GROWTH DEFINITION

Paul Anthony Samuelson is called as “Father of Modern Economics”. He pioneered the inclusion of mathematics with the theories of economics. Before him, economics was taught based on verbal explanations and vague derivations. He introduced the language of mathematics to validate its theories and principles which justified economics as a science accommodating both logic and rationality.

He was an American economist and the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The Swedish Royal Academies stated, when awarding the prize in 1970, that he "has done more than any other contemporary economist to raise the level of scientific analysis in economic theory".

He defines Economics as, “Economics is the study of how men and society choose, with or without the use of money, to employ scarce productive resources which could have alternative uses, to produce various commodities over time and distribute them for consumption now and in the future amongst various people and groups of society. It analyses costs and benefits of improving patterns of resource allocation”.

The main highlights of the growth definition are:

•         The main focus in this definition is on Choices under Scarcity and Growth

•         This definition is a combination of the Wealth, Welfare and Scarcity definitions

•         The resources are not only scarce but there is a need for Efficient Allocation of those scarce resources

•         There is an introduction to the element of Time

•         As these resources have alternative uses there exists a problem of Choice

Thus this definition does not restrict itself to material well-being or money but also takes into consideration future growth over time.

The other growth related definitions are given by:

In the words of Frederic Benham Economics is “a study of the factors affecting the size, distribution and stability of a country’s national income.”

C. E. Ferguson has defined Economics in these terms: “Economics is the study of the economic allocation of scarce physical and human means (resources) among competing ends, an allocation that achieves stipulated objectives by way of optimizing or maximizing.”

According to Prof J K Mehta “a science which studies human behaviour as a means to the end of want lessness” In other words “economics is, the science that studies human behaviour as the effort to minimize pain in the long run, or, as an endeavour to gain freedom from wants and reach the state of happiness.