eChapter Name: Unit-IV: Agricultural Economics
Agricultural Economics
9789395319058
eBook Name: AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS, MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
by M. Kalpana, R. Parimalarangan, B. Sivasankari, U. Arulanandu
4.1 Principles of Economics
• ‘Economics’ word derived from two Greek words, oikos (a house) and
nemein (to manage) means ‘managing an household’
• Microeconomics: Study of the behavior of individual, small, isolated
and disaggregated units.
• Macroeconomics: Study of groups and broad aggregates of the economy.
• Adam Smith wrote the book- “An Enquire into the Nature and Causes of
Wealth of
• Nations” or in short “Wealth of Nations” in 1776.
• Adam Smith is known as father of modern economics.
4.2 Wealth Definition - Adam smith
• Adam smith (1723 - 1790), in his book “An Inquiry into Nature and
Causes of Wealth of Nations” (1776)
4.3 Welfare Definition - Alfred Marshall
• Alfred Marshall (1842 - 1924) wrote a book “Principles of Economics”
(1890)
• Alfred Marshall defined “Political Economy” or Economics is a study
of mankind in the ordinary business of life; it examines that part of
individual and social action which is most closely connected with the
attainment and with the use of the material requisites of well being”.
4.4 Scarcity Definition - Lionel Robbins
• Lionel Robbins published a book “An Essay on the Nature and
Significance of Economic Science” in 1932.
• Robbins defined, “economics is a science which studies human behaviour
as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative
uses”.