A practice-oriented learning system that breaks the traditional textbook mold.
To help the student focus on the most important concepts–and effectively practice application of those concepts–Essential Foundations of Economics is structured around a Checklist/Checkpoint system. The result is a patient, confidence-building textbook that prepares the student to use economics in their everyday life, regardless of what their future career will be.
Chapter 1. Getting Started
Chapter 2. The U.S. and Global Economies
Chapter 3. The Economic Problem
Chapter 4. Demand and Supply
Chapter 5. Elasticities of Demand and Supply
Chapter 6. Efficiency and Fairness of Markets
Chapter 7. Government Influences on Markets
Chapter 8. Global Markets in Action
Chapter 9. Externalities: Pollution, Education, and Health
Chapter 10. Production and Cost
Chapter 11. Perfect Competition
Chapter 12. Monopoly
Chapter 13. Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly
Chapter 14. GDP: A Measure of Total Production and Income
Chapter 15. Jobs and Unemployment
Chapter 16. The CPI and the Cost of Living
Chapter 17. Potential GDP and Economic Growth
Chapter 18. Money and the Monetary System
Chapter 19. Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand
Chapter 20. Fiscal Policy and Monetary Policy
Offer the latest content: New Features. - Simplified chapter openers grab student attention and provide instant focus for the chapter. Each chapter opens with a question about a central issue that the chapter addresses and is illustrated with a carefully selected photograph.
- An Eye On box addresses and discusses the chapter-opener and an end-of-chapter problem. This is also available in the MyEconLab Homework and Test Manager, making the issue available for assignment with automatic grading. This feature:
- Enables students to get the point of the chapter quickly.
- Ties the chapter together.
- Helps instructors focus on a core issue in class and for practice.
- The Chapter Checkpoints (the last three pages of each chapter) have been thoroughly revised.
- The first page contains problems and applications for students to work on, which are replicated in the MyEconLab Study Plan.
- The second page contains problems and applications for instructors to assign as a homework, quiz, or test. Many of these problems and applications are new to the sixth edition and include mini-case studies from recent news stories.
- The third page contains a short multiple-choice quiz. This quiz, also available in MyEconLab for student practice, hits the high points of the chapter and enables students to test themselves on the types of questions they are likely to encounter on tests and exams.
The Checkpoints at the end of each major section of a chapter have been reorganized to separate practice with basic analysis and “In the News” applications. Worked solutions are provided for both types of questions.
Major Content Changes in Introductory Chapters
Chapter 1 has been reworked in order to strengthen the explanation and illustration of the economic way of thinking by placing the student center stage and focusing on the decision to remain in school or get a full-time job. The goal is to engage students from the outset of the course, grabbing their attention and showing them the relevance of economics and its place in everyday life. The explanation of the scientific method in economics has also been revised and improved.
Chapter 3 has a more gradual and fully illustrated explanation of the mutual gains from trade arising from comparative advantage and a new Eye On box on the power of specialization and trade through the classic story of the production of the pencil.