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Microeconomics in Context, Second Edition
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Comments/Reviews
Description: Designed for one-semester use, this innovative, principles-level text takes a broad "contextual" approach to economics--including serious consideration of ecological, feminist, and social concerns--while still including coverage of the standard microeconomic concepts and models. Unlike most microeconomics textbooks, which focus exclusively on markets and efficiency, this book starts with the question of human well-being and then examines how economic activities can contribute to, or detract from, well-being. It addresses such critical concerns as ecological sustainability, distributional equality, the quality of employment, and the adequacy of living standards.
Like its companion volume, Macroeconomics in Context, this text includes discussions of historical, institutional, political, and social factors that encourage students to engage with the subject matter. An Instructor's Resource Manual,Test Bank, and Student Study Guide are available on the authors' website for instructors who adopt the text.
Selected Contents:
Part One: The Context for Economic Analysis
1. Economic Activity in Context
2. Economic Actors and Organizations
Part Two: Supply and Demand
3. Market Institutions
4. Supply and Demand
5. Working with Supply and Demand
Part Three: Resource Maintenance, Production, Distribution, and Consumption
6. Capital Stocks and Resource Maintenance
7. Production Costs
8. Production Decisions
9. Distribution: Exchange and Transfer
10. Consumption and the Consumer Society
Part Four: A Closer Look at Markets
11. Markets without Market Power
12. Markets with Market Power
13. Markets for Labor
14. Markets for Other Resources
Part Five: A Closer Look at Economic Organizations
15. The Core Sphere: Households and Communities
16. The Business Sphere: For-Profit Firms
17. The Public Purpose Sphere: Governments and Nonprofits
Part Six: Economic Outcomes and Economic Ideology
18. The Variety of Economic Systems
19. Market Systems and Normative Claims
Comment(s): "The inclusion of alternative viewpoints and debates within economics is an essential and very valuable aspect of this book. It is extremely well suited to liberal arts colleges and for students who take introductory microeconomics as a requirement for social science and environmental studies programs. It think it is equally valuable for business students and traditional economics studies as it both incorporates alternative viewpoints and provides a thorough analysis of the traditional model which allows students to easily progress to intermediate and upper level economics classes." -- Fred Curtis, Drew University
"The best undergraduate education is achieved by facilitating the opportunity for students to both gather new information AND learn to think critically. This text provides the opportunity to meet both of these goals in an introductory economics course, thereby providing an important educational foundation for all future learning. ... The notion of sustainable development is gaining so much ground in colleges and universities and this text provides a wonderful basis for using that attention to teach about economics." -- David H. Ciscel, Emeritus, The University of Memphis
"This text definitely meets a need--a need for a principles text that is accessible to non-economics majors (again, most standard principles texts seem to be talking primarily to majors) and is grounded in the policy relevance of economic reasoning. ... It seems like the principles field has always been dominated by a few standard texts, which all seem to be stuck in the same rut. And some of them have been around, literally, forever." --
"It's common enough for faculty to say 'just read any standard micro text, they're all the same.' But I do sense that more faculty are looking for an alternative, like Goodwin & Nelson, that still provides students with the 'traditional basics' they need, but goes beyond the abstractions to situate economics in the reality students will be facing and in the context within which they'll be making decisions. This is especially true for ecological sustainability, and the systemic treatment of this topic is one of this text's strengths." -- Bruce Logan, Lesley College
"This text is clearly superior in its treatment of microeconomics from a broader context, paying attention to issues [such as] environmental sustainability and activities in households and communities. It is quite innovative in that regard, while at the same time giving due treatment to all the standard microeconomic theory presented in the mainstream textbooks." -- Marjolein van der Veen, Bellevue Community College
    
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