Description

For Survey of Economics courses.

 

Introduces Students to the Basic Concepts of Economics with Timely, Engaging Stories and Applications

Students enter their first economics course hoping to gain a better understanding of the world around them, but often leave with their questions unanswered. Survey of Economics: Principles, Applications, and Tools is built upon the author’s philosophy of using the basic concepts of economics to explain a wide variety of timely, engaging, real-world economic applications.

 

The Seventh Edition incorporates updated figures and data, while also emphasizing current topics of interest–including the severe economic downturn of recent years and the latest developments in economic thinking. It also includes newly refined Learning Objectives that introduce the concepts explored in each chapter, along with new applications and chapter-opening stories related to the most up-to-date developments in economics. Covering both macroeconomics and microeconomics in one concise paperback volume, this book shows readers how to think and act like an economist by showing them how to use economic concepts in their everyday lives and careers.

 

Also Available with MyEconLab^®

This title is also available with MyEconLab–an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program designed to work with this text to engage students and improve results. Within its structured environment, students practice what they learn, test their understanding, and pursue a personalized study plan that helps them better absorb course material and understand difficult concepts.

Students, if interested in purchasing this title with MyEconLab, ask your instructor for the correct package ISBN and Course ID. Instructors, contact your Pearson representative for more information.

 

 

 

Features

About the Book

 

Expanded Coverage to Reflect Economic Changes and Developments

• UPDATED! Incorporates and reflects the sweeping changes that U.S. and global economies have experienced following a severe economic downturn.
• UPDATED! Reflects the latest exciting developments in economic thinking, making these developments accessible to new students of economics.

• NEW! Chapter 6 discusses whether the recent major recession permanently affected labor force participation.
• NEW! Chapter 8 discusses the position of pessimists who think that technological progress has slowed down, as well as influential controlled experiments in economic policy.
• NEW! Chapter 13 discusses the rationale and application of  “stress tests” as a new tool for financial regulation.
• NEW! Chapter 14 introduces Janet Yellen, the new Chair of the Federal Reserve, including a discussion of her prior experience before assuming her current role.
• UPDATED! Revised and expanded discussion of the euro in Chapter 19 reflects the serious challenges now facing the European Monetary Union, particularly in the case of Greece.
• NEW! Several new applications and chapter-opening stories emphasize the widespread relevance of economic analysis, including discussion of:
• Housing prices in Cuba (Chapter 1)
• Property rights in urban slums (Chapter 3)
• The effects of winds from the Sahara Desert on the price of chocolate (Chapter 4)
• Links between unemployment and unemployment insurance (Chapter 6)
• How the government promotes high levels of savings in Singapore (Chapter 7)
• How Greek citizens hoarded euros as the talk of crisis grew (Chapter 13)
• New research on “underwater” homeowners (Chapter 12)
• The debate on secular stagnation (Chapter 15)
• How accounting for “missing” international financial flows changes our thinking of global investment patterns (Chapter 19)

 

Draw Students into the Material

• NEW! Carefully refined Learning Objectives at the beginning of each chapter match the contents of the chapter closely, providing students with a preview of what they will learn in each section of the chapter.

• Chapter-opening questions spark students’ interest on important economic concepts. After drawing students into the material, these opening questions are paired with in-chapter applications that bring the economic concept to life. Exercises that test student understanding of the questions, concepts, and applications appear in the end-of chapter materials.
• A streamlined design captures students’ interest and ensures no boxed features draw their attention away from core concepts. An “application” flows in the body of the chapter material so it will not distract students and so they will not skip the material.
• Economic experiments actively involve the student in role-playing as consumers, producers, and policy makers. These experiments stimulate student interest and are easy for professors to use and implement in a classroom of any size.

 

Designed and Organized To Let instructors Choose An Appropriate Order for Consideration of Topics

• Chapter 1 uses three current policy issues–traffic congestion, poverty in Africa, and Japan’s prolonged recession–to explain the economic way of thinking.
• Chapter 2 introduces the five principles we return to throughout the book.
• Chapter 3 is devoted entirely to exchange and trade; students must have a solid understanding of demand and supply to be successful in the course.
• An innovative organization of Chapter 5 addresses the difficulty of understanding movement along a curve versus shifts of a curve. The law of demand and changes in quantity demanded is discussed first, then the law of supply and changes in quantity supplied, and then the notion of market equilibrium. After students have a firm grasp of equilibrium concepts, the text explores the effects of changes in demand and supply on equilibrium prices and quantities.

