Introduction to Economics

This revised and updated edition has new statistical and empirical material and introduces open economics at an earlier stage to reflect teaching methods. The key feature of this book is its integrated approach - macroeconomic themes such as inflation, unemployment and balance of payments are built up from their microeconomic foundations. It also gives a new exposition on the open economy and uses real examples to illustrate the concepts. This book focuses on the theoretical underpinnings of economics, providing comprehensive coverage of major issues, and of the methods economists use to study them. The book assumes no previous knowledge and no advanced mathematical ability. In addition to the full range of basic topics, the author addresses controversial issues including: open economies and international debt, monetarism versus Keynesianism, persistent inflation and unemployment, uncertainty and expectations, flexible and "sticky" prices, planned economies and public choice.