Rajasthan Board RBSE Class 11 Economics Notes Chapter 1 Meaning and Definitions of Economics
→ Man is a social animal and economics is a social science.
→ The study of the entire range of productive activities undertaken mankind is refered to as economics.
→ Economists like Samuelson call economics the queen of social science.
→ The entire structure of economics depends on two bases-
- Limited Resource
- Unlimited Wants.
→ Humans or the society uses scarce resources economically to produce goods and services and fulfills their need is through them.
→ Economics is a progressive study.
→ Economists have not been unanimous in their definition of economics due to the variation in the nature of economic avtivities and the continuous changes in them.
→ Mrs Barbara Wotten has rightly written “Where there are 6 economists, there will be 7 opinions”.
→ Economists like Professor Adam Smith, J.B. Say, Walker propounded wealth centred defini¬tions of economics.
→ Prof. Adam Smith, in his book published in 1776, titled “An Enquiry into the Nature of Wealth of Nations” defined
Economics as follows, “Economics is the science of wealth”.
→ All pro-establisment economists believed that the ultimate purpose of man’s economic activities is to earn wealth.
→ Due to excessive focus on wealth, many delusional ideas arose in respect to economics.
→ This ideology, was criticized due to its excessive emphasis on wealth.
→ In the begining of 19th century, few economists including Professor Marshal, Pigou, John Stuart Mill, etc. explained that the purpose of economics is not to analyze the nature and origin of wealth only.
→ Marshall put more emphasis on man’s economic welfare instead of wealth.
→ According to Economists Marshall, Pigou, etc., “Economics is the study of physical welfare.”
→ In 1932, Prof. Robbins wrote a book “An essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science” in which she mentioned that these definitions are narrow and misleading.
→ Professor Robbins gave a new perspective to economics.
→ Professor Robbins neither put more emphasis on money nor on the welfare of man, but she tried to establish the relationships between the unlimited wants and limited resources available to the individual.
→ In the definition of wants, four points are important-
- Human needs are infinite and unlimited.
- Resources (time and money) available to man are limited. In such a situation, humans must choose from among these needs.
- These resources can have alternative sources. Due to the limitations of these resources human being have to choose from the alternatives .
- There is difference in the intensity of different human.
→ Renowned Indian economist and Professor of Allahabad University J. K. Mehta was influenced by Indian philosophy and adopted an absolutely different approach as compared to western approach towards to economics and on this basis he gave the wantlessness concept of economics.
→ According to Prof. Mehta, “Economics is a science which studies human behaviours as a means to attain the state of wantlsseness”.
→ Today’s era is an the of development.
→ Along with the development of the subject of economics, its definition is also changing.
→ Modem economists such as Samuelson, Professor K.G. Seth, Prof. Hicks, etc. have presented the developmental and welfare perspective of economics.
Meaning and Definitions of Economics Class 11 RBSE Notes Important Terms
• Resources – The things that fulfil human needs.
• Economic Welfare – Economic welfare is that in which human welfare can be directly or indirectly related to the criterion of currency.
• Economics- Economics is a social science that studies the efforts made to ensure satis needs of faction of the social, and real, ordinary human beings.
• Scarcity- It implies the limited of resources available to humans to fulfil their necessities.
• Positive Science – It is the science that studies one this in the very state that it is in.