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Economics plus MyEconLab in CourseCompass plus eBook Student Access Kit, 8/E
Michael Parkin, University of Western Ontario

ISBN-10: 0321487052
ISBN-13:  9780321487056

Publisher:  Prentice Hall
Copyright:  2008
Format:  Cloth Package
Published:  06/18/2007
Status: Instock


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Description

The leading economists today started out as students taking the Principles course. Parkin writes in a way that reaches out to all students, encouraging them to think like economists from the first week of class. Economics provides a serious, analytical approach to the discipline by introducing the main ideas and then developing those ideas with the latest research, policy, and data. The result is that students learn to apply economics the way real economists do, by evaluating the decisions in their personal, academic, and professional lives.

The Eighth Edition takes a new approach to modern macroeconomic theory with an earlier integration of international topics that gives an accurate picture of how theory is used to guide and evaluate macroeconomic policy. The microeconomics chapters include the latest research, and incorporate a unifying theme related to the tension between self- and social-interest.

Starting in this edition, MyEconLab now includes all of Parkin’s end-of-chapter problems so that assignments can be automatically graded online. MyEconLab in CourseCompass™ provides additional optional customization and communication tools. Instructors who teach distance-learning courses or very large lecture sections find the CourseCompass™ format useful because they can upload course documents and assignments, customize the order of chapters, and use communication features such as Digital Dropbox and Discussion Board.

View a demo of MyEconLab. For more information about MyEconLab in CourseCompass™, or to request an Instructor Access Code, visit MyEconLab.


Features

  • A unifying theme focuses student attention on the ‘big ideas’ of economics. Ten topics illustrate the central question, "Do choices made in the pursuit of self-interest also serve the social interest?" Introducing the text, this theme is revisited throughout and gives cohesion to the course material.
  • Parkin's diagrams show the action. With a consistent and meaningful use of color, each and every figure has been designed with the needs of students in mind. Graphs are paired with data tables, color-blended arrows show movement, diagrams are labeled with boxed notes, and extended captions provide study and review.
  • Reading Between the Lines show students how to apply economic tools. At the end of each chapter, students use their new tools to analyze a current news article.
  • Interviews with Economists. One of Parkin’s goals is to show students that people just like them have gone on to change the landscape of economic history. At the end of each part, he features an interview with leading economist. Parkin explores their research, what inspired them to become an economist, and what advice they have for today’s beginning student.
  • Modern macroeconomics is a tool for understanding and evaluating policy decisions. Organized around the principle that the forces determining long-term trends are distinct from short-term fluctuations, Parkin strikes a balance of coverage that is serious yet accessible, and synthesizes the traditional with the modern.
  • You’re the Voter sections tackle topical issues of the current campaign season. Students analyze the promises, problems, and possibilities of the 2008 presidential campaign and dissect their own stances on key policy issues.
  • MyEconLab, the online assessment and tutorial system that accompanies the text, gives students the tools they need to learn from their mistakes. Each online problem set becomes a true learning moment because, at the end of the assignment, students identify their weak spots and receive tutorial help to master those areas. With MyEconLab, students get more out of each assessment, and professors can choose how much—or how little—time they want to spend setting up the course. For more information, visit MyEconLab.


New To This Edition

A thorough overhaul of the macroeconomic chapters fulfills Michael Parkin’s central goal of explaining modern macroeconomic theory clearly and showing how it is used to guide and evaluate macroeconomic policy. This is done through an reorganization of topics that includes:
  • Refocusing and streamlining of the content around the organizing principle that the forces determining the long-term trends and short-term fluctuations are separate and distinct.
  • Chapter 26, The Exchange Rate and Balance of Payments, now appears earlier in the main macro sequence to emphasize that in the long run, the exchange rate is a monetary phenomenon, and that the balance of payments is determined by saving and investment.
  • Chapter 29, U.S. Inflation, Unemployment, and Business Cycle, combines and shortens material on inflation and the business cycle, beginning with the AS-AD model to interpret the inflation, growth, and cycles in the U.S. economies. It then explains demand-pull and cost-push inflation using the AS-AD model; the short-run tradeoff using the Phillips curve; and the business cycle using both the traditional AS-AD approach and the new approach of real business cycle theory.
  • Chapter 31, Monetary Policy, is revised to emphasize the goal, intermediate targets, and instruments of monetary policy, and to place the Fed’s choices in the broader context of the debate about the appropriate way in which to conduct monetary policy.