• Long-run topics consider the robust performance of the U.S. economy in the 1990s and how this led to economists’ increasing interest in trying to understand the processes of economic growth. Discussion of economic growth in Chapter 8, “Why Do Economies Grow?” addresses the fundamental question of how long-term living standards are determined, as well as why some countries prosper while others do not.
• Short-run topics consider how the great economic expansion of the 1990s came to an end in 2001 and the recession began in 2007, considering how difficult economic times remind us that macroeconomics is also concerned with understanding the causes and consequences of economic fluctuations. The text considers why economies experience recessions and depressions, and what steps policymakers can take to stabilize the economy and ease the devastation people suffer from these fluctuations.
• A policy-oriented approach to macroeconomics means the text treats economic policy in virtually every chapter, discussing both important historical and more recent macroeconomic events in conjunction with the theory. Chapter 17 considers three important policy topics that recur frequently in macroeconomic debates: the role of government deficits, whether the Federal Reserve should target inflation or other objectives, and whether income or consumption should be taxed.

 

Demystify the Tools of Economics

• 5 key principles of economics show students the logic of economic reasoning and demystify the tools of economics. The 5 principles are first presented in Chapter 2, and the authors return to these 5 principles throughout the text to remind students of the underlying logic behind newly presented concepts:

1. The Principle of Opportunity Cost
2. The Marginal Principle (comparing marginal benefits and marginal costs)
3. The Principle of Diminishing Returns
4. The Principle of Voluntary Exchange
5. The Real-Nominal Principle (distinguishing real from nominal magnitudes)

• End-of-chapter material is organized around the major sections of the chapter and its 'applications' so that students can better organize their study plans.

Apply the Concepts

• 70 Real-World Applications help students develop and master essential economic concepts.
• 3 to 5 thought-provoking Applying the Concept questions start each chapter and convey important economic concepts. Once the economic logic behind a concept is presented, its use is illustrated with a real-world application and exercises are provided that test students’ understanding of the concepts.
• An Economic Experiment section in some chapters give students the opportunity to do their own economic analysis.

Also Available with MyEconLab^®

This title is also available withMyEconLab —an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program designed to work with this text to engage students and improve results. Within its structured environment, students practice what they learn, test their understanding, and pursue a personalized study plan that helps them better absorb course material and understand difficult concepts.

• Concept Checks, at the end of learning objectives, contain one or two multiple choice, true/false, or fill-in-the-blank questions, and act as “speed bumps” that encourage students to stop and check their understanding of fundamental terms and concepts before moving on to the next section. The goal of this digital resource is to help students assess their progress on a section-by-section basis, so they can be better prepared for homework, quizzes, and exams.
• Animations. Graphs are the backbone of introductory economics, but many students struggle to understand and work with them. Many of the numbered figures in the text have a supporting animated version online to help students understand shifts in curves, movements along curves, and changes in equilibrium values. Having an animated version of a graph helps students who have difficulty interpreting the static version in the printed text. Graded practice exercises are included with the animations.
• Digital Interactives in Pearson’s MyEconLab are poised to change how students learn core economic concepts. Organized in progressive levels, each focusing on a core learning outcome, Digital Interactives immerse students in a fundamental economic principle, helping them to learn actively. Used as a lecture tool or assigned with assessment questions for grading, Digital Interactives are designed for use in traditional, online, and hybrid courses, and many incorporate real-time data, as well as data display and analysis tools.
• Learning Catalytics™. Generate class discussion, guide your lecture, and promote peer-to-peer learning with real-time analytics. MyEconLab with eText now provides Learning Catalytics—an interactive student response tool that uses students’ smartphones, tablets, or laptops to engage them in more sophisticated tasks and thinking. Instructors, you can:
• Pose a variety of questions that help your students develop critical thinking skills
• Monitor responses to find out where students are struggling
• Use real-time data to adjust your instructional strategy and try other ways of engaging your students during class
• Manage student interactions by automatically grouping students for discussion, teamwork, and peer-to-peer learning

