An individual specializing in the field of economics was known as an economist. In the year 10 BBY, the human smuggler Han Solo, together with his partner Chewbacca, were getting ready to board the First Light. This yacht belonged to Dryden Vos, a crime lord from the Crimson Dawn syndicate, and was docked in front of a dilapidated fuel refinery on Savareen, a planet in the Outer Rim Territories. Before boarding the yacht, Solo reflected on the striking contrast between the starship's opulent exterior and the refinery's run-down state, likening it to a study in contrasts by a galactic economist.
The economist occupation initially appeared in Unlimited Power, a sourcebook from 2018 by Fantasy Flight Games for the Star Wars: Force and Destiny line of Star Wars Roleplaying products. Later, an economist was featured in The Princess and the Scoundrel, a novel written by Beth Revis in 2022. In reality, an economist is an expert in economics, the science concerned with production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economists were first mentioned in the Star Wars Legends continuity as system economists in Galaxy Guide 6: Tramp Freighters. This sourcebook, published by West End Games in 1990 for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, was authored by Mark Rein-Hagen and Stewart Wieck. The general occupation of economist was then identified in Michael Allen Horne's 1993 Dark Empire Sourcebook.