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Economics For Dummies, 3rd Edition Sean Masaki Flynn

Economics For Dummies, 3rd Edition By Sean Masaki Flynn

Economics For Dummies, 3rd Edition by Sean Masaki Flynn


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Economics For Dummies, 3rd Edition Summary

Economics For Dummies, 3rd Edition by Sean Masaki Flynn

Find FREE quizzes for every chapter online Learn about good markets, bad monopolies