Dear Friend: 
Any principles text will give you a good definition--the contemporary  
meaning of economics, if I recall correctly, comes from Lionel Robbins'  
definition, but there are others--you can look up Alfred Marshall's book  
for earlier definitions.  Best wishes.  
 
 
Dr S M Ghazanfar 
College of Business and Economics 
University of Idaho 
Tel: (208) 885 7144 Fax: (208) 885 8939 
 
On Mon, 26 Jun 1995 [log in to unmask] wrote: 
 
> Oops.  Misprint. 
>      Economics is the study of the production AND DISTRIBUTION of 
> goods and services in a society and how that changes over time. 
>      -- Mary Schweitzer 
>