I will take the pastrami, please!

my definition. "economics is the construction, analysis, and (at times, empirical) testing of formal models of human behaviour." that about covers everything economist do. of course there is often a subtle difference, if any, between what an economist does as opposed to the endeavors of a political scientist or a sociologist... to which an economist would say, "we use more math".

By ajguse's definition, "Romeo and Juliet" is a worthwhile topic for economics students to study!Is a first year economics student going to be impressed by your definition, or is he going to head for accountancy or management studies at the first opportunity?

Your definition is essentially that it is "what you do".Surely you have to base a definition, on the shortage of physical resources, or the imperfections of the decisionmaking process for resolving that.

The former being nineteenth century, the latter on the insight gained from the computer as analogy, and as "formal" modelling calculating engine.

I agree it is difficult to imagine any good model of human behaviour which did not take into account decision-making and, by extension, resource constraints (since making a decision always means choosing one alternative over another and therefore involves cost). However if someone managed to come up with a good one, I wouldn't be offended if they called it economics.

Besides, as someone who has not yet defended my dissertation I am for keeping the definition as broad as possible. Perhaps I will change my view later or.

As for the behavior of Romeo and Juliet...This would not fit under my definition since it is literature and not human behavior. A formal model of playwright behaviour, however, would still be OK and I wouldn't be surprised if it has already been done.

The purpose of Economics is ...? is to help recruit new students to the subject. Not defend the mathematical approach between people who already have 6+ years socialisation to the economics profession.

If you are going to tutor 1st year students that buying xmas presents, is a mathematicly inevitable process, rather than a process of expensive thinking, research and with a 15% failure rate. Then you are just going to alienate another year of your customers.

Why bothering to define Economics? You'll recognize it when you see it.