Economics is the social science that studies how individuals, businesses, and governments make choices about the allocation of scarce resources.
It involves analyzing how these different actors use their resources to produce goods and services, and how they distribute and consume these resources.
Therefore, economics can be defined as the allocation of resources to alternative uses, as it focuses on the efficient use of limited resources to satisfy unlimited wants and needs.
While it does consider the economic behavior of small units like households and firms, it also studies economic aggregates like inflation and national income. It is not related to the reduction in spending in the face of competing alternatives.