This article presents economics of productive consumption (EPC) as a relatively new and forward-looking trend in economic theory that reacts to the modern expansion in services associated with the acquisition, retention, and application of human capital. This article explains the substance of EPC, including the question of how and in what way it goes beyond contemporary neoclassical economic paradigms. It demonstrates that EPC seeks to fi nd the general principles of human behavior, and yet also draws on current conditions. For this reason it compares the approaches used in EPC with those of classical and neoclassical economics, providing a view of how EPC is associated with other off shoots of neoclassical economics and why EPC is growing in the contemporary era.