This book is what would be called mainstream (it presents the conventional wisdom of ecomomists) both because I'm mainstream and because most economist are as well. But pedagogically, I also believe that students laern by questioning-to say, no, that's not right, that's not the way I see things, and then to compare their way of thinking with the conventional way. Despite my being mainstream, I'm by nature also skeptic, and in terms of pedagogy often find myself in sympathy with Joan Robinson, a famous economist, who argued that "the purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists." So, to encourage questioning everything, I don't present models and insights of economists as truth (the field of economics is far too complicated to have arrived at a single truth) but as a set of technical hurdles, reasoning processes, and arguments that students should know, and that will help pepare them to deal with economic issues. Economics primarily teaches you how to approach problems; it does not provide definition answers about what is wrong. It is a method, not a set of truths.



Table of Contents:

I: Introduction: Thinking Like An Economist

Chapter 1: Economics and Economic Reasoning

Chapter 2: Trade, Trade-off's and Government Policy

Chapter 3: The Evolving U.S. Economy in Perspective

Chapter 4: Supply and Demand

Chapter 5: Using Supply and Demand

II: Microeconomics

I: Microeconomics: The Basics

Chapter 6: Describing Supply and Demand: Elasticities

Chapter 7: Taxation and Government Intervention

II: Foundations of Supply and Demand

Chapter 8: The Logic of Individual Choice: The Foundation of Supply and Demand

Chapter 9: Production and Cost Analysis I

Chapter 10: Production and Cost Analysis II

III: Market Structure and Policy

Chapter 11: Perfect Competition

Chapter 12: Monopoly

Chapter 13: Monopolistic Competition, Oligopoly, and Strategic Pricing

Chapter 14: Real-World Competition and Technology

Chapter 15: Antitrust Policy and Regulation

IV: Factor Markets

Chapter 16: Work and the Labor Market

Chapter 17: Who Gets What? The Distribution of Income

V: Applying Economic Reasoning to Policy

Chapter 18: Government Policy and Market Failures

Chapter 19: Politics and Economics: The Case of Agriculture Markets

Chapter 20: Microeconomic Policy, Economic Reasoning, and Beyond

Chapter 21: International Trade Policy, Comparative Advantage, and Outsourcing

III: Macroeconomics

I: Macroeconomic Problems

Chapter 22: Economic Growth, Business Cycles, Unemployment, and Inflation

Chapter 23: National Income Accounting

II: The Macroeconomic Framework

Chapter 24: Growth, Productivity, and the Wealth of Nations

Chapter 25: Aggregate Demand, Aggregate Supply, and Modern Macroeconomics

Chapter 26: The Multiplier Model

III: Money, Inflation, and Monetary Policy

Chapter 27: Money, Banking, and the Financial Sector

Chapter 28: Monetary Policy and the Debate about Macro Policy

Chapter 29: Inflation and Its Relationship to Unemployment and Growth

IV: Macro Policy in Perspective

Chapter 30: Aggregate Demand Policy in Perspective

Chapter 31: Politics, Deficits,and Debt

Chapter 32: Macro Policies in Developing Countries

V: International Policy Issues

Chapter 33: International Financial Policy

Chapter 34: Macro Policy in a Global Setting