Foundations of Economics: A Beginner's CompanionFoundations of Economics breathes life into the discipline by linking key economic concepts with wider debates and issues. By bringing to light delightful mind-teasers, philosophical questions and intriguing politics in mainstream economics, it promises to enliven an otherwise dry course whilst inspiring students to do well. The book covers all the main economic concepts and addresses in detail three main areas: * consumption and choice * production and markets * government and the State. Each is discussed in terms of what the conventional textbook says, how these ideas developed in historical and philosophical terms and whether or not they make sense. Assumptions about economics as a discipline are challenged, and several pertinent students' anxieties ('Should I be studying economics?') are discussed. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
1 | 10 |
3 | 30 |
textbooks on consumer | 43 |
the roots | 76 |
do we maximise utility even | 94 |
textbooks on firms production | 121 |
is the textbooks theory | 166 |
can a capitalist society | 279 |
BOOK 2 | 295 |
Foundations | 322 |
International trade and the Third World | 328 |
Does economic theory matter? | 335 |
The curse of economics | 354 |
Further reading | 378 |
| 386 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adam Smith answer assumption behaviour benefit Beta buyers capital capital accumulation capitalist Chapter choice choose combination commodities consumers cost course create debate demand dis-utility distribution economic theory economics textbooks efficiency employers equal Equi-marginal Principle equilibrium example exploitation extra factors of production Figure firm’s firms free-market human ideas income increase indifference curves individuals industry inefficient inputs instrumentally rational intervention investment isoquant Jill Karl Marx Keynes Keynesian labour market land less machine marginal rate marginal utility market failure Marx means monopoly natural neoclassical economics neoclassical economists Nozick one’s ordinal utility output perfect competition philosophical political possible predict preferences problem profit rate public interest quantity Rawls reason recall recessions redistribution reduce relative price result Ricardo Section sell Smith society things third theorem trade unemployment utility maximisation wage welfare economics workers