Microeconomic Principles and Problems

✍ Scribed by Geoffrey Schneider;

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 706
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Microeconomic Principles and Problems offers a comprehensive introduction to all major perspectives in modern microeconomics, including mainstream and heterodox approaches. By providing multiple views of markets and how they work, readers will be better able to understand and analyze the complex behaviors of consumers, firms, and government officials, as well as the likely impact of a variety of economic events and policies.
Most principles textbooks cover only mainstream economics and neglect the rich contextual analysis of heterodox economists. Heterodox material is presented as complementary to mainstream economics: understanding both approaches yields the deepest level of understanding. The book covers standard models, and includes substantial coverage of existing economic realities, featuring case studies and descriptive data. The book includes some coverage of all major heterodox schools of thought. This second edition incorporates new and expanded material on international trade (including disintegration and Brexit), climate issues and perspectives including degrowth, repeated exchanges and games, non-market exchanges, trends in job opportunities, the rising cost of education, the gig economy, social media as an industry, and updated examples and cases. The book's suite of digital resources has also been revised to ensure examples and activities are relevant to each part of the book.
Written in an engaging style focused on real-world examples, this groundbreaking book brings economics to life. It offers the most contemporary and complete package for any pluralist microeconomics class.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART I Economics: A pluralist definition
1 What is economics? The answer depends on who you ask
1.0 Chapter 1 learning goals
1.1 Why economics matters: Economic policy
1.2 How does the economy affect your life?
1.3 Why take a pluralist approach to the study of economics?
1.4 Economic methodology: How to “do” economics
1.5 Methodology in microeconomics: Amazon.com and consumer behavior
1.6 The scientific method in economics: How scientific can economics be?
1.7 Macroeconomic crises, and their infuence on microeconomics
1.8 The rich social science of economics
1.9 Conclusion
2 Scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost: The mainstream PPC model, its limits, and the importance of institutions
2.0 Chapter 2 learning goals
2.1 Scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost
2.2 The production possibilities curve: A simple, mainstream model
2.3 The specialization of resources
2.4 Shifts in the production possibilities curve
2.5 Capital goods, consumer goods, and economic growth
2.6 A political economy critique of scarcity and choice in mainstream economics
2.7 Institutional analysis: A political economy approach to the study of resource allocation
2.8 Conclusion
PART II The evolution of economic ideas and systems
3 The evolution of pre-capitalist economic systems: From communal societies to empires, feudalism,and mercantilism
3.0 Chapter 3 learning goals
3.1 Traditional economies: Ancient hunter-gatherer societies
3.2 Agriculture and the establishment of cities, social classes, and slave-based empires
3.3 The economic system of the Roman Empire
3.4 Feudalism and the manor economy in Western Europe
3.5 The forces behind the decline of feudalism and the rise of markets
3.6 Mercantilism and the uneasy beginnings of capitalism
3.7 Conclusion
4 Adam Smith and the rise of capitalism: The era of laissez-faire
4.0 Chapter 4 learning goals
4.1 The Industrial Revolution and capitalism in England
4.2 Adam Smith, laissez-faire capitalism, and Smith’s critique of mercantilism
4.3 Smith’s idealized picture of a capitalist system
4.4 From supporting the poor to laissez-faire capitalism
4.5 The rise of the factory and the double movement
4.6 Conclusion
5 Karl Marx and the dark ages of capitalism: Historical materialism, surplus value, and the exploitation of labor
5.0 Chapter 5 learning goals
5.1 Infant industry protection and the spread of capitalism in Europe and the United States
5.2 The conditions of workers under capitalism in the 1800s
5.3 Karl Marx, historical materialism, and class conflict
5.4 Surplus value and the exploitation of labor
5.5 Marx on competition, globalization, concentration, and commodifcation
5.6 Crisis and revolution
5.7 Conclusion
6 Thorstein Veblen and monopoly capitalism: The rise of manufacturing and the fall of laissez-faire
6.0 Chapter 6 learning goals
6.1 The development of monopoly capitalism in the United States
6.2 Race, ethnicity, class, and gender in the United States
6.3 The Age of Imperialism
6.4 The rise of neoclassical economics
6.5 Veblen on evolution and institutions
6.6 Veblen on culture, pecuniary emulation, and conspicuous consumption
6.7 Making money vs. making goods
6.8 The manufacturing boom and the roaring twenties
6.9 The Great Depression and the fall of laissez-faire
6.10 Conclusion
7 Keynes and mixed market capitalism: How to save capitalism from itself
7.0 Chapter 7 learning goals
7.1 Neoclassical economics and the ideology of laissez-faire
7.2 The macroeconomic revolution of John Maynard Keynes
7.3 Macroeconomic stabilization policy
7.4 The New Deal and the rise of the mixed economy
7.5 Hayek’s critique of government intervention
7.6 The mixed economy and the golden age of U.S. capitalism, 1945–1973
7.7 The era of neoliberalism and globalization, 1974–2020
7.8 Conclusion: The mixed economy of the United States and other developed economies
8 Modern economic systems: Market-dominated, social market, and state-dominated economies
8.0 Chapter 8 learning goals
8.1 Comparing market-dominated economies and social market economies
8.2 The U.S. model of a market-dominated economy
8.3 The Nordic model of a social market economy
8.4 Other varieties of social market economies
8.5 Socialism and communism
8.6 The Chinese state-dominated economy
8.7 Conclusion
PART III Markets, supply, and demand
9 Markets and how they work: The institutional foundations of markets, and the supply and demand model
9.0 Chapter 9 learning goals
9.1 Markets, market transactions, and non-market exchange
9.2 The institutions that make markets work
9.3 The assumptions of the supply and demand model of mainstream economics
9.4 Overview of the supply and demand model and equilibrium
9.5 The theory of demand
9.6 The determinants of demand that cause shifts in the demand curve
9.7 The theory of supply
9.8 The determinants of supply
9.9 Conclusion
10 Applications of supply and demand: Wages, advertising, price foors and ceilings, excise taxes and subsidies, consumer and producer surplus, and elasticity
