In recent years, innovative texts in mathematics, science, foreign languages,
and other fields have achieved dramatic pedagogical gains by abandoning the traditional
encyclopedic approach in favor of attempting to teach a short list of core principles in
depth.
Two well-respected writers and researchers, Bob Frank
and Ben Bernanke, have shown that the less-is-more approach affords similar gains in
introductory economics.
Although a few other texts have paid lip service to this
new approach, Frank/Bernanke is by far the best throughout, and the best executed
principles text in this mold. Avoiding excessive reliance on formal mathematical
derivations, it presents concepts intuitively through examples drawn from familiar
contexts. The authors introduce a coherent short list of core principles and reinforce
them by illustrating and applying each in numerous contexts. Students are periodically
asked to apply these principles and to answer related questions and exercises.
Frank/Bernanke also encourages students to become "Economic Naturalists,"
by employing basic economic principles to understand and explain what they observe in the
world around them. An economic naturalist understands, for example, that infant safety
seats are required in cars but not in airplanes because the marginal cost of space to
accommodate these seats is typically zero in cars but often hundreds of dollars in
airplanes. Such examples engage student interest while teaching them to see each feature
of their economic landscape as the reflection of an implicit or explicit cost-benefit
calculation
Table of Contents
Part I Introduction
Ch 1 Thinking Like an Economist
Ch 2 Comparative Advantage
Ch 3 Supply and Demand
Part II Competition and the Invisible Hand
Ch 4 Elasticity
Ch 5 Demand
Ch 6 Perfectly Competitive Supply
Ch 7 Efficiency and Exchange
Ch 8 The Invisible Hand in Action
Part III Market Imperfections
Ch 9 Monopoly, Oligopoly, and Monopolistic Competition
Ch 10 Games and Strategic Behavior
Ch 11 Externalities and Property Rights
Ch 12 The Economics of Information
Part IV Economics of Public Policy
Ch 13 Labor Markets, Poverty, and Income Distribution
Ch 14 The Environment, Health, and Safety
Ch 15 Public Goods and Tax Policy
Part V Macroeconomics: Data and Issues
Ch 16 Spending, Income, and GDP
Ch 17 Inflation and the Price Level
Ch 18 Wages and Unemployment
Part VI The Economy in the Long Run
Ch 19 Economic Growth
Ch 20 Saving, Capital Formation, and Financial Markets
Ch 21 The Financial System, Money, and Prices
Part VII The Economy in the Short Run
Ch 22 Short-Term Fluctuations
Ch 23 Spending and Output in the Short Run
Ch 24 Stabilizing the Economy: The Role of the Federal Reserve
Ch 25 Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply
Ch 26 Macroeconomic Policy
Part VIII The International Economy
Ch 27 Exchange Rates and the Open Economy
Ch 28 International Trade and Capital Flows
Glossary
800 pages, Paperback