ABSTRACT
Economic Principles and Problems: A Pluralistic Introduction offers a comprehensive introduction to the major perspectives in modern economics, including mainstream and heterodox approaches. Through providing multiple views of markets and how they work, it leaves readers better able to understand and analyze the complex behaviors of consumers, firms, and government officials, as well as the likely impact of a variety of economic events and policies.
Most principles of economics textbooks cover only mainstream economics, ignoring rich heterodox ideas. They also lack material on the great economists, including the important ideas of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, John Maynard Keynes, and Friedrich Hayek. Mainstream books tend to neglect the kind of historical analysis that is crucial to understanding trends that help us predict the future. Moreover, they focus primarily on abstract models more than existing economic realities. This engaging book addresses these inadequacies. Including explicit coverage of mainstream economics and the major heterodox schools of economic thought—institutionalists, feminists, radical political economists, post-Keynesians, Austrians, and social economists—it allows the reader to choose which ideas they find most compelling in explaining modern economic realities.
Written in an engaging style and focused on real-world examples, this textbook brings economics to life. Multiple examples of how each economic model works, coupled with critical analysis of the assumptions behind them, enable students to develop a sophisticated understanding of the material. Digital supplements are also available for students and instructors. Economic Principles and Problems offers the most contemporary and complete package for any pluralist economics class.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|42 pages
Economics
chapter 2|21 pages
Scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost
part II|130 pages
The evolution of economic ideas and systems
chapter 3|23 pages
The evolution of pre-capitalist economic systems
chapter 5|19 pages
Karl Marx and the dark ages of capitalism
chapter 6|21 pages
Thorstein Veblen and monopoly capitalism
chapter 8|22 pages
Modern economic systems
part III|90 pages
Markets, supply and demand
chapter 9|32 pages
Markets and how they work
chapter 10|32 pages
Applications of supply and demand
part IV|154 pages
Market structures and corporations
chapter 13|24 pages
Short-run and long-run costs of production
chapter 14|25 pages
Perfect competition and competitive markets
chapter 15|23 pages
Monopoly and monopoly power
chapter 16|16 pages
Monopolistic competition
chapter 17|20 pages
Oligopoly and strategic behavior
chapter 18|20 pages
Corporations and their role in society
part V|82 pages
Government intervention in microeconomic markets
chapter 19|31 pages
Market failure and government failure
chapter 21|27 pages
Public goods and services
part VI|66 pages
Labor markets and inequality
chapter 22|34 pages
Working for a living
part VII|92 pages
Macroeconomic issues and problems
chapter 24|28 pages
Modern macroeconomics
part VIII|60 pages
Macroeconomic models
chapter 27|28 pages
Aggregate demand and aggregate supply
chapter 28|30 pages
The Keynesian aggregate expenditure model
part IX|116 pages
Stabilization policy
chapter 29|38 pages
Fiscal policy, debt, and deficits
chapter 30|28 pages
Money, banking, and the financial sector
chapter 31|21 pages
Monetary policy
chapter 32|27 pages
Crises, financial and otherwise
part X|92 pages
Growth and global interconnectedness