10.0 Chapter 10 learning goals
10.1 Double shifts: The impact of changes in wages and advertising
10.2 Price ceilings and price foors
10.3 Per-unit subsidies and excise taxes
10.4 Consumer and producer surplus and deadweight loss
10.5 The price elasticity of demand
10.6 The determinants of the price elasticity of demand
10.7 Income elasticity and cross-price elasticity of demand
10.8 Price elasticity of supply
10.9 Conclusion
11 Consumer and supplier behavior: The complexities of market analysis
11.0 Chapter 11 learning goals
11.1 Veblen goods and pecuniary emulation
11.2 Household, community, and culture
11.3 Non-rational choices
11.4 The mainstream model of supply decisions: Deriving the supply curve
11.5 Political economists and behavioral economists on supply decisions
11.6 Conclusion
PART IV Market structures and corporations
12 Different types of market structures: How market outcomes are affected by market structures
12.0 Chapter 12 learning goals
12.1 Perfect competition
12.2 Normal profit, economic profit, and economic loss
12.3 Monopolistic competition
12.4 Oligopoly
12.5 Monopoly
12.6 Comparing market structures
12.7 Market concentration and industry market shares
12.8 Conclusion
13 Theories of firm behavior: Short-run and long-run costs of production
13.0 Chapter 13 learning goals
13.1 The mainstream model of short-run costs of production
13.2 A specific example of a firm’s hypothetical short-run costs
13.3 The mainstream model of profit maximization
13.4 The mainstream model of a firm’s long-run costs of production
13.5 Political economy theory of the firm
13.6 Conclusion
14 Perfect competition and competitive markets: The perfect, Smithian market structure
14.0 Chapter 14 learning goals
14.1 The characteristics of a perfectly competitive market
14.2 The mainstream model of the perfectly competitive firm in the short run
14.3 The mainstream model of the perfectly competitive firm in the long run
14.4 An application of supply, demand, and perfect competition
14.5 Perfect competition, public policy, and the political economy view
14.6 Conclusion
15 Monopoly and monopoly power: Natural and non-natural monopolies and how the government regulates them
15.0 Chapter 15 learning goals
15.1 Monopoly characteristics
15.2 Demand and marginal revenue curves for a monopoly
15.3 Profit maximization in a monopoly in the short run
15.4 Regulating natural monopolies in the long run
15.5 The debate over monopolies: Rivalrous competition vs. monopoly capital
15.6 Conclusion
16 Monopolistic competition: The market for local services and other easy-to-enter industries with unique products
16.0 Chapter 16 learning goals
16.1 The characteristics of a monopolistically competitive market
16.2 Short-run profit maximization in monopolistic competition
16.3 Monopolistic competition in the long run
16.4 Strategic focus in the political economy approach
16.5 Conclusion
17 Oligopoly and strategic behavior: The nature of large firm competition and an introduction to game theory
17.0 Chapter 17 learning goals
17.1 The major characteristics of an oligopolistic industry
17.2 The kinked demand curve model of an oligopolistic industry
17.3 Tacit, illegal, and formal collusion
17.4 Game theory and the Prisoner’s Dilemma
17.5 Conclusion
18 Corporations and their role in society: The good and bad side of limited liability corporations
18.0 Chapter 18 learning goals
18.1 The three types of firms: Sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations
18.2 Key aspects of the modern limited liability corporation
18.3 If corporations are people, what kind of people are they?
