Economics in Modules

Organized in a highly accessible and effective modular format, Economics in Modules features the story-telling approach, engaging writing, fascinating examples, and cases associated with Krugman/Wells in a student-friendly format that helps you remember more about economics.

Paul Krugman, recipient of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, is Professor of Economics at Princeton University, where he regularly teaches the principles course. He received his BA from Yale and his PhD from MIT. Prior to his current position, he taught at Yale, Stanford, and MIT. He also spent a year on staff of the Council of Economics Advisors in 1982-1983. His research is mainly in the area of international trade, where he is one of the founders of the "new trade theory," which focuses on increasing returns and imperfect competition. He also works in international finance, with a concentration in currency crises. In 1991, Krugman received the American Economic Association’s John Bates Clark medal. In addition to his teaching and academic research, Krugman writes extensively for nontechnical audiences. Krugman is a regular op-ed columnist for the New York Times. His latest trade book, The Conscience of a Liberal, is a best-selling study of the political economy of economic inequality and its relationship with political polarization from the Gilded Age to the present. His earlier books, Peddling Prosperity and The Age of Diminished Expectations, have become modern classics.

Robin Wells was a lecturer and researcher in Economics at Princeton University, where she has taught undergraduate courses. She received her BA from the University of Chicago and her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley; she then did her postdoctoral work at MIT. She has taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Southhampton (United Kingdom), Stanford, and MIT. Her teaching and research focus on the theory of organizations and incentives.

Section 1 Basic Economic Concepts
Module 1 The Study of Economics
Module 2 Models and the Circular Flow
Module 3 The Production Possibility Frontier Model
Module 4 Comparative Advantage and Trade

Section 2 Supply and Demand
Module 5 Demand
Module 6 Supply and Equilibrium
Module 7 Changes in Equilibrium

Section 3 Elasticity and the Law of Demand
Module 8 Income Effects, Substitution Effects, and Elasticity
Module 9 Interpreting Price Elasticity of Demand
Module 10 Other Elasticities

Section 4 Market Efficiency
Module 11 Consumer and Producer Surplus
Module 12 Efficiency and Markets

Section 5 Government Policy and Taxes
Module 13 Price Controls (Ceilings and Floors)
Module 14 Quantity Controls (Quotas)
Module 15 Taxes

Section 6 International Trade
Module 16 Gains from Trade
Module 17 Supply, Demand, and Trade

Section 7 Economics and Decision Making
Module 18 Making Decisions
Module 19 Behavioral Economics
Module 20 Maximizing Utility

Section 8 Production and Costs
Module 21 The Production Function
Module 22 Firm Costs
Module 23 Long-Run Costs and Economies of Scale

Section 9 Market Structure and Perfect Competition
Module 24 Market Structure
Module 25 Perfect Competition
Module 26 Graphing Perfect Competition
Module 27 Long-Run Outcomes in Perfect Competition

Section 10 Monopoly
Module 28 Monopoly in Practice
Module 29 Monopoly and Public Policy
Module 30 Price Discrimination

Section 11 Imperfect Competition
Module 31 Oligopoly
Module 32 Game Theory
Module 33 Oligopoly in Practice
Module 34 Monopolistic Competition
Module 35 Product Differentiation and Advertising

Section 12 Market Failure and the Role of Government
Module 36 Externalities
Module 37 Externalities and Public Policy
Module 38 Public Goods and Common Resources
Module 39 The Economics of the Welfare State

Section 13 Factor Markets and the Distribution of Income
Module 40 Factor Markets
Module 41 Marginal Productivity Theory
Module 42 The Market for Labor

Section 14 Additional Topics in Microeconomics
Module 43 The Cost-Minimizing Input Combination
Module 44 The Time Value of Money
Module 45 The Economics of Information

Section 15 Measurement of Economic Performance
Module 45 Introduction to Macroeconomics
Module 46 The Circular Flow
Module 47 Gross Domestic Product
Module 48 Interpreting Real Gross Domestic Product

Section 16 Unemployment and Inflation Defined
Module 49 The Meaning and Calculation of Unemployment
Module 50 The Causes and Categories of Unemployment
Module 51 The Cost of Inflation
Module 52 The Measurement and Calculation of Inflation

Section 17 Long-Run Economic Growth
Module 53 Long-run Economic Growth
Module 54 Production Function
Module 55 Long-run Growth Policy

Section 18 Savings and Investment
Module 56 The Financial System
Module 57 Savings and Investment Spending
Module 58 The Time Value of Money
Module 59 The Market for Loanable Funds

Section 19 Income and Expenditure
Module 60 The Multiplier
Module 61 Income and Expenditure
Module 62 The Income-Expenditure Model

Section 20 Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply
Module 63 Aggregate Demand: Introduction and Determinants
Module 64 Aggregate Supply: Introduction and Determinants
Module 65 Equilibrium in the Aggregate Demand

Section 21 Fiscal Policy
Module 66 Taxes, Spending, Budgets, and Borrowing
Module 67 Fiscal Policy Effects/Fiscal Policy and the Multiplier
Module 68 Long-run Implications of Fiscal Policy, Deficits, and the Public Debt

Section 22 Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve System
Module 69 Definition and Measurement of Money
Module 70 Banking and Money Creation
Module 71 The Federal Reserve System

Section 23 Monetary Policy
Module 72 The Federal Reserve System
Module 73 The Money Market
Module 74 Monetary Policy and the Interest Rate
Module 75 Money, Output, and Prices in the Long Run

Section 24 Policy Responses to Unemployment and Inflation
Module 76 Types of Inflation, Disinflation, and Deflation
Module 77 The Phillips Curve
Module 78 Crises and Consequences

Section 25 Open-Economy Macroeconomics
Module 79 Capital Flows and the Balance of Payments
Module 80 The Foreign Exchange Market
Module 81 Exchange Rate Policy
Module 82 Exchange Rates and Macroeconomic Policy

Section 26 Events and Ideas
Module 83 History and Alternative Views of Macroeconomics
Module 84 The Modern Macroeconomic Consensus

Appendices
Appendix A Graphs in Economics
Appendix B Macroeconomic Data
Solutions to Module Review Questions

Glossary
Index