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    Read more about Macroeconomics: Theory through Applications

    Macroeconomics: Theory through Applications

    (1 review)

    Russell Cooper, European University Institute

    Andrew John, Melbourne Business School

    Copyright Year:

    ISBN 13: 9781453328422

    Publisher: Saylor Foundation

    Language: English

    Formats Available

    Conditions of Use

    Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
    CC BY-NC-SA

    Reviews

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    Reviewed by Cynthia Mayo, Adjunct Professor, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College on 1/7/20

    The textbook is comprehensive and includes excellent examples of real-world issues, events that relate to the chapter’s topics. The examples relate to the issues that businesses, individuals, federal and local governments. Each chapter begins with... read more

    Table of Contents

    • Chapter 1: What Is Economics?
    • Chapter 2: Macroeconomics in Action
    • Chapter 3: The State of the Economy
    • Chapter 4: The Interconnected Economy
    • Chapter 5: Globalization and Competitiveness
    • Chapter 6: Global Prosperity and Global Poverty
    • Chapter 7: The Great Depression
    • Chapter 8: Jobs in the Macroeconomy
    • Chapter 9: Money: A User's Guide
    • Chapter 10: Understanding the Fed
    • Chapter 11: Inflations Big and Small
    • Chapter 12: Income Taxes
    • Chapter 13: Social Security
    • Chapter 14: Balancing the Budget
    • Chapter 15: The Global Financial Crisis
    • Chapter 16: Macroeconomics Toolkit

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    About the Book

    Russell Cooper and Andrew John have written an economics text aimed directly at students from its very inception. You're thinking, ”Yeah, sure. I've heard that before.“

    This textbook, Macroeconomics: Theory Through Applications, centers around student needs and expectations through two premises: … Students are motivated to study economics if they see that it relates to their own lives. … Students learn best from an inductive approach, in which they are first confronted with a problem, and then led through the process of solving that problem.

    Many books claim to present economics in a way that is digestible for students; Russell and Andrew have truly created one from scratch. This textbook will assist you in increasing students' economic literacy both by developing their aptitude for economic thinking and by presenting key insights about economics that every educated individual should know.

    How? Russell and Andrew have done three things in this text to accomplish that goal:

    1. Applications Ahead of Theory: They present all the theory that is standard in Principles books. But by beginning with applications, students get to learn why this theory is needed.

    The authors take the kind of material that other authors put in ”applications boxes“ and place it at the heart of their book. Each chapter is built around a particular business or policy application, such as social security, globalization, and the wealth and poverty of nations.

    Why take this approach? Traditional courses focus too much on abstract theory relative to the interests and capabilities of the average undergraduate. Students are rarely engaged and the formal theory is never integrated into the way students think about economic issues. And traditional books are organized around theoretical constructs that mean nothing to students. The authors' applications-first approach ensures that students will not see chapters with titles like ”Cost Functions“ or ”Short-Run Fluctuations“. They introduce tools and ideas as and when they are needed. Each chapter is designed with two goals. First, the application upon which the chapter is built provides a ”hook“ that gets students' attention. Second, the application is a suitable vehicle a vehicle for teaching the principles of economics.

    2. Learning through Repetition: Important tools appear over and over again, allowing students to learn from repetition and to see how one framework can be useful in many different contexts.

    Each piece of economic theory in this text is first introduced and explained in the context of a specific application. Most are re-used in other chapters, so students see them in action on multiple occasions. As students progress through the book, they accumulate a set of techniques and ideas. These are collected separately in a ”toolkit“ that provides students with an easy reference and also gives them a condensed summary of economic principles for examination preparation.

    3. A Student's Table of Contents vs. An Instructor's Table of Contents: There is no further proof that Russell and Andrew have created a book aimed specifically at educating students about economics than their two tables of contents.

    The Student's Table of Contents speaks to students, piquing their interest to involve them in the economics, and a Instructor's Table of Contents with the economics to better help you organize your teaching—and frankly, you don't need to get excited by economics, you already are.

    About the Contributors

    Authors

    Russell Cooper is currently Professor of Economics at the European University Institute in Florence Italy and the Fred Hofheinz Regents Professor of Economics at the University of Texas, a position he has held since 2003. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982 and has held positions at Yale University, the University of Iowa and Boston University. Cooper is a NBER Faculty Research Fellow and the Fellow of the Econometric Society.

    Andrew John is Associate Professor of Economics at Melbourne Business School. He received his undergraduate degree in economics from The University of Dublin, Trinity College, in 1981, and his Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1988. He has held academic appointments at Michigan State University, the University of Virginia, and INSEAD. He has also held visiting appointments at the University of Michigan, the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, and the University of Texas at Austin. He joined Melbourne Business School in January 2009. Andrew has consulting experience in the areas of marketing, economics, and strategy. He has worked with clients in Australia, Europe, and throughout the Asia-Pacific region. He has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has also worked with firms in the consumer goods and consulting sectors. Andrew has taught economics to undergraduates, Ph.D. students, MBA students, and executives. His research interests include state-dependent pricing models, environmental economics, coordination games, and consumer boycotts. His published research has appeared in top economics and business journals, including American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Monetary Economics, Economic Journal, Journal of Public Economics, Management Science, Sloan Management Review, and Journal of Marketing. His work is widely cited in economics journals."

     

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