A tightened integration of microeconomic topics with the text’s central theme manifest in:
  • The ongoing theme woven throughout the text highlights the tension between self-interest and social interest, and the challenges of designing incentive mechanisms. This is introduced in Chapter 1, What is Economics?, and is revisited throughout the text in chapters such as Chapter 5, Efficiency and Equity, which has been thoroughly revised to discuss the equivalence of demand for marginal social benefit and supply of marginal social cost, placing an emphasis on moving from the individual to the society.
  • Chapter 17, Demand and Supply in Factor Markets, now includes an explanation of efficiency wages, compensating differentials, and discrimination.
  • Chapter 18, Economic Inequality, offers new discussions of the effects of globalization on the distribution of income both within a country and across countries, showing students how globalization is contributing to increased inequality in rich countries while lifting millions of the world’s poorest people from extreme poverty.

Additional new features:
  • Every Reading Between the Lines news article and supporting analysis is revised and updated.
  • Seven new interviews with notable economists help students to see the real people behind the big names in economic theory and policy. Parkin explores their research, their inspiration for becoming economists, and the advice they have for beginning economic students.
  • New end-of-chapter analytical questions that focus on real-world applications.

Flexible options for instructors and students:
  • Select end-of-chapter problems can now be assigned online in MyEconLab. The system will automatically grade students’ work and record it in the online Gradebook, offering quantifiable practice with the tools and models of economics.
  • New flexible options for professors. Professors can choose a traditional MyEconLab course with pre-loaded assessments and other tutorial learning aids. Professors who wish to customize can assign problems for a grade and track students’ performance with the advanced functionality of MyEconLab in CourseCompass. For more information, visit www.myeconlab.com.
  • Choice of format for students. In addition to the traditional textbook format, which comes packaged with prepaid access to MyEconLab, students have additional purchase options online.


Table of Contents

I. INTRODUCTION
1. What Is Economics?
2. The Economic Problem

II. HOW MARKETS WORK
3. Demand and Supply
4. Elasticity
5. Efficiency and Equity
6. Markets in Action

III. HOUSEHOLDS' CHOICES
7. Utility and Demand
8. Possibilities, Preferences, and Choices

IV. FIRMS AND MARKETS
9. Organizing Production
10. Output and Costs
11. Perfect Competition
12. Monopoly                           
13. Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly

V. MARKET FAILURE AND GOVERNMENT
14. Regulation and Antitrust Law
15. Externalities
16. Public Goods and Common Resources

VI. FACTOR MARKETS, INEQUALITY, AND UNCERTAINTY
17. Demand and Supply in Factor Markets
18. Economic Inequality
19. Uncertainty and Information

VII. MACROECONOMIC OVERVIEW
20. A First Look at Macroeconomics
21. Measuring GDP and Economic Growth
22. Monitoring Jobs and the Price Level

VIII. THE ECONOMY IN THE LONG RUN
23. At Full Employment: The Classical Model
24. Economic Growth
25. Money, the Price Level, and Inflation
26. The Exchange Rate and the Balance of Payments

IX. THE ECONOMY IN THE SHORT RUN
27. Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand
28. Expenditure Multipliers: The Keynesian Model
29. U.S. Inflation, Unemployment, and Business Cycle

X. MACROECONOMIC POLICY
30. Fiscal Policy
31. Monetary Policy

XI. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
32. Trading with the World



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Author Bios

Michael Parkin studied economics in England and began his university teaching career immediately after graduating with a B.A. from the University of Leicester. He is a past president of the Canadian Economics Association and has served on the editorial boards of the American Economic Review and the Journal of Monetary Economics. His research on macroeconomics, monetary economics, and international economics has resulted in more than 160 publications in journals and edited volumes, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Monetary Economics, and the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking.

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This package contains:
•   Parkin, Economics, 8/E (2008)
•   Addison-Wesley, MyEconLab CourseCompass with Pearson eText -- Valuepack Access Card (2007)

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