Front Cover.
Half Title Page.
Other Frontmatter.
Copyright Page.
Contributors.
Contents.
Introduction.
1: Let Trading Begin: 400 BCE–1770 CE.
2: Property should be Private: Property Rights.
3: What is a Just Price?: Markets and Morality.
4: You don’t Need to Barter when You have Coins: The Function of Money.
5: Make Money from Money: Financial Services.
6: Money Causes Inflation: The Quantity Theory of Money.
7: Protect Us from Foreign Goods: Protectionism and Trade.
8: The Economy can be Counted: Measuring Wealth.
9: Let Firms be Traded: Public Companies.
10: Wealth Comes from the Land: Agriculture in the Economy.
11: Money and Goods Flow between Producers and Consumers: The Circular Flow of the Economy.
12: Private Individuals Never Pay for Street Lights: Provision of Public Goods and Services.
13: The Age of Reason: 1770–1820.
14: Man is a Cold, Rational Calculator: Economic Man.
15: The Invisible Hand of the Market Brings Order: Free Market Economics.
16: The Last Worker Adds Less to Output than the First: Diminishing Returns.
17: Why do Diamonds Cost More than Water?: The Paradox of Value.
18: Make Taxes Fair and Efficient: The Tax Burden.
19: Divide Up Pin Production, and You Get More Pins: The Division of Labor.
20: Population Growth Keeps Us Poor: Demographics and Economics.
21: Meetings of Merchants End in Conspiracies to Raise Prices: Cartels and Collusion.
22: Supply Creates Its Own Demand: Gluts in Markets.
23: Borrow Now, Tax Later: Borrowing and Debt.
24: The Economy is a Yo-Yo: Boom and Bust.
25: Trade is Beneficial for All: Comparative Advantage.
26: Industrial and Economic Revolutions: 1820–1929.
27: How Much should I Produce, Given the Competition?: Effects of Limited Competition.
28: Phone Calls Cost More without Competition: Monopolies.
29: Crowds Breed Collective Insanity: Economic Bubbles.
30: Let the Ruling Classes Tremble at a Communist Revolution: Marxist Economics.
31: The Value of a Product Comes from the Effort Needed to Make It: The Labor Theory of Value.
32: Prices Come from Supply and Demand: Supply and Demand.
33: You Enjoy the Last Chocolate Less than the First: Utility and Satisfaction.
34: When the Price Goes Up, Some People Buy More: Spending Paradoxes.
35: A System of Free Markets is Stable: Economic Equilibrium.
36: If You Get a Pay Raise, Buy Caviar Not Bread: Elasticity of Demand.
37: Companies are Price Takers Not Price Makers: The Competitive Market.
38: Make One Person Better Off without Hurting the Others: Efficiency and Fairness.
39: The Bigger the Factory, the Lower the Cost: Economies of Scale.
40: The Cost of Going to the Movies is the Fun You’d have had at the Ice Rink: Opportunity Cost.
41: Workers Must Improve Their Lot Together: Collective Bargaining.
42: People Consume to be Noticed: Conspicuous Consumption.
43: Make the Polluter Pay: External Costs.
44: Protestantism has Made Us Rich: Religion and the Economy.
45: The Poor are Unlucky, Not Bad: The Poverty Problem.
46: Socialism is the Abolition of Rational Economy: Central Planning.
47: Capitalism Destroys the Old and Creates the New: Creative Destruction.
48: War and Depressions: 1929–1945.
49: Unemployment is Not a Choice: Depressions and Unemployment.
50: Some People Love Risk, Others Avoid It: Risk and Uncertainty.
51: Government Spending Boosts the Economy by More than what is Spent: The Keynesian Multiplier.
52: Economies are Embedded in Culture: Economics and Tradition.
53: Managers Go for Perks, Not Their Company’s Profits: Corporate Governance.
54: The Economy is a Predictable Machine: Testing Economic Theories.
55: Economics is the Science of Scarce Resources: Definitions of Economics.