• Question Help. MyEconLab's homework and practice questions are correlated to the textbook, they generate algorithmically to give students unlimited opportunity for practice and mastery, and they offer helpful feedback when students enter incorrect answers. Questions include guided solutions and other multimedia assets for extra help at point-of-use.
• Current News Exercises. Every week, current Microeconomic and Macroeconomic news stories, with accompanying exercises, are posted to MyEconLab. Assignable and auto-graded, these multi-part exercises ask students to recognize and apply economic concepts to real-world events.
• Experiments in MyEconLab are a fun and engaging way to promote active learning and mastery of important economic concepts. Pearson’s Experiments program is flexible and easy for instructors and students to use. Single-player experiments allow your students to play against virtual players from anywhere at any time so long as they have an Internet connection. Multiplayer experiments allow you to assign and manage a real-time experiment with your class. Pre- and post-questions for each experiment are available for assignment in MyEconLab. For a complete list of available experiments, visit www.myeconlab.com.
• Real-time Data Analysis Exercises. Easy to assign and automatically graded, Real-Time Data Analysis exercises use up-to-the-minute, real-time Microeconomic data. These exercises communicate directly with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’s FRED site, so every time FRED posts new data, students see new data. As a result, Real-Time Data Analysis exercises offer a no-fuss solution for instructors who want to make the most recent data a central part of their macro course.
• Adaptive Learning. Not every student learns the same way and at the same rate. And now, thanks to advances in adaptive learning technology, you no longer have to teach as if they do. MyEconLab assesses student performance and activity in real time and, using data and analytics, personalizes content to reinforce concepts that target each student’s strengths and weaknesses. 

• Dynamic Study Modules help students study effectively on their own by continuously assessing their activity and performance in real time. Here's how it works: students complete a set of questions with a unique answer format that also asks them to indicate their confidence level. Questions repeat until the student can answer them all correctly and confidently. Once completed, DSMs explain the concept using materials from the text. These are available as graded assignments prior to class, and accessible on smartphones, tablets, and computers.

• Reporting Dashboard. View, analyze, and report learning outcomes clearly and easily, and get the information you need to keep your students on track throughout the course, with the new Reporting Dashboard. Available via the Gradebook and fully mobile-ready, the Reporting Dashboard presents student performance data at the class, section, and program levels in an accessible, visual manner.
• UPDATED! HTML5 Player Enhancements. In addition to matching the Flash player’s support of Accessibility requirements, the HTML5 player has a new “Show Work” feature to allow students to enter text either from a keyboard or stylus and to draw freehand on different backgrounds, such as a coordinate graph, with multiple fonts and colors. Students can also continue to upload images such as phone-photos of handwritten work. Printing enhancements include:

• a more pen-and-paper-friendly layout of exercises
• the ability for instructors to choose whether to print the header; to include an honor statement; and to print with answers inline, after each question, or on a separate sheet
• NEW! Math Review Exercises in MyEconLab. MyEconLab now offers a rich array of assignable and auto-graded exercises covering fundamental math concepts geared specifically to principles and intermediate economics students. Aimed at increasing student confidence and success, our new math skills review Chapter R is accessible from the assignment manager and contains over 150 graphing, algebra, and calculus exercises for homework, quiz, and test use. Offering economics students warm-up math assignments, math remediation, or math exercises as part of any content assignment has never been easier!
• Enhanced eText. Available within the online course materials and offline via an iPad app, the enhanced eText allows instructors and students to highlight, bookmark, take notes, and share with one another.

 

 

New to this Edition

About the Book

 

Expanded Coverage to Reflect Economic Changes and Developments

• UPDATED! Incorporates and reflects the sweeping changes that U.S. and global economies have experienced following a severe economic downturn.
• UPDATED! Reflects the latest exciting developments in economic thinking, making these developments accessible to new students of economics.

• Chapter 6 discusses whether the recent major recession permanently affected labor force participation.
• Chapter 8 discusses the position of pessimists who think that technological progress has slowed down, as well as influential controlled experiments in economic policy.
• Chapter 13 discusses the rationale and application of  “stress tests” as a new tool for financial regulation.
• Chapter 14 introduces Janet Yellen, the new Chair of the Federal Reserve, including a discussion of her prior experience before assuming her current role.
• UPDATED! Revised and expanded discussion of the euro in Chapter 19 reflects the serious challenges now facing the European Monetary Union, particularly in the case of Greece.
• Several new applications and chapter-opening stories emphasize the widespread relevance of economic analysis, including discussion of:
• Housing prices in Cuba (Chapter 1)
• Property rights in urban slums (Chapter 3)
• The effects of winds from the Sahara Desert on the price of chocolate (Chapter 4)
• Links between unemployment and unemployment insurance (Chapter 6)
• How the government promotes high levels of savings in Singapore (Chapter 7)
• How Greek citizens hoarded euros as the talk of crisis grew (Chapter 13)
• New research on “underwater” homeowners (Chapter 12)
• The debate on secular stagnation (Chapter 15)
• How accounting for “missing” international financial flows changes our thinking of global investment patterns (Chapter 19)

 

Draw Students into the Material

• Carefully refined Learning Objectives at the beginning of each chapter match the contents of the chapter closely, providing students with a preview of what they will learn in each section of the chapter.

