Essentials of Economics

Shortlisted for the 2010 APA Australian Educational Publishing Awards

Real examples. Real companies. Real business decisions. 

Covering the core economics principles and providing engaging, relevant examples within just nineteen chapters, Hubbard Essentials of Economics is the perfect teaching and learning resource for a one semester unit.

The authors of this new local text present economics as a dynamic, relevant discipline for students. The key questions students of first year economics ask themselves are: `Why am I here?” and “Will I ever use this?’ Hubbard Essentials of Economics answers these questions by demonstrating that real businesses use economics to make real decisions every day. Each chapter of the text: opens with a case study featuring a real business or real business situation, refers to the study throughout the chapter, and concludes with An Inside Look—a news article format which illustrates how a key principle covered in the chapter relates to real business situations or was used by a real company to make a real business decision.

Part 1:  Introduction
1. Economics:  Foundations and Models
    Appendix: Using Graphs and Formulae
2. Choices and Trade-offs in the Market

Part 2:  How the Market Works
3. Where Prices Come From: The Interaction of Demand and Supply
4. Elasticity:  The Responsiveness of Demand and Supply
5. Economic Efficiency and Market Failure

Part 3:  Firms and Market Structures
6. Technology, Production and Costs
7. Firms in Perfectly Competitive Markets
8. Monopoly Markets
9. Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly

Part 4:  Markets for Factors of Production
10. The Markets for Labour and Other Factors of Production

Part 5:  The Role of Government
11. Government Intervention in the Market

Part 6:  Macroeconomic Foundations
12. GDP, Income and Economic Growth
13. Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply Analysis
14. Unemployment and Inflation
      Appendix:  Is there a Short-run Trade-off between Unemployment and Inflation?

Part 7:  Monetary and Fiscal Policy
15. Money, Banks and the Reserve Bank of Australia
16. Monetary Policy
17. Fiscal Policy
      Appendix:  A Closer Look at the Multiplier

Part 8:  The International Economy
18. International Trade
19. Macroeconomics in an Open Economy

• Chapter opening case studies trigger student interest and demonstrate chapter relevance by connecting economic theory to real business situations. 
• ‘An Inside Look’ concludes the chapter with a newspaper article format showing students how a key principle taught in the chapter relates to real business decisions or was used by a real company to make a real business decision.
• ‘Making the Connection’ presents relevant, stimulating, and provocative news stories, primarily about business and aim to reinforce the relevance of economics to students.
• Solved problems provide models of how to solve an economic problem by breaking it down step by step. Each ‘Solved Problem’ includes a problem statement, steps to solve the problem, a graph and a ‘Your Turn’ feature directing students to related end-of-chapter problems for immediate practice.
• ‘Don’t Let This Happen to You’ features alert students to the most common pitfalls in the chapter’s material. These are supported with a related question in the end-of-chapter ‘Problems and Applications’ section.
• Graphs – Four devices are used to assist students to read and interpret graphs: captions, boxed notes, colour-coded curves and summary tables with graphs. End- of-chapter problems also require students to read, draw and interpret graphs. MyEconLab includes interactive graphing exercises.
• Contemporary coverage of both domestic and international economics policy changes that have occurred over recent years. Topics covered include significant monetary and fiscal policy changes in Australia, developments in environmental and carbon emissions policy, and updated analysis of the role of government in the economy, just to name a few.
• MyEconLab is an online course management, testing and tutorial resource. This powerful platform allows lecturers to set automatically marked tests, quizzes and homework, and offers students the tutorial help they need when studying on their own.  
   - MyEconLab provides assistance beyond homework with a range of assessment options and tutorial resources that help students learn from their mistakes.
  - MyEconLab lets you teach your course your way. Use MyEconLab as an out-of-the-box resource for students who need extra help, or take full advantage of its advanced customisation options.

Glenn Hubbard policymaker, professor, and researcher.
R.Glenn Hubbard is the Dean and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics in the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. He is also Professor of Economics in Columbia’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He received his PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1983.
 
Anne Garnett  BEcon (Hons), M.Phil (Econs) PhD (Econ)
Anne Garnett is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Murdoch University. She has extensive teaching experience at the undergraduate and postgraduate level, both in Australia and many parts of South-East Asia. Her research areas include regional economics, labour economics, international trade, and agricultural economics. She has published numerous chapters in books and articles in international journals. She has taught in all areas of economics at all levels, however over the past seven years her primary teaching focus has been to teach first year introductory economics. Anne Garnett has developed award winning electronic teaching materials for major economics textbooks and is co-author of the widely used Issues, Indicators and Ideas text published by Pearson Addison-Wesley. She also serves as a committee member of the Economic Society of Australia (WA branch).
 
Phil Lewis BSc(Hons), MSocSc, PhD
Phil Lewis is the Foundation Professor of Economics and the Canberra Director of the Centre for Labour Market Research at the University of Canberra. He is among the best-known economists in the area of employment, education and training in Australia and Asia. He is the author of over 100 publications including journal articles, book chapters and books including the well-known book Issues, Indicators and Ideas published by Pearson Education, now in its 4th edition. Phil Lewis has also worked extensively in government and has produced a number of major reports for the private and public sectors. He has served as the National President of The Economic Society of Australia.
 
Tony O’Brien award-winning professor and researcher.
Anthony Patrick O’Brien is a professor of economics at Lehigh University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1987.

• MyEconLab
  http://www.pearson.com.au/myeconlab