Economics: Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek “oikonomia”, where ‘oikos’ means “house" and ` nomos’ means “custom" or "law". In this sense “oikonomia” means "management of a household, or "rules of the house".
There are
a variety of modern definitions of economics. Some of the differences may
reflect evolving views of the subject or different views among economists.
Alfred
Marshall provides a still widely-cited definition in his textbook Principles of
Economics (1890) that extends analysis beyond wealth and from the societal to
the macroeconomic level: Economics is a study of man in the ordinary business
of life. It enquires how he gets his income and how he uses it. Thus, it is on
the one side, the study of wealth and on the other and more important side, a
part of the study of man.
Lionel
Robbins (1932) developed implications of what has been termed "perhaps the
most commonly accepted current definition of the subject". Economics is a
science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce
means which have alternative uses.
Lastly we
can say that, the theories, principles, and models that deal with how the
market process works. It attempts to explain how wealth is created and
distributed in communities, how people allocate resources that are scarce and
have many alternative uses, and other such matters that arise in dealing with
human wants and their satisfaction.