Economics : A Self-Teaching Guide

by Slavin, Steve

• ISBN13: 9780471317524
• ISBN10: 0471317527
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-08-05
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Economics Made Easy Economics: A Self-Teaching Guide is back in a new and revised edition to help you teach yourself introductory economics quickly and painlessly. Using the most up-to-date information, this new edition gives you a clear picture of the way our economy works. Essential math and analysis skills are presented right at the beginning, so you can understand principles and equations from the start-without a lot of struggle. Whether you use it as an introduction, a review, or a supplement to other materials, Economics: A Self-Teaching Guide, Second Edition is the perfect resource for anyone exploring basic economics. In clear, easy-to-follow language, Steve Slavin covers every aspect of the U.S. economy, including a historical review, resources, macro- and micro-economics, gross domestic product, the economic sectors, inflation and unemployment, fiscal policy, banking and monetary policy, economic theory, supply and demand, and much more. To help you to gauge your understanding of the material, exercises are provided throughout the book and a self-test at the end of each short section sums up all you have learned. With the help of Steve Slavin, economics is no longer a mystery-it's a fascinating realm of exploration and discussion.

Author Biography

STEVE L. SLAVIN, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Economics at Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey. He has also taught at Brooklyn College and at the New York Institute of Technology.

Table of Contents

Part I Introduction to Economics	1	(28)
1. The American Economy Since World War I	3	(16)
The 1920s through World War II	4	(3)
The Postwar Period	7	(5)
The 1970s and the 1980s	12	(2)
The American Economy at the End of the Twentieth Century	14	(5)
2. Understanding and Manipulating Numbers	19	(10)
Working with Millions, Billions, and Trillions	19	(2)
Calculating Percentage Changes	21	(2)
Dealing with Index Numbers	23	(2)
Word Problems	25	(4)
Part II Macroeconomics: The Problems	29	(94)
3. Economic Resources	31	(14)
The Three Questions of Economics	31	(2)
Question 1: What Goods Shall We Produce?	32	(1)
Question 2: How Shall These Goods Be Produced?	32	(1)
Question 3: For Whom Shall the Goods Be Produced?	32	(1)
The Definition of Economics	33	(1)
Resources--The Means of Production	34	(1)
Land	34	(1)
Labor	34	(1)
Capital	34	(1)
Entrepreneurial Ability	35	(1)
Unlimited Wants	35	(1)
Opportunity Cost	35	(1)
The Production Possibilities Curve	36	(5)
Economic Growth	41	(4)
4. The Mixed Economy	45	(18)
The Invisible Hand, the Price Mechanism, and Perfect Competition	46	(2)
The Invisible Hand	46	(1)
The Price Mechanism	46	(1)
Competition	47	(1)
The Role of Government in the Economy	48	(1)
Specialization	49	(2)
The Economic Advantage of Specialization	49	(1)
Specialization and Exchange	50	(1)
Specialization and Alienation	50	(1)
International Trade: The Case for Specialization	51	(6)
Domestic Exchange Equations	52	(1)
The Terms of Trade	53	(4)
Absolute Advantage	57	(6)
Comparative Advantage	58	(5)
5. Gross Domestic Product	63	(16)
What Is Gross Domestic Product?	63	(1)
How Is GDP Measured?	64	(2)
Flow-of-Income Approach	64	(1)
Expenditures Approach	65	(1)
GDP versus Real GDP	66	(5)
Shortcomings of GDP as a Measure of National Economic Well-Being	71	(5)
Production That Is Excluded	71	(2)
Treatment of Leisure Time	73	(1)
Human Costs and Benefits	73	(2)
What Goes into GDP?	75	(1)
Per Capita Real GDP	76	(3)
6. The Government, Business, and Consumption Sectors	79	(22)
The Government Sector	79	(10)
The Growth of Government Spending	79	(2)
Taxation	81	(1)
Types of Taxes	82	(2)
Sources of Federal Revenue	84	(5)
The Business Sector	89	(7)
The Types of Business Firms	89	(2)
Investment	91	(5)
