Question

the link between economic wants and preferences.

Answer 1

moved to Finance

Answer 2

So, economics is basically about how people distribute things.
You can think of a "want" as a thing that people try to get, like a resource or a commodity.
A "preference", on the other hand is a comparison between different things, as in, you value one thing more than another.
So, the relationship is kind of that "wants" describe what people, well, want, and "preferences" describe how much they want the thing, compared to different things.