
Principles of Political Economy - Third Edition
Daniel E. Saros, Valparaiso University
Copyright Year: 2019
Publisher: Valparaiso University
Language: English
Conditions of Use
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
CC BY-NC-SA
Reviews
The book is comprehensive covering in depth economic theory, microeconomics, macroeconomics and international economics. There is an index, glossary and more such as a list of figures and tables. read more
The book is comprehensive covering in depth economic theory, microeconomics, macroeconomics and international economics. There is an index, glossary and more such as a list of figures and tables.
The book fairly presents contending economic theories including economic history. The book is a welcome addition to the repository of economics texts in that students may profit from learning there are other ways to approach economics than the neoclassical approach.
The examples and cases are relevant and more or less enduring such that the text will not have to be swapped out within a short period of time. In any event, the author has been quite diligent with developing new editions and the current edition is the third edition published 5/2020.
The writing is clear and each chapter has goals and objectives, summary of key points, key terms and problems for review. The chapters are not overly long and the font size is easy on the eyes.
The text is one solid piece of consistent and clear scholarship and does not deviate chapter to chapter.
There are subheadings, ample and clearly explained graphs and formulas and the writing flows easily.
The order of topics makes sense both from the larger Theory to Micro to Macro to International Economics as well as the organization within each section. To present ALL topics in typical neoclassical economics texts AND alternative schools would be mean a text at least twice as long (maybe longer) and this is obviously not very practical. Sensibly the author has selected those major topics.
A minor point but the online version might use a link at the bottom to take the reader back to Contents.
No grammatical or otherwise writing errors are detected.
The book is quite well-balanced and leans more toward theory and theorists and explanations of the theory with less focus on connecting theory to real-world examples. The section Following the Economic News connects theory to the real-world.
A very interesting book which I recommend highly. It's very impressive how the book is available in multiple formats such as epub, pdf, kindle, mobi. Some teachers and students might want answers to the Problems for Review but perhaps working them out is a true exercise in learning!
Table of Contents
- I. Part One: An Introduction to Economic Theory
- II. Part Two: Principles of Microeconomic Theory
- III. Part Three: Principles of Macroeconomic Theory
- IV. Part Four: Principles of International Economic Theory
About the Book
This textbook is unique among economics textbooks. It contains many of the same topics as mainstream textbooks, but it includes and takes very seriously heterodox critiques and alternatives to the mainstream approach to economics. It includes a whole range of alternative theories, including Post-Keynesian, Austrian, Marxian, radical, feminist, institutionalist, and other approaches. The purpose is to teach students about alternative schools of economic thought but also to deepen their understanding of the dominant, neoclassical approach to economics. In this sense, it draws a great deal of inspiration from Richard Wolff and Stephen Resnick’s Contending Economic Theories. Following Wolff and Resnick, an even broader objective is to teach students that economics is a discourse and that no single voice can rightfully claim to have a monopoly on the truth about economics.
About the Contributors
Author
Daniel E. Saros is a Professor of Economics at Valparaiso University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2004. He received his B.S. in Economics at Bowling Green State University in 1999, and his MA in Economics in 2001 and Ph.D. in Economics in 2004 from the University of Notre Dame. He served as the Director of the International Economics and Finance Master of Science Program from 2012 to 2013 and as the Chair of the Department of Economics from 2014 to 2018 at Valparaiso University. He also served as a member of the Editorial Board of the Review of Radical Political Economics from 2013-2016.