Differences between Economics & Business Administration: My View
The main objective of a business administration degree is to specifically prepare a student to do business or to get a good job in the job market. "Soft skills" (social skills, communication skills, analytical skills, leadership abilities and decision-making skills) are crucial to success in business, and are covered in business studies; business degrees are also more aimed at giving a student the ins and outs of the technical aspects of business (accounting, finance, marketing, statistics, business research method, supply chain management etc.), to give him or her a concrete foundation for doing business or to be well-equipped with the current job market.
On the other hand, Economics is a liberal art, specifically a social science. An economist is a social scientist-no doubt about that-who is curious about human beings, and s/he studies them just because they fascinate him. A businessperson or business professor then uses his/her discoveries to find out how to make money.
The best definition of economics, I think, is "the science of scarcity." Scarcity refers to people having unlimited wants but limited resources. For example, we'd like for everyone in our country to have a job, but that simply can't happen. Some people are going to have jobs while others are going to have to go unemployed. And will that be randomly determined? Of course.. not. Studying when, why, and how this sort of thing happens is what economics can be all about.
But there are many assumptions and theories created by economists and later on refuted and canceled by the modern economists. Some of them opined that the assumption of profit-maximising may be unrealistic or inaccurate while others said economics deals with the study of activities related to wealth only; of scare commodities; other things being equal. An expert said that the main problem with behavioral economics is that it is extremely methodological individualistic; the center of decision-making remains the singular individual. I think that consequently it cannot satisfactorily explain the economic world and certainly not the current financial crisis.
The bottom line is that assumption and theories will come and go by over the time. One theory perishes the other one. Marshall's definition was criticized by Robbins. But It's the Almighty Allah's principles which never change and should be followed to ensure peace and prosperity of the dwellers of the earth.