Defining "Economics" 
 
 
Marshall's definition:  "Political Economy or Economics is a study of mankind 
in the ordinary business of life; it examines that part of individual and 
social action which is most closely connected with the attainment and with the 
use of the material requisites of wellbeing" (page 1 of 1898 edition) 
 
Robbins' definition:  "Economics is the science which studies human behaviour 
as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses."  
(page 16 of 1962 edition) 
 
Marshall's definition is useful since it does not limit economics to a narrow, 
formal scope, but encourages economists to study broadly and widely all the 
social aspects of conducting "the ordinary business of life."  Robbins' 
definition, on the other hand, is more of a methodological approach rather than 
a statement of the subject matter of economics. 
 
"Economics" should be defined in a way that includes the human interactions 
that occur as people provide themselves and society with material goods and 
services.  The definition must capture the notion of provision as the 
central economic phenomenon:  provision of products and provision of personal 
participation in the economic process -- as decision makers, producers, users, 
etc.  Economics is about the roles that people and groups of people perform 
when they go about their ordinary business of life of making, using, and 
disposing of mateial wealth.  Economics is about the relationships among people 
and groups in their procurement of material wealth.  Economics is about the 
problems of human material existence, the problems of producing material 
wealth, of providing products for consumption, and of providing participation 
for people; the problems of somehow sharing that material wealth in some 
community-sustaining way; and the problems of relating to the amenities of 
nature in some environment-sustaining way. 
 
In the end, each economist must craft his or her own definition.  But a useful 
definition has been attributed to George Bernard Shaw:  "Economics is the art 
of getting the most out of life." 
 
 
       Andrew Larkin