TEN DEFINITIONS OF ECONOMICS

1. According to Harper (2001), Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek οἰκονομία (oikonomia, "management of a household, administration") from οἶκος (oikos, "house") + νόμος (nomos, "custom" or "law"), hence "rules of the house(hold)".Current economic models emerged from the broader field of political economy in the late 19th century. A primary stimulus for the development of modern economics was the desire to use an empirical approach more akin to the physical sciences. (Clark, 1998).

2. Economics aims to explain how economies work and how economic agents interact. Economic analysis is applied throughout society, in business, finance and government, but also in crime, education, the family, health, law, politics, religion, social institutions, war, and science. The expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism. (Iannaccone, L. R. 1998).

3. According to Allen (1977), economics is a Social science that analyzes and describes the consequences of choices made concerning scarce productive resources. Economics is the study of how individuals and societies choose to employ those resources: what goods and services will be produced, how they will be produced, and how they will be distributed among the members of society. Economics is customarily divided into microeconomics and macroeconomics. Of major concern to macroeconomists are the rate of economic growth, the inflation rate, and the rate of unemployment. Specialized areas of economic investigation attempt to answer questions on a variety of economic activity; they include agricultural economics, economic development, economic history, environmental economics, industrial organization, international trade, labour economics, money supply and banking, public finance, urban economics, and welfare economics. Specialists in mathematical economics and econometrics provide tools used by all economists. The areas of investigation in economics overlap with many other disciplines, notably history, mathematics, political science, and sociology.

4. Rutherford, (1996) opined that economics is a Study of the economy. Classic economics concentrates on how the forces of supply and demand allocate scarce product and service resources. Macroeconomics studies a nation or the world's economy as a whole, using data about inflation, unemployment and industrial production to understand the past and predict the future. Microeconomics studies the behavior of specific sectors of the economy, such as companies, industries, or households. Over the years, various schools of economic thought have gained prominence, including Keynesian Economics, Monetarism and Supply-Side Economics.

5. The study of the relation of available scarce means to supply for a proposed end; economists assume that people have wants and needs, and then study how societies are organized to supply them, trying to establish whether one method is better than another. Micro-economics explains how demand and supply affect prices, wages, rentals, and interest rates. Macro-economics focuses on the aggregate (large-scale) demand for goods and services, and especially on the relationship between unemployment and the economy. Marxist economics sees the economy as a reflection of the history and sociology of a society. In particular, it focuses on the historical evolution of, and the conflict between, classes.

6. economics, study of how human beings allocate scarce resources to produce various commodities and how those commodities are distributed for consumption among the people in society (see distribution). The essence of economics lies in the fact that resources are scarce, or at least limited, and that not all human needs and desires can be met. How to distribute these resources in the most efficient and equitable way is a principal concern of economists. The field of economics has undergone a remarkable expansion in the 20th cent. as the world economy has grown increasingly large and complex. Today, economists are employed in large numbers in private industry, government, and higher education (see economic planning). Many subjects, such as political science and sociology, which were once regarded as part of the study of economics, have today become separate disciplines, although the study of any one generally implies a working knowledge of the other

7. "Economics is the study of people in the ordinary business of life." (Marshal, 1890)

8. "Economics is the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between given ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." (Robbins, 1932)
9. Economics is the "study of how societies use scarce resources to produce valuable commodities and distribute them among different people." (Paul A. Samuelson 1948)

10. economics includes the study of labor, land, and investments, of money, income, and production, and of taxes and government expenditures. Economists seek to measure well-being, to learn how well-being may increase overtime, and to evaluate the well-being of the rich and the poor. The most famous book in economics is the Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations written by Adam Smith, and published in 1776 in Scotland.

11. Mark Blaug (2007) defines economics is the branch of social science that deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management.
Economics therefore is the social science that examines how people choose to use limited or scarce resources in attempting to satisfy their unlimited wants. It also studies how the forces of supply and demand allocate scarce resources