ROBBINS' DEFINITION:

ECONOMICS IS A SCIENCE OF SCARCITY
• Robbins not only criticised Marshall's definition and other welfare definitions of economics but also provided a new definition which if considered to be more scientific and correct. If has given this definition in his famous book, "An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science," which he brought out in 1931. (According to Robbins, economics studies the problems which have arisen because of the scarcity of resources. Nature has not provided mankind sufficient resources to satisfy all its wants. Therefore, the people have to choose for which ends or for which wants the resources are to be utilised. Thus, according to Robbins, economics is the science of scarcity and it studied how the scarce resources are allocated among their different uses.) Thus he has given the following definition: "Economics is the science which studied human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." This definition is based upon the following three facts:
• Unlimited wants: The first fact on which Robbins' definition is based is that man's wants are unlimited. In his definition 'ends' implies wants and for statisew wants the man uses resources. That man's wants are unlimited is a very important and fundamental fact of economic life of the people. If man's wants were limited, then no economic problem would have arisen.
• Scarce means: The second element which gives rise to economic problem is that resources are scarce in relation to wants. If the resources like wants were unlimited, no economic problem would have arisen because in that case all wants could have been satisfied and there would have been no problem of choosing between the wants and allocating the resources between them. Because the resources are scarce, all wants cannot be satisfied. Therefore, human beings have to decide for the satisfaction of which wants the resources should be used and which wants should be left unfulfilled.
• Alternative use of means: The third fact on which Robbins' definition is based is that resources or means have various alternative uses. In other words, the resources can be put to various uses. For instance, coal can be used as a fuel for the production of industrial goods, it can be used for running trains, it can be used for domestic cooking purposes and for so many other purpose.
• We thus see that Robbin's definition stands on the above-mentioned three facts, namely, unlimited wants, scarce resources and alternative uses of the resources. According to him, economics studies human behaviour regarding how the satisfies his wants with the scarce resources. According to him, economics is a human science and not a mere social science.