ABSTRACT
The third approach is somewhat more eclectic, but could be described as economics with a focus on building and construction. Runeson (2000) does not define building economics (the title of his book) but explains at length the characteristics of economics as a science and the methodological implications of that, a theme investigated further in his chapter in this book. The books by Gruneberg and Ive (2000, and Ive and Gruneberg 2000) also do not neatly fall into one of the two categories above, and offer an alternative approach. Many of the other books on the economics of construction (e.g. Briscoe 1988; Ball 1988, 2006; Finkel 1997) or the economics of the built environment (Warren 1993) do not define CE at all. Although this is a small sample of the field it is representative, and shows why Ofori (1994) could confidently claim then that no definition had been accepted for CE, a situation that still exists today.
