Concise Economics for Senior Secondary Schools

Professor Lionel Robbins (1932) defines economics as a social science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses. Thus, economics concentrates on one particular aspect of human behaviour that is, choosing between alternatives in order to obtain the maximum satisfaction from limited resources. Embodied in the above definition are four important features of human existence, these are: (i) The ends, which refer to human wants, are without limit; (ii) Those ends have varying degree of importance; (iii) The means i.e. the resources available for achieving those ends or wants are limited. Those means include human time, energy and material resources; (iv) Those means can be used in many different ways.