Microeconomics 2017

Microeconomics has been developed to meet the scope and sequence of most introductory
microeconomics courses.

To develop Principles of Microeconomics, we acquired the rights to Timothy Taylor’s second edition of Principles of Economics and solicited ideas from economics instructors at all levels of higher education, from community colleges to Ph.D.-granting universities. They told us about their courses, students, challenges, resources, and how a textbook can best meet the needs of both instructors and students.

The result is a app that covers the breadth of economics topics and also provides the necessary depth to ensure the course is manageable for instructors and students alike. And to make it more applied, we have incorporated many current topics. We hope students will be interested to know just how far-reaching the recent recession was (and still is), for example, and why there is so much controversy even among economists over the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The Keystone Pipeline, Occupy Wall Street, and minimum wage debates are just a few of the other important topics covered.

The pedagogical choices, unit arrangements, and learning objective fulfillment were developed and vetted with feedback from educators dedicated to the project. They thoroughly read the material and offered critical and detailed commentary. The outcome is a balanced approach to microeconomics, particularly to the theory and application of economics concepts. New 2015 data are incorporated for topics that range from average U.S. household consumption in Unit 2 to the total value of all home equity in Unit 17. Current events are treated in a politically-balanced way as well.

The app is organized into five main parts:

What is Economics? The first two units introduce students to the study of economics with a focus on making choices in a world of scarce resources.

Supply and Demand, Units 3 and 4, introduces and explains the first analytical model in economics: supply, demand, and equilibrium, before showing applications in the markets for labor and finance.

The Fundamentals of Microeconomic Theory, Units 5 through 10, begins the microeconomics portion of the text, presenting the theories of consumer behavior, production and costs, and the different models of market structure, including some simple game theory.

Microeconomic Policy Issues, Units 11 through 18, covers the range of topics in applied micro, framed around the concepts of public goods and positive and negative externalities. Students explore competition and antitrust policies, environmental problems, poverty, income inequality, and other labor market issues. The text also covers information, risk and financial markets, as well as public economy.

International Economics, Units 19 and 20, the final part of the text, introduces the international dimensions of economics, including international trade and protectionism.


Unit 1 Welcome to Economics!
Unit 2 Choice in a World of Scarcity
Unit 3 Demand and Supply
Unit 4 Labor and Financial Markets
Unit 5 Elasticity
Unit 6 Consumer Choices
Unit 7 Cost and Industry Structure
Unit 8 Perfect Competition
Unit 9 Monopoly
Unit 10 Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly
Unit 11 Monopoly and Antitrust Policy
Unit 12 Environmental Protection and Negative Externalities
Unit 13 Positive Externalities and Public Goods
Unit 14 Poverty and Economic Inequality
Unit 15 Issues in Labor Markets: Unions, Discrimination, Immigration
Unit 16 Information, Risk, and Insurance
Unit 17 Financial Markets
Unit 18 Public Economy
Unit 19 International Trade
Unit 20 Globalization and Protectionism