Also Available with MyEconLab^®

This title is also available withMyEconLab —an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program designed to work with this text to engage students and improve results. Within its structured environment, students practice what they learn, test their understanding, and pursue a personalized study plan that helps them better absorb course material and understand difficult concepts.

• UPDATED! HTML5 Player Enhancements. In addition to matching the Flash player’s support of Accessibility requirements, the HTML5 player has a new “Show Work” feature to allow students to enter text either from a keyboard or stylus and to draw freehand on different backgrounds, such as a coordinate graph, with multiple fonts and colors. Students can also continue to upload images such as phone-photos of handwritten work. Printing enhancements include:

• a more pen-and-paper-friendly layout of exercises
• the ability for instructors to choose whether to print the header; to include an honor statement; and to print with answers inline, after each question, or on a separate sheet
• Math Review Exercises in MyEconLab. MyEconLab now offers a rich array of assignable and auto-graded exercises covering fundamental math concepts geared specifically to principles and intermediate economics students. Aimed at increasing student confidence and success, our new math skills review Chapter R is accessible from the assignment manager and contains over 150 graphing, algebra, and calculus exercises for homework, quiz, and test use. Offering economics students warm-up math assignments, math remediation, or math exercises as part of any content assignment has never been easier!

 

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: What is Economics?

2. Key Principles of Economics

3. Demand, Supply, and Market Equilibrium

4. Elasticity: A Measure of Responsiveness

5. Production Technology and Cost

6. Perfect Competition

7. Monopoly and Price Discrimination

8. Market Entry, Monopolistic Competition, and Oligopoly

9. Market Failure: Imperfect Information, External Benefits, and External Costs

10. The Labor Market and the Distribution of Income

11. Measuring a Nation’s Production and Income

12. Unemployment and Inflation

13. Why Do Economies Grow?

14. Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply

15. Fiscal Policy

16. Money and the Banking System

17. Monetary Policy and Inflation

18. International Trade and Finance

 

 

 

Author

Arthur O’Sullivan is a professor of economics at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. After receiving his B.S. in economics at the University of Oregon, he spent two years in the Peace Corps, working with city planners in the Philippines. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 1981 and has taught at the University of California, Davis, and Oregon State University, winning teaching awards at both schools. He is the author of the best-selling textbook Urban Economics, currently in its eighth edition, with translations into Russian, Chinese, Korean, and Greek.

 

Professor O’Sullivan’s research explores economic issues concerning urban land use, environmental protection, and public policy. His articles have appeared in many economics journals, including the Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, National Tax Journal, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of Law and Economics.

 

Professor O’Sullivan lives with his family in Portland, Oregon. For recreation, he enjoys hiking, kiteboarding, and squash.

 

Steven M. Sheffrin is professor of economics and executive director of the Murphy Institute at Tulane University. Prior to joining Tulane in 2010, he was a faculty member at the University of California, Davis, and served as department chairman of economics and dean of social sciences. He has been a visiting professor at Princeton University, Oxford University, London School of Economics, and Nanyang Technological University, and he has served as a financial economist with the Office of Tax Analysis of the United States Department of the Treasury. He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Professor Sheffrin is the author of 10 other books and monographs and over 100 articles in the fields of macroeconomics, public finance, and international economics. His most recent books include Rational Expectations (second edition) and Property Taxes and Tax Revolts: The Legacy of Proposition 13 (with Arthur O’Sullivan and Terri Sexton).

 

Professor Sheffrin has taught macroeconomics and public finance at all levels, from general introduction to principles classes (enrollments of 400) to graduate classes for doctoral students. He is the recipient of the Thomas Mayer Distinguished Teaching Award in economics. He lives with his wife Anjali (also an economist) in New Orleans, Louisiana, and has two daughters who have studied economics. In addition to a passion for current affairs and travel, he plays a tough game of tennis.

 

Stephen J. Perez is a professor of economics and NCAA faculty athletics representative at California State University, Sacramento. After receiving his B.A. in economics at the University of California, San Diego, he was awarded his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Davis, in 1994. He taught economics at Virginia Commonwealth University and Washington State University before coming to California State University, Sacramento, in 2001. He teaches macroeconomics at all levels as well as econometrics, sports economics, labor economics, and mathematics for economists.

 

Professor Perez’s research explores most macroeconomic topics. In particular, he is interested in evaluating the ability of econometric techniques to discover the truth, issues of causality in macroeconomics, and sports economics. His articles have appeared in many economics journals, including the Journal of Monetary Economics; Econometrics Journal; Economics Letters; Journal of Economic Methodology; Public Finance and Management; Journal of Economics and Business; Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics; Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking; Applied Economics; and Journal of Macroeconomics.