Economy, society, and public policy
By: the CORE ESPP team
Contributors: Curriculum Open-Access Resources in Economics Project
Edition: Beta [version].
Publisher: CORE Project
Published: 2018
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Subjects: Economics; Textbooks; Economic policy
Description: Consists of a textbook for an introductory course in economics for college students. Introduces the tools of economics with the goal of enabling students to use economics to understand and articulate reasoned views on some of the most pressing policy problems facing human societies today.
Notes: "August 2018"--Preface.

Includes bibliographical references.

"Created specifically for students from social science, public policy, business studies, engineering, and other disciplines who are not economics majors"--Preface.
Table of contents: title: Preface; title: A note to instructors; title: Producing Economy, Society, and Public Policy; title: List of resources. Doing Economics Empirical Projects ; How economists learn from data ; When economists disagree ; Videos ; Great economists ; Find out more ; Figures; title: Capitalism: affluence, inequality, and the environment. Introduction ; Affluence and income inequality ; Economic growth ; The permanent technological revolution: Engine of growth ; The capitalist revolution ; Capitalism and growth: Cause and effect? ; Varieties of capitalism: Institutions and growth ; Varieties of capitalism: Growth and stagnation ; Capitalism, inequality, and democracy ; Capitalism, growth and environmental sustainability ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Measuring climate change ; References; title: Social interactions and economic outcomes. Introduction ; Self-interest and social dilemmas ; Social interactions and public policy ; When self-interest works: The invisible hand ; When self-interest doesn't work: The prisoners' dilemma ; Beyond self-interest: Caring about others ; Free riding and altruism ; Sustaining contributions to the public good by punishing free riding ; Predicting economic outcomes: A Nash equilibrium ; Which Nash equilibrium? Conflicts of interest and bargaining ; Conflicts of interest in the global climate change problem ; The economy and economics ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Collecting and analysing data from experiments ; References; title: Public policy for fairness and efficiency. Introduction ; Goals of public policy ; Fairness and efficiency in the ultimatum game ; Evaluating institutions and outcomes: Is it efficient? ; Evaluating institutions and outcomes: Is it fair? ; What's wrong with inequality? Procedural and substantive judgements of fairness ; Implementing public policies ; Unintended consequences: Policies affect preferences ; Unintended consequences of a redistributive tax ; How do we find out if a policy will work? ; Economic models: How to see more by looking at less ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Measuring the effect of a sugar tax ; References; title: Work, wellbeing, and scarcity. Introduction ; Basic concepts: Prices, costs, and incentives ; Making decisions when there are trade-offs ; Preferences ; Decision making, trade-offs, and opportunity costs ; The feasible set ; Decision making and scarcity ; Hours of work and economic growth ; Explaining our working hours: Changes over time ; Explaining our working hours: Differences between countries ; Is this a good model? ; Work, free time, and wellbeing: A social dilemma ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Measuring wellbeing ; References.; title: Institutions, power, and inequality. Introduction ; Institutions: The rules of the game ; Production and distribution: Using a model ; The rule of force: Bruno appears and has unlimited power over Angela ; Property rights and the rule of law ; Efficiency and conflicts over the distribution of the surplus ; Property rights, the rule of law, and the right to vote ; The lessons from Angela and Bruno's story ; Measuring economic inequality ; Comparing inequality across the world ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Measuring inequality: Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients ; References; title: The firm: Employees, managers, and owners. Introduction ; Firms, markets, and the division of labour ; Power relations within the firm ; Other people's money: The separation of ownership and control ; Other people's labour ; Why do a good day's work? Employment rents ; Work and wages: The labour discipline model ; Wages, effort, and profits in the labour discipline model ; Why there is always involuntary unemployment ; Putting the model to work: Owners, employees, and public policy ; Why do employers pay employment rents to their workers? ; Another kind of business organization: Cooperative firms ; Another kind of business organization: The gig economy ; Principals and agents: Interactions under incomplete contracts ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Measuring management practices ; References; title: Firms and markets for goods and services. Introduction ; Economies of scale and the cost advantages of large-scale production ; The demand curve and willingness to pay to learn a language ; Choosing the price that results in the greatest profits ; Gains from trade ; Price-setting, market power, and public policy ; Product selection, innovation, and advertising ; Buying and selling: Demand and supply in a competitive market ; Demand and supply in a competitive market: Bakeries ; Competitive equilibrium: Gains from trade, allocation, and distribution ; Changes in supply and demand ; The world oil market ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Supply and demand ; References; title: The labour market: Wages, profits, and unemployment. Introduction ; Measuring the economy: Employment and unemployment ; The wage-setting curve: Employment and real wages ; The price-setting curve: Wages and profits in the whole economy ; Wages, profits, and unemployment in the whole economy ; Unemployment as a characteristic of labour market equilibrium ; Why was unemployment higher in Spain than in Germany? ; Structural and cyclical unemployment: The role of demand ; Labour market equilibrium and the distribution of income ; Labour unions: Bargained wages and the union voice effect ; Labour market policies to address unemployment and inequality ; Labour market policies: Shifting the Nash equilibrium ; Looking backward: Baristas and bread markets ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Measuring the non-monetary cost of unemployment ; References.; title: The credit market: Borrowers, lenders, and the rate of interest. Introduction ; Income, consumption, and wealth ; Borrowing: Bringing consumption forward in time ; Reasons to borrow: Smoothing and impatience ; Borrowing allows smoothing by bringing consumption to the present ; Storing or lending allows smoothing and moving consumption to the future ; Mutual gains and conflicts over their distribution in the credit market ; Borrowing may allow investing: Julia's best hope ; Credit market constraints: Another principal-agent problem ; Inequality: Lenders, borrowers, and those excluded from credit markets ; The credit market and the labour market ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Credit-excluded households in a developing country ; References; title: Banks, money, housing, and financial assets. Introduction ; Assets, money, banks, and the financial system ; Money and banks ; Balance sheets: Assets and liabilities ; Banks, profits, and the creation of money ; The central bank, banks, and interest rates ; The business of banking and bank balance sheets ; How key economic actors use and create money: A summary so far ; The value of an asset: Expected return and risk ; Changing supply and demand for a financial asset ; Asset market bubbles ; Housing as an asset, collateral, and house price bubbles ; Banks, housing, and the global financial crisis ; The role of banks in the crisis ; Banking, markets, and morals ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Characteristics of banking systems around the world ; References; title: Market failures and government policy. Introduction ; Market failure: External effects of pollution ; External effects and bargaining ; External effects: Government policies and income distribution ; Property rights, contracts, and market failures ; Public goods and market failure ; Missing markets: Insurance and lemons ; Market failure and government policy ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Measuring willingness to pay for climate change mitigation ; References; title: Governments and markets in a democratic society. Introduction ; The market and other institutions ; Markets, specialization, and the division of labour ; Prices are messages plus motivation: The magic of the market ; Prices as messages ; Putting motivation behind the message ; The limits of markets: Repugnant markets and merit goods ; The government as an economic actor ; Political rents and democratic political competition ; Government spending priorities of a nation ; Economic feasibility ; Administrative feasibility: Information and capacities ; Political feasibility ; Policy matters and economics works ; Conclusion ; Doing Economics: Government policies and popularity: Hong Kong cash handout ; References; title: Glossary; title: Bibliography; title: Copyright acknowledgements.