• A thorough and accessible presentation of all the core principles of economics to help you learn how to think like an economist and develop a clearer perspective on today’s events.
• Learn how academics across the profession are engaged in a lively debate about the future direction of economics as a discipline to enhance your understanding and your critical thinking skills.
• Supplementary mathematics content is provided in a new digital edition of Maths for Economics: A Companion to Mankiw and Taylor Economics to help you apply the maths you need within the context of economics.

PART 1 Introduction to economics

1 What is economics?

2 Thinking like an economist

PART 2 The theory of competitive markets

3 The market forces of supply and demand

4 Background to demand: Consumer choices

5 Background to supply: Firms in competitive markets

6 Consumers, producers and the efficiency of markets

PART 3 Interventions in markets

7 Supply, demand and government policies

8 Public goods, common resources and merit goods

9 Market failure and externalities

Part 4 Firm behaviour and market structures

10 Firms’ production decisions

11 Market structures I: Monopoly

12 Market structures II: Monopolistic competition

13 Market structures III: Oligopoly

14 Market structures IV: Contestable markets

Part 5 Factor markets

15 The economics of factor markets

Part 6 Inequality

16 Income inequality and poverty

Part 7 Trade

17 Interdependence and the gains from trade

Part 8 Heterodox economics

18 Information and behavioural economics

19 Heterodox theories in economics

N. GREGORY MANKIW is the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University. As a student, he studied economics at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a teacher he has taught macroeconomics, microeconomics, statistics and principles of economics. Professor Mankiw is a prolific writer and a regular participant in academic and policy debates. In addition to his teaching, research and writing, Professor Mankiw has been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and an advisor to the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York and the Congressional Budget Office. From 2003 to 2005, he served as chairman of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisors and was an advisor to presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the 2012 US presidential election.

MARK P. TAYLOR

MARK P. TAYLOR is Dean of John M Olin Business School at Washington University, US, and was previously Dean of Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick, UK. He obtained his first degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University and his Master’s degree in economics from London University, from where he also holds a doctorate in economics and international finance. Professor Taylor has taught economics and finance at various universities (including Oxford, Warwick and New York) and at various levels (including principles courses, advanced undergraduate and advanced postgraduate courses). He has also worked as a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund and at the Bank of England and, before becoming Dean of Warwick Business School, was a managing director at BlackRock, the world’s largest financial asset manager, where he worked on international asset allocation based on macroeconomic analysis. His research has been extensively published in scholarly journals and he is today one of the most highly cited economists in the world. He has also been a member of the Academic Advisory Group of the Bank of England Fair and Effective Markets Review.

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR

ANDREW ASHWIN has over 20 years’ experience as a teacher of economics. He has an MBA from the University of Hull and a PhD in assessment and the notion of threshold concepts in economics from the University of Leicester. Andrew is an experienced author, writing a number of texts for students at different levels, and journal publications related to his PhD research as well as working on the development of online learning materials at the University of Bristol’s Institute of Learning and Research Technologies. Andrew was Chair of Examiners for a major awarding body for business and economics in England and is a subject specialist consultant in economics for the UK regulator, Ofqual. Andrew has a keen interest in assessment and learning in economics and has received accreditation as a Chartered Assessor with the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors. He has also edited the journal of the Economics, Business and Enterprise Association.