Microeconomics

William J. Baumol received his B.S.S. at the College of the City of New York and his Ph.D. at the University of London. He was professor of economics at New York University and senior research economist and professor emeritus at Princeton University. He was a frequent management consultant to major firms in a wide variety of industries in the United States and other countries as well as to a number of governmental agencies. He was former president of the American Economic Association and three other professional societies. Dr. Baumol served as an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, created by the U.S. Congress, as well as a member of the American Philosophical Society, founded by Benjamin Franklin. Dr. Baumol authored more than 35 books as well as hundreds of journal and newspaper articles that have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Alan S. Blinder earned his B.A. at Princeton University, his M.A. at the London School of Economics and his Ph.D. at MIT. He teaches at Princeton University and most recently authored ADVICE AND DISSENT (Basic Books, 2018), which is about the very different worldviews of economists and politicians—and the consequences of that clash. Dr. Blinder served on President Clinton's first Council of Economic Advisers and then as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, thereby playing a role in formulating both the fiscal and monetary policies of the 1990s. Dr. Blinder, now a regular columnist for The Wall Street Journal, has written newspaper and magazine columns on economic policy for more than thirty years. He is a past vice president and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association.

Part I: GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH ECONOMICS.
1. What Is Economics?
2. The Economy: Myth and Reality.
3. The Fundamental Economic Problem: Scarcity and Choice.
4. Supply and Demand: An Initial Look.
Part II: THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF DEMAND AND SUPPLY.
5. Consumer Choice: Individual and Market Demand.
6. Demand and Elasticity.
7. Production, Inputs, and Cost: Building Blocks for Supply Analysis.
8. Output, Price, and Profit: The Importance of Marginal Analysis.
9. Securities, Business Finance, and the Economy: The Tail that Wags the Dog?
Part III: MARKETS AND THE PRICE SYSTEM.
10. The Firm and the Industry under Perfect Competition.
11. Monopoly.
12. Between Competition and Monopoly.
13. Limiting Market Power: Regulation and Antitrust.
Part IV: THE VIRTUES AND LIMITATIONS OF MARKETS.
14. The Case for Free Markets: The Price System.
15. The Shortcomings of Free Markets.
16. Externalities, the Environment, and Natural Resources.
17. Taxation and Resource Allocation.
Part V: THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME.
18. Pricing the Factors of Production.
19. Labor and Entrepreneurship: The Human Inputs.
20. Poverty, Inequality, and Discrimination.
Part VI: THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD ECONOMY.
21. International Trade and Comparative Advantage.
22. Is U.S. Economic Leadership Threatened?
Appendix: Answers to Odd-Numbered Test Yourself Questions.
Glossary.
Index.