The word Economics has been derived from the two Greek words ‘Oikos’ (a house) and ‘Nemein’ (to manage). Thus the economics means ‘Household management’. Earlier, it used to be called as ‘Political Economy’.
Meaning of Economics:-
Economics is not very old but there is no seprate defination of economics, earlier there were various definations of economics. The economics is divided into four parts:-
- Wealth defination by Adam Smith.
- Welfare defination by Alfred Marshall.
- Scarcity defination by Lionel Robbins.
- Growth Oriented defination by Samuelson.
Wealth Defination:-
According to Adam Smith ‘Economics is the science of wealth’. In the ordinary language, wealth means money, but in Economics, the term Wealth has a special meaning. In Economics, wealth refers to those goods which satisfy human wants. Adam smith was one of the view that economics is concerned with the probloems arising from wealth-getting and wealth-using activites of people.He was interested mainly in studying the ways by which the wealth of all nations could be increased.
Welfare Defination:-
According to Alfred Marshall, ‘Economics is a study of man in the ordinary business of life. It enenquires how he gets his income and how he uses it’. According to Marshall, the primary object and end of economics is the promotion of material welfare, which is part of human welfare. Due to this reason, he shifted the emphasis from wealth to welfare.
Scarcity Defination:-
According to Prof. Lionel Robbins, ‘Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses’. Scarcity Definition is based on following fundamentals charactersitics of human existence, which gives rise to economic problem:-
- Unlimited Wants.
- Scarcity of Resources.
- Alternative Uses.
Growth Oriented Defination:-
According to Prof. Samuelson, ‘Economics is the study of how man and society choose, with or without the use of money, to employ scarce produtive resources, which could have alternative uses, to produce various commodities over time and distribute them for consumption now and in the future among various people and groups of society’.
So, from all this four defination we conclude a single defination of Economics and Generally used by many Economist-
‘Economics is the study of how people and society choose to employ scarce resources that could have alternative resources that could have alternative uses in order to produce variousn commodities that satisfy their wants and to distribute them for consumption among various persons and Groups in society’.
Thank you for reading this Article. Team Indian legends.
Indian legends 