56: We Wish to Preserve a Free Society: Economic Liberalism.
57: Industrialization Creates Sustained Growth: The Emergence of Modern Economies.
58: Different Prices to Different People: Price Discrimination.
59: Post-War Economics 1945–1970.
60: In the Wake of War and Depression, Nations Must Cooperate: International Trade and Bretton Woods.
61: All Poor Countries Need is a Big Push: Development Economics.
62: People are Influenced by Irrelevant Alternatives: Irrational Decision Making.
63: Governments should do Nothing but Control the Money Supply: Monetarist Policy.
64: The More People at Work, the Higher Their Bills: Inflation and Unemployement.
65: People Smooth Consumption over Their Life Spans: Saving to Spend.
66: Institutions Matter: Institutions In Economics.
67: People will Avoid Work if They can: Market Information and Incentives.
68: Theories about Market Efficiency Require Many Assumptions: Markets and Social Outcomes.
69: There is No Perfect Voting System: Social Choice Theory.
70: The Aim is to Maximize Happiness, Not Income: The Economics of Happiness.
71: Policies to Correct Markets can Make Things Worse: The Theory of the Second Best.
72: Make Markets Fair: The Social Market Economy.
73: Over Time, All Countries will be Rich: Economic Growth Theories.
74: Globalization is Not Inevitable: Market Integration.
75: Socialism Leads to Empty Shops: Shortages in Planned Economies.
76: What does the Other Man Think I am Going to Do?: Game Theory.
77: Rich Countries Impoverish the Poor: Dependency Theory.
78: You can’t Fool the People: Rational Expectations.
79: People Don’t Care about Probability when They Choose: Paradoxes in Decision Making.
80: Similar Economies can Benefit from a Single Currency: Exchange Rates and Currencies.
81: Famine can Happen in Good Harvests: Entitlement Theory.
82: Contemporary Economics: 1970–Present.
83: It is Possible to Invest without Risk: Financial Engineering.
84: People are Not 100 Percent Rational: Behavioral Economics.
85: Tax Cuts can Increase the Tax Take: Taxation and Economic Incentives.
86: Prices Tell You Everything: Efficient Markets.
87: Over Time, Even the Selfish Cooperate with Others: Competition and Cooperation.
88: Most Cars Traded will be Lemons: Market Uncertainty.
89: The Government’s Promises are Incredible: Independent Central Banks.
90: The Economy is Chaotic Even when Individuals are Not: Complexity and Chaos.
91: Social Networks are a Kind of Capital: Social Capital.
92: Education is Only a Signal of Ability: Signaling and Screening.
93: The East Asian State Governs the Market: Asian Tiger Economies.
94: Beliefs can Trigger Currency Crises: Speculation and Currency Devaluation.
95: Auction Winners Pay over the Odds: The Winner’s Curse.
96: Stable Economies Contain the Seeds of Instability: Financial Crises.
97: Businesses Pay More than the Market Wage: Incentives and Wages.
98: Real Wages Rise during a Recession: Sticky Wages.
99: Finding a Job is Like Finding a Partner or a House: Searching and Matching.
100: The Biggest Challenge for Collective Action is Climate Change: Economics and the Environment.
101: GDP Ignores Women: Gender and Economics.
102: Comparative Advantage is an Accident: Trade and Geography.
103: Like Steam, Computers have Revolutionized Economies: Technological Leaps.
104: We can Kick-Start Poor Economies by Writing Off Debt: International Debt Relief.
105: Pessimism can Destroy Healthy Banks: Bank Runs.
106: Savings Gluts Abroad Fuel Speculation at Home: Global Savings Imbalances.
107: More Equal Societies Grow Faster: Inequality and Growth.
108: Even Beneficial Economic Reforms can Fail: Resisting Economic Change.
109: The Housing Market Mirrors Boom and Bust: Housing and the Economic Cycle.
Directory.
Glossary.
Index.
Acknowledgments.