The Consumption Sector	96	(5)
Consumption and Saving	96	(1)
The Average Propensity to Consume (APC) and the Average Propensity to Save (APS)	96	(2)
The Marginal Propensity to Consume (MPC) and the Marginal Propensity to Save (MPS)	98	(1)
The Determinants of Consumption	99	(2)
7. Inflation and Unemployment	101	(22)
Inflation and Deflation	102	(1)
A Short History of Long Inflation	103	(1)
Anticipated and Unanticipated Inflation	104	(4)
Theories of the Causes of Inflation	108	(2)
Demand-Pull Inflation	108	(1)
Cost-Push Inflation	109	(1)
Inflation as a Self-Perpetuating Process	110	(1)
Creeping Inflation and Hyperinflation	111	(2)
How to Compute the Unemployment Rate	113	(2)
Unequal Burdens of Unemployment	115	(2)
Types of Unemployment	117	(2)
Frictional Unemployment	117	(1)
Structural Unemployment	118	(1)
Cyclical Unemployment	118	(1)
Who Is Eligible to Collect Unemployment Benefits?	119	(1)
Conclusion	119	(4)
Part III Macroeconomics: The Solutions	123	(60)
8. Fiscal Policy	125	(12)
Fiscal Policy and John Maynard Keynes	125	(1)
The Nuts and Bolts of Fiscal Policy	126	(1)
Deficits, Surpluses, and Balanced Budgets	127	(1)
The Automatic Stabilizers	128	(2)
Variations in Tax Receipts	128	(1)
Unemployment Insurance Benefits	129	(1)
Personal Savings	129	(1)
Other Transfer Payments	129	(1)
Discretionary Fiscal Policy	130	(2)
Making the Automatic Stabilizers More Effective	131	(1)
Public Works	131	(1)
Changes in Tax Rates	131	(1)
The National Debt	132	(5)
9. Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy	137	(26)
The Three Jobs of Money	138	(1)
Our Money Supply	138	(1)
The Equation of Exchange	139	(1)
The Quantity Theory of Money	140	(4)
Banking	144	(3)
The Goldsmiths	144	(3)
Modern Banking	147	(1)
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)	148	(1)
The Federal Reserve System	149	(2)
The Federal Reserve District Banks	149	(1)
The Board of Governors	149	(1)
Legal Reserve Requirements	150	(1)
Monetary Policy	151	(6)
Discount Rate Changes	157	(1)
Changing Reserve Requirements	157	(1)
Monetary Policy: Fighting Inflations and Recessions	158	(1)
The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980	159	(4)
10. Twentieth-Century Economic Theory	163	(20)
Classical Economics	164	(3)
Keynesian Economics	167	(3)
The Monetarist School	170	(3)
Supply-Side Economics	173	(3)
Rational Expectations Theory	176	(4)
Conclusion	180	(3)
Part IV Microeconomics	183	(58)
11. Demand and Supply	185	(26)
What Is Demand?	185	(2)
Individual and Market Demand	187	(2)
Changes in Demand	189	(2)
What Is Supply?	191	(3)
Equilibrium in Supply and Demand	194	(17)
Changes in Demand	196	(1)
Changes in Supply	197	(2)
Summing Up: The Effects of Changes in Supply and Demand on Price and Quantity	199	(1)
Price Floors and Ceilings	199	(12)
12. Theory of Consumer Behavior	211	(8)
What Is Utility?	211	(1)
Marginal Utility	212	(1)
Total Utility	213	(2)
Consumer Surplus	215	(4)
13. Supply in the Short Run and the Long Run	219	(8)
Fixed, Variable, and Total Cost	219	(2)
Fixed Costs	219	(1)
Variable Costs	220	(1)
Total Cost	220	(1)
The Short Run and the Long Run	221	(1)
The Short Run	221	(1)
The Long Run	222	(1)
The Shutdown Decision	222	(2)
The Go-Out-of-Business Decision	224	(3)
14. Four Models of Competition: Perfect Competition, Monopoly, Monopolistic Competition, and Oligopoly	227	(14)
Perfect Competition Defined	227	(1)
Many Sellers	228	(1)
The Same Product	228	(1)
Free Entry	228	(1)
Examples of Perfectly Competitive Industries	228	(1)
Monopoly Defined	229	(1)
The Bases of Monopoly	230	(1)
Control of an Essential Resource	230	(1)
A Government Franchise	230	(1)
Getting There First	230	(1)
Barriers to Entry	230	(1)
Economies of Being Established	231	(1)
Are Monopolies Always Large?	232	(1)
Monopolistic Competition Defined	233	(1)
Product Differentiation under Monopolistic Competition	234	(1)
The Typical Monopolistic Competitor	235	(2)
Oligopoly Defined	237	(1)
Concentration Ratios	237	(2)
A Final Comment	239	(2)
Index	241