卡尔凯斯(Karl E. Case) 美国韦尔斯利大学经济学讲座教授,拥有哈佛大学博士学位。为美国标准普尔指数顾问委员会成员。与本书第二作者雷费尔共同任职于波士顿联邦储备银行。曾任哈佛大学本科生教育主任,荣获Allyn青年教师奖。研究领域包括房地产、住房问题以及公共财政。
雷费尔(Ray C. Fair) 美国耶鲁大学经济学教授、耶鲁Cowles基金会成员,计量经济学协会会士,拥有麻省理工大学博士学位。主要研究领域是宏观经济学和计量经济学,尤其是宏观计量经济建模问题。
莎伦奥斯特(Sharon M. Oster) 美国耶鲁大学管理学院院长,经济学与管理学讲座教授。研究领域为产业组织。
目錄:
PART IIntroduction To Economics1
The Scope and Method of Economics1
Why Study Economics? 2
ECONOMICS IN PRACTICE iPod and the World 6
The Scope of Economics 6
ECONOMICS IN PRACTICE Trust and Gender 9
The Method of Economics 9 An Invitation 15
Summary 15Problems 16
The Economic Problem: Scarcity and Choice17
Scarcity, Choice, and Opportunity Cost 18
ECONOMICS IN PRACTICE Frozen Foods and Opportunity Costs 20
Economic Systems and the Role of Government 31
Summary 34Problems 35
Demand, Supply, and Market Equilibrium39
Firms and Households: The Basic Decision- Making Units 39
Input Markets and Output Markets: The Circular Flow 40
Demand in ProductOutput Markets 42 Supply in ProductOutput Markets 52 Market Equilibrium 57
ECONOMICS IN PRACTICE High Prices for Tomatoes 61
ECONOMICS IN PRACTICE Why Do the Prices of Newspapers Rise? 63
Demand and Supply in Product Markets: A Review 63
Summary 64Problems 65
Demand and Supply Applications69
The Price System: Rationing and Allocating Resources 69
ECONOMICS IN PRACTICE Prices and Total Expenditure: A Lesson From the Lobster Industry in 2008–2009 71
Supply and Demand Analysis: An Oil Import Fee 76
ECONOMICS IN PRACTICE The Price Mechanism at Work for Shakespeare 77
Supply and Demand and Market Efciency 79
Summary 83Problems 83
5Elasticity87
Price Elasticity of Demand 88
Calculating Elasticities 90
The Determinants of Demand Elasticity 97
ECONOMICS IN PRACTICE Elasticities at a Delicatessen in the Short Run and Long Run 98
Other Important Elasticities 99
Summary 101Problems 102
PART IIThe Market System: Choices Made by Households and Firms105
6Household Behavior and Consumer Choice109
Household Choice in Output Markets 109 The Basis of Choice: Utility 114
Income and Substitution Effects 118 Household Choice in Input Markets 120
ECONOMICS IN PRACTICE Substitution and Market Baskets 121
ECONOMICS IN PRACTICE What Happens When the Cost of Self-Discovery Falls? 124
A Review: Households in Output and Input Markets 125
1
Summary 126Problems 126
The Production Process: The Behavior of Profit-Maximizing Firms129
The Behavior of Prot-Maximizing Firms 130
The Production Process 134
ECONOMICS IN PRACTICE How Fast Should a Truck Driver Go? 138
Choice of Technology 138
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內容試閱:
Preface
Our goal in the 10th edition, as it was in the first edition, is to instill in students a fascination with both the functioning of the economy and the power and breadth of economics. The first line of every edition of our book has been “The study of economics should begin with a sense of wonder.” We hope that readers come away from our book with a basic understand- ing of how market economies function, an appreciation for the things they do well, and a sense of the things they do poorly. We also hope that readers begin to learn the art and sci- ence of economic thinking and begin to look at some policy and even personal decisions in a different way.
What’s New in This Edition?
The years 2008–2009 became the fifth recession in the United States since 1970. One of the new features of this edition is a discussion of this recession in the context of the overall history of the U.S. economy. This most recent recession, however, required more than the usual revisions, both because of its severity and because of the unusual nature of both the events leading up to it and some of the remedies employed by the govern- ment to deal with it.
In June 2010, the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve had assets of $2.3 trillion. Of these
assets, half, or just over $1.1 trillion, was held in the form of mortgage-backed securities.
In 2007, the Fed held no mortgage-backed securities. In June 2010, commercial banks in
the United States held more than $900 billion in excess reserves at the Fed. In the past,
banks have held almost no excess reserves. These extraordinary changes at the Fed fol-
low on the heels of interventions by the federal government in financial operations of
numerous private banks like J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, as well as in companies
like AIG and General Motors. These extraordinary actions required substantial changes
throughout the macroeconomic chapters of this book. New material describing these
interventions appear in a number of chapters, both in the text itself and in the Economics
in Practice boxes. Revisions were also necessary in the background discussions of mone-
tary policy, since the existence of excess reserves considerably complicates the usual
workings of monetary policy.
In the microeconomics area, there has been a good deal of exciting new work in the areas
of economic development, behavioral economics, and experimental economics. This edition has added material in various places throughout the microeconomics chapters that describe this work.
This edition has augmented the current research focus of many of the Economics in
Practice boxes. Historically, the boxes have focused principally on newspaper excerpts
related to the subject of the chapter. Beginning last edition and pushed through more
strongly this edition, we have added boxes that we hope will demonstrate more clearly
the ideas that lie at the heart of economic thinking. Thus, two thirds of the boxes in the
microeconomics and macroeconomics chapters relate an economic principle either to a
personal observation why does Denzel Washington get paid what he does? or to a
recent piece of economic research new work by Emmanuel Saez on the fact that much
of modern wealth comes from wages rather than interest, Carola Frydman’s work on
executive compensation, and Rachel Croson’s work on gender and trust. When possi-
ble, we focus on work by younger scholars and on more recent research. It is our hope
that new students will be inspired by the wide breadth and exciting nature of the
research currently going on in economics as they read these boxes.
1
A number of the chapters have been reworked to improve their readability. On the
microeconomics side, Chapters 9, 12, and 18 have been most affected. The other major
changes concern the new discussion needed for the 2008–2009 recession and the new