Q.Critically examine Robbins' scarcity definition of Economics, and explain how Samuelson's definition builds on it.

Robbins' definition is the most analytically influential of the four classical definitions studied in this chapter, but it drew real criticism that Samuelson later tried to address.

Lionel Robbins, in his 1932 essay, defined Economics as "a science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." This rests on four elements — unlimited ends, scarce means, alternative uses of those means, and the differing priority of ends — which together force choice. This is why Robbins' definition is often called the scarcity or choice-based definition.

Contributions: Robbins freed Economics from Marshall's restriction to "material" welfare, making the subject applicable to any decision involving scarcity — a household's budget, a farmer's cropping choice, or a state government's allocation of funds among irrigation, health and education in Maharashtra. It also gave Economics a positive, value-free, scientific character, separate from ethical judgements about what "ought" to be produced.

Criticisms: (i) It is too general and abstract, and by freeing itself from "welfare," it loses the human, ethical concern that Marshall's definition carried; (ii) it is essentially a microeconomic definition, well suited to an individual's or firm's choice problem but largely silent on aggregate, economy-wide questions such as national income, general unemployment and economic growth — concerns that became urgent after the Great Depression of the 1930s; (iii) by treating Economics as a purely neutral science of means, it says nothing about poverty, inequality or the desirability of a particular allocation. …

Essay answers often state Robbins' definition and its criticisms but fail to explicitly connect Samuelson's definition back to each specific criticism, which is exactly what a …