Table of Contents

The Big Ideas The Power of Trade and Comparative Advantage PART I: SUPPLY AND DEMAND Supply and Demand Equilibrium: How Supply and Demand Determine Prices Elasticity and its Applications Appendix: Other Types of Elasticities Appendix: Elasticities with Excel Taxes and Subsidies PART II: THE PRICE SYSTEM The Price System: Signals, Speculation and Prediction Price Ceilings and Price Floors International Trade Externalities: When Prices Send the Wrong Signals PART III: FIRMS AND FACTOR MARKETS Costs Appendix: Using Excel to Graph Cost Curves Competition and the Invisible Hand Monopoly Price Discrimination Appendix: Solving Price Discrimination Problems with Excel Cartels, Oligopolies, and Monopolistic Competition The Economics of Network Goods: Competing for Monopoly Labor Markets PART IV: GOVERNMENT Public Goods and the Tragedy of the Commons Appendix: The Tragedy of the Commons: How Fast? Political Economy and Public Choice Economics, Ethics and Public Policy PART V: DECISION MAKING FOR BUSINESSES, INVESTORS, AND CONSUMERS Managing Incentives Stock Markets and Personal Finance Consumer Choice PART VI: ECONOMIC GROWTH GDP and The Measurement of Progress The Wealth of Nations and Economic Growth Appendix: The Magic of Compound Growth: Using a Spreadsheet Growth, Capital Accumulation and the Economics of Ideas: Catching Up vs. The Cutting Edge Appendix: Excellent Growth Savings, Investment, and the Financial System Appendix: Bond Pricing and Arbitrage PART VII: BUSINESS FLUCTUATIONS Unemployment and Labor Force Participation Inflation and the Quantity Theory of Money Appendix: Get Real! An Excellent Adventure Business Fluctuations: Aggregate Demand and Supply Transmission and Amplification Mechanisms Appendix: Business Fluctuations and the Solow Model PART VIII: MACROECONOMIC POLICY AND INSTITUTIONS The Federal Reserve System and Open Market Operations Appendix: The Money Multiplier Process in Detail Monetary Policy The Federal Budget: Taxes and Spending Fiscal Policy PART IX: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS International Finance

About the Author

TYLER COWEN Holbert C. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University, USA,and Director of the Mercatus Center and the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy. He is published widely in economics journals, including the American Economic Review and Journal of Political Economy. With Alex Tabarrok he co-writes the Marginal Revolution blog, often ranked as the #1 economics blog. He is also the author of Discover Your Inner Economist (Dutton, 2007) and numerous other books on economics. He writes regularly for the popular press on economics, including for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, and The Wilson Quarterly. University web page: http://economics.gmu.edu/faculty/tcowen.html ALEX TABARROK Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and director of research for The Independent Institute. Tabarrok is co-author with Tyler Cowen of the popular economics blog, Marginal Revolution. His recent research looks at bounty hunters, judicial incentives and elections, crime control, patent reform, methods to increase the supply of human organs for transplant, and the regulation of pharmaceuticals. He is the editor of the books Entrepreneurial Economics: Bright Ideas from the Dismal Science, The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society, and Changing the Guard: Private Prisons and The Control of Crime. His papers have appeared in the Journal of Law and Economics, Public Choice, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Theoretical Politics, The American Law and Economics Review, Kyklos and many other journals. His popular articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other magazines and newspapers.