Synopses & Reviews
This microeconomics text is well known for using the Keynesian model in the teaching of economics; yet in recent editions, the authors have expanded coverage of the growth model considerably to achieve more balanced coverage. The text uses the aggregate supply/ aggregate demand model as a fundamental tool for learning macroeconomics. It achieves the right level of rigor and detail, presenting complicated concepts in a relatively straightforward manner and using timely economic data. Using puzzles, issues, and well-developed examples, the authors provide a good balance of theory to application. Homework Xpress and Aplia are available with the Anniversary Tenth Edition and two new sets of end of chapter questions have been added as well to help students prepare for exams: ?Test Yourself? and ?Discussion Questions?.
Synopsis
This text is well known for using the Keynesian model in the teaching of economics; yet in the 2007 Update edition, the authors have expanded coverage of the growth model considerably to achieve more balanced coverage making the content more accessible for the students. The text uses the aggregate supply/ aggregate demand model as a fundamental tool for learning macroeconomics. It achieves the right level of rigor and detail, presenting complicated concepts in a relatively straightforward manner and using timely economic data. Using puzzles, issues, and well-developed examples, the authors provide a good balance of theory to application allowing students to relate the materials to their every day lives. In addition, a well respected study guide, ThomsonNOW, and student website are available at study aides.
About the Author
William J. Baumol was born in New York City, and received his BSS at the College of the City of New York and his Ph.D. at the University of London. He is professor of economics at New York University, and senior research economist and professor emeritus at Princeton University. He is a frequent consultant to the management of major firms in a wide variety of industries in the United States and other countries, as well as to a number of governmental agencies. In several fields, including the telecommunications and electric utility industries, current regulatory policy is based on his explicit recommendations. Among his many contributions to economics are research on the theory of the firm, the contestability of markets, the economics of the arts and other services -- the "cost disease of the services" is often referred to as "Baumol's disease" --and economic growth, entrepreneurship and innovation. In addition to economics, he taught a course in wood sculpture at Princeton for about 20 years. He has been president of the American Economic Association, and three other professional societies. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, created by the U.S. Congress, and of the American Philosophical Society, founded by Benjamin Franklin. He also is on the board of trustees of the National Council on Economic Education, and of the Theater Development Fund. He is the recipient of 10 honorary degrees. Baumol is the author of more than 35 books, and hundreds of journal and newspaper articles. His writings have been translated into more than a dozen languages.Alan S. Blinder was born in New York City and attended Princeton University, where one of his teachers was William J. Baumol. After earning a master's degree at the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. at MIT, Blinder returned to Princeton, where he has taught since 1971. He is the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and co-director of Princeton's Center for Economic Policy Studies, which he founded. In January 1993, Blinder went to Washington as part of President Clinton's first Council of Economic Advisers. From June 1994 through January 1996, he served as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. He thus played a role in formulating both the fiscal and monetary policies of the 1990s, topics discussed extensively in this book. For more than 10 years, Blinder wrote newspaper and magazine columns on economic policy, and his op-ed pieces still appear regularly in various newspapers. Blinder has been vice president of the American Economic Association and is a member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has two grown sons, and lives in Princeton with his wife, where he plays tennis as often as he can.
Table of Contents
Part I: Getting Acquainted with Economics 1. What Is Economics? 2. The Economy: Myth and Reality 3. The Fundamental Economic Problem: Scarcity and Choice 4. Supply and Demand: An Initial Look Part II: The Building Blocks of Demand and Supply 5. Consumer Choice: Individual and Market Demand 6. Demand and Elasticity 7. Production, Inputs, and Cost: Building Blocks for Supply Analysis 8. Output, Price, and Profit: The Importance of Marginal Analysis 9. The Economics of the Stock Market Part III: Markets and the Price System 10. The Firm and the Industry under Perfect Competition 11. Monopoly 12. Between Competition and Monopoly 13. Limiting Market Power: Regulation and Antitrust Part IV: The Virtues and Limitations of Markets 14. The Price System and the Case for Free Markets 15. The Market Mechanism: Shortcomings and Remedies 16. Innovation and Growth: The Free Markets Greatest Triumph 17. Externalities, the Environment and Natural Resources 18. Taxation and Resource Allocation Part V: The Distribution of Income 19. Pricing the Factors of Production 20. Labor: The Human Input 21. Poverty, Inequality, and Discrimination