What every economics student needs to know and doesn't get in the usual principles text /
[Book]
John Komlos, University of Munich, Professor Emeritus.
Armonk, New York :
M.E. Sharpe,
[2014]
ix, 258 pages :
illustrations ;
26 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Machine generated contents note: 1.Introduction -- My Credo -- Humanistic Economics -- Welcome to Blackboard Economics -- Toward a Paradigm Shift in Economics -- Real-World Economics -- Simple Is for Simple Minded -- "It's Only a Model!" -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 2.Markets Are Neither Omniscient nor Omnipotent -- Markets Are Not Created by Divine Power -- The Downside of Free Markets -- Government Is Essential -- Markets Have Limitations -- The "Achilles Heel" of Markets -- Morality Should Take Precedence over Markets -- Economics Is a Social Science -- Ideology -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 3.The Nature of Demand -- What Is Scarce? -- Consumer Sovereignty and Endogenous Tastes -- Wants and Basic Needs -- Budget Constraint -- Indifference Curves -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 4.Is There a Rational Economic Decision Maker? -- Utility Maximization -- Utility Maximization Is Impossible for Finite Minds -- Our Brain
Note continued: Neuroeconomics -- Bounded Rationality -- Satisficing -- Biases and Wonders of Intuition -- Heuristics -- Framing, Accessibility, Anchoring -- Prospect Theory -- Behavioral Economics -- Cognitive Dissonance -- Cognitive Endowment -- Genetic Endowment -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 5.Taste Makers and Consumption -- The Influence of Corporate Power -- Interdependence -- Society -- Culture -- Fairness -- Efficiency vs. Equity -- Self-Interest and Altruism -- Positive and Nonnative Economics -- Expected vs. Realized Utility -- Imperfect Information -- Signaling -- Time Inconsistency -- Patience and Impatience -- The Metaphor of the Invisible Hand -- The Magic of Competition -- Consumerism -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 6.Firms and Competition -- Firms -- The Illusion of Perfect Competition -- Production Possibilities Frontier -- Prices -- Equilibrium and Disequilibrium -- Adverse Selection
Note continued: New Trade Theory -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 14.Macroeconomic Externalities -- Environment -- Sustainability -- Green National Accounting -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 15.The Financial Sector and the Great Recession -- Business Cycles -- Expectations -- Minsky's Model and the Meltdown of 2008 -- Deleveraging -- The Bailout and the Great Recession -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes.
Note continued: Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 10.What Is Macroeconomics? -- Keynes the Savior -- Neoclassical Synthesis -- The Monetarist Counterrevolution -- A Macroeconomic Policy Void -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 11.Macroeconomic Aggregates and Variables -- Gross National Product -- Unemployment and Underemployment -- The Natural Rate of Unemployment -- Economic Growth -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 12.Aspects of Macroeconomic Performance -- The Role of Government -- The Impracticality of Keynesian Fiscal Policy -- Monetary Policy -- Crowding Out -- Inflation -- Nominal vs. Real Wages -- Savings -- Taxes -- Cause and Effect: Fiscal Policy at the Beginning of the Obama Administration -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 13.Open Economy Macroeconomics -- International Trade -- Tariffs and Welfare -- Trade and Growth -- Infant Industries -- Unbalanced Trade -- Import Certificates
Note continued: Technological Change -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 7.Returns to the Factors of Production -- Factors of Production -- Natural Resources -- Marginal Theory -- Wages -- The Cost of Capital -- Profits -- Income Distribution -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 8.The Case for Regulation of Markets -- Principal and Agent -- Moral Hazard -- Opportunistic Behavior -- Regulation in the Public Interest -- Regulatory Capture -- Moral Constraints -- Property Rights -- Market Failures -- Exploitation -- Transaction Costs -- Time and Space -- Path Dependence -- Nonexistent Markets -- Limits and Standards -- Chapter Summary -- Questions for Discussion -- Notes -- 9.Microeconomic Applications On and Off the Blackboard -- Minimum Wage -- Price Controls -- Unions -- Discrimination -- Redistribution -- Living Standards -- Happiness and Growth -- Poverty -- Indebtedness and the Obesity Epidemic -- Chapter Summary
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This short book explores a core group of 40 topics that tend to go unexplored in an Introductory Economics course. Though not a replacement for an introductory text, the work is intended as a supplement to provoke further thought and discussion by juxtaposing blackboard models of the economy with empirical observations.