Paul Krugman – Economics (4th edition, 2015)

Автор: Paul Krugman
Название книги: Economics (4th edition)
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Экономические дисциплины
Страницы: 1172
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

When it comes drawing on enduring economic principles to explain current economic realities, there is no one readers trust more than Paul Krugman. With his bestselling introductory textbook (now in a new edition) the Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist is proving to be equally effective in the classroom, with more and more instructors in all types of schools using Krugman’s signature storytelling style to help them introduce the fundamental principles of economics to all kinds of students.

The Importance of a Narrative
Approach
More than a decade ago, when Robin and I began writing
the first edition of this textbook, we had many small
ideas: particular aspects of economics that we believed
weren’t covered the right way in existing textbooks. But
we also had one big idea: the belief that an economics
textbook could and should be built around narratives,
that it should never lose sight of the fact that economics
is, in the end, a set of stories about what people do.
Many of the stories economists tell take the form of
models—for whatever else they are, economic models
are stories about how the world works. But we believed
that students’ understanding of and appreciation for
models would be greatly enhanced if they were presented,
as much as possible, in the context of stories about
the real world, stories that both illustrate economic
concepts and touch on the concerns we all face as individuals
living in a world shaped by economic forces.
Those stories have been integrated into every edition,
including this one. Once again, you’ll find them
in the openers, in special features like Economics in
Action, For Inquiring Minds, Global Comparison, and
in our business cases. We have been gratified by the
reception this storytelling approach has received and
in this edition of Economics we continue to expand the
book’s appeal by including many new stories on a broad
range of topics, and by updating and revising others.
Specifically, there are 13 new opening stories, 27 new
Economics in Actions, and 8 new business cases. As
always, a significant number of the features that aren’t
completely new have been updated.
We remain extremely fortunate in our reviewers,
who have put in an immense amount of work helping
us to make this book even better. And we are also
deeply thankful to the users who have given us feedback,
telling us what works and, even more important,
what doesn’t.
Despite the many changes in this new edition, we’ve
tried to keep the spirit the same. This is a book about
economics as the study of what people do and how they
interact, a study very much informed by real-world
experience.
The Fourth Edition: What’s New
Robin and I have been extremely gratified by the success
of the first three editions of Economics, which has made
it one of the best-selling economics textbooks. Yet we are
aware that success can have its dangers. Given the book’s
wide acceptance, it might be tempting for an author
to do less in the next revision. In fact, it might be downright
rational. However, we believe we have resisted that
temptation in this latest edition. Following is an overview
of the changes we’ve made.
Big Changes in the First Half of the Book
(Chapters 1–20 on Microeconomics) . . .
Many new examples and stories focusing on
environmental concerns, new technology, and
policy debates
After touring college campuses and observing antifracking
signs everywhere, we were impressed by how
much students really do want to participate in the
big economic issues of the day. However, we can also
note how much today’s students are attached to their
energy-hungry devices, from smartphones to tablets to
computers to personal dorm fridges. Hence one of the
aims of this edition is to both acknowledge students’
idealism as well as to help inform them about the realities
of resource scarcity and the need to make choices.
To that end we have made fracking and its effects
on the market for natural gas the subject of the opening
story for Chapter 3, on supply and demand. However, we have been careful not to take sides in the debate
over fracking—while highlighting how it has dramatically
lowered the price of energy, like natural gas, we
alert students to the environmental concerns it raises
in Chapter 16 on externalities.
These are just two of the many new examples and
stories we have introduced in the fourth edition with
the aim of thoroughly freshening up the new edition and
keeping it current and relevant. We have paid particular
attention to how changes in technology are transforming
the economic landscape. For example, we discuss
the rise of Uber to illustrate market equilibrium, the
use of Smart Grid technology to show the importance
of measuring cost, and how the advent of “showrooming”
and shopping Apps moves the market for consumer
goods closer to one of perfect competition. We have also
chosen stories and examples on topics close to the lives
of today’s students, like the Economics in Action, “The
Rise and Fall of the Unpaid Intern,” in Chapter 5 on
price controls and quotas.
We have also chosen topics that illustrate important
policy debates, such as the introduction of the
Affordable Care Act, the regulatory questions raised by
the fight between Amazon and Hachette Books, and the
environmental trade-offs of coal-fired versus naturalgas-
fired power plants. And as always, we pay great
attention to integrating an international perspective, in
our Global Comparison feature, but also in the many
globally oriented applications and stories. All global
examples are highlighted with the following icon:
A listing of opening stories,
Economics in Actions, For Inquiring Minds,
Global Comparisons, and business cases can be
found inside the front and back covers
and on the facing pages.
A major revision of Chapter 16, Externalities
We believe environmental concerns are one of the most
pressing issues today and are a good means of sparking
students’ interests in economics.
The focus on the economics and environmental
effects of fracking that begins in Chapter 3 on supply
and demand continues in Chapter 16 on externalities
where we’ve added a new opening story (“Trouble
Underfoot”) to illustrate the concept of a negative
externality, using the environmental debate over contaminated
groundwater from fracking. Following in
that same vein, and in order to sharpen students’ appreciation
of environmental trade-offs, we include a new
Economics in Action, “How Much Does Your Electricity
Really Cost?” that compares the social cost of different
types of power generation.
Pedagogical changes to the chapter include an
improved discussion of the costs and benefits of pollution
and a much simplified analysis of the Coase theorem.
There is also a completely revised and updated section
on network externalities, along with a new business case
tracing the rise of Facebook and the fall of MySpace to
show network externalities in action.
New coverage of the Affordable Care Act
and other improvements in Chapter 18, The
Economics of the Welfare State
This chapter is a unique feature of our book that has
become even more relevant since first introduced in
the second edition. For one thing, the major provisions
of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, went
into effect at the beginning of 2014; this is the biggest
expansion of the U.S. welfare state since the creation
of Medicare in the 1960s. We examine the economics
behind the act, and discuss the early, relatively favorable
returns of its performance.
Meanwhile, the Great Recession and its aftermath
have been a major test of the ability of welfare-state
programs to cushion Americans from hardship; we discuss
new research showing a dramatic effect from food
stamps and other programs in limiting the rise in poverty.
In addition, the chapter continues to offer a comprehensive
look at the U.S. welfare state and its philosophical
origins, along with a close look at how programs in
the United States compare to those in other countries.
Despite the many changes and updates, our goal for
the chapter is the same: to motivate students to think
more deeply about economic trade-offs, social welfare,
and the political process.