18.4 Are corporations psychopaths?
18.5 The good side of large corporations
18.6 Conclusion
PART V Government intervention in microeconomic markets
19 Market failure and government failure: The primary role for government in microeconomic markets
19.0 Chapter 19 learning goals
19.1 Market failure 1: Imperfect information about unsafe products
19.2 Market failure 2: Unequal bargaining power in the labor market
19.3 Market failure 3: Monopoly power and insufficient competition
19.4 Market failure 4: Negative and positive externalities
19.5 Market failure 5: Failure to preserve common resources and the environment
19.6 Market failure 6: Inadequate supply of public goods
19.7 Market failure 7: Increasing costs of essential services
19.8 Market failure 8: Fostering of inequality and poverty
19.9 Government failure
19.10 Conclusion
20 The economics of the environment and climate change: A key issue of our time
20.0 Chapter 20 learning goals
20.1 Ecological economics
20.2 Environmental and natural resource economics
20.3 The scientific consensus on climate change
20.4 The economic consequences of climate change
20.5 Mainstream, market-based solutions to climate change
20.6 Political economy solutions to climate change
20.7 Conclusion
21 Public goods and services: Do we have the right balance of public and private goods and services?
21.0 Chapter 21 learning goals
21.1 Public and quasi-public goods
21.2 Determining the optimal balance of public and private goods
21.3 How best to provide public goods
21.4 Galbraith and the theory of social balance
21.5 Health care and health insurance
21.6 Health care systems
21.7 Education, knowledge, innovation, and economic development
21.8 Conclusion
PART VI Labor markets and inequality
22 Working for a living: The labor market and the forces that affect your working life
22.0 Chapter 22 learning goals
22.1 Labor market trends
22.2 The political economy of labor: Workers, employers, and conflict
22.3 Motivating labor: Sticks and carrots
22.4 Power dynamics between employers and workers
22.5 The mainstream neoclassical model of the competitive labor market
22.6 Applications of the supply and demand for labor
22.7 The economics of the minimum wage
22.8 Marginal revenue product and income determination in mainstream economics
22.9 The mainstream economics model of labor in non-competitive markets
22.10 Conclusion
23 Inequality, a key modern issue: Class, race, gender, and distribution
23.0 Chapter 23 learning goals
23.1 Income and wealth inequality in the United States and other developed countries
23.2 Social class and the political economy of inequality
23.3 Additional factors driving class inequality in the modern world
23.4 Why we should care about class inequality, and what we can do to address it
23.5 Race and inequality
23.6 Gender inequality
23.7 Economic analysis of inequality: Feminist and stratification economics
23.8 Sexual orientation-based discrimination
23.9 Conclusion
PART VII International microeconomics
24 International microeconomics: Trade, protectionism, and exchange rates
24.0 Chapter 24 learning goals
24.1 Trade and the theory of comparative advantage
24.2 Problems with the theory of comparative advantage
24.3 Political economy views on trade and competitiveness
24.4 Protectionism: Using tariff and non-tariff barriers to protect industries
24.5 Exchange rates and the foreign exchange market
24.6 The determinants of shifts in supply and demand in foreign exchange markets
24.7 Exchange rates, trade, and microeconomic markets
24.8 Conclusion
Glossary of key terms and concepts
Index