative method of macroeconomics, which adds up individual units into totals such as national income, aggregate demand and the general price level.

• Slicing method → microeconomics (study of individual/particular units).
• Lumping / aggregative method → macroeconomics (study of the economy as a whole).

Since the question asks about micro analysis, only the slicing method (c) qualifies.

Completing the correlation: Partial equilibrium : Microeconomics :: General equilibrium : Macroeconomics. Answer: Partial equilibrium.

Why: Equilibrium analysis is of two kinds:

• Partial equilibrium — studies the equilibrium of a single individual unit (one consumer, one firm, one market) assuming everything else in the economy remains unchanged. This piecemeal approach belongs to microeconomics.
• General equilibrium — studies the simultaneous equilibrium of all markets and units of the economy together, recognising their interdependence. This belongs to macroeconomics.

Hence the term matching microeconomics is partial equilibrium.

The correct alternative is partial.

Microeconomics is a partial equilibrium approach. It uses the slicing method — the economy is sliced into small parts (an individual consumer, a firm, a single commodity market) and each part is studied separately assuming "other things remaining constant" (ceteris paribus). The general equilibrium approach, which studies all markets together, belongs to macroeconomics. This is a common CBSE/NCERT-aligned HSC 12 economics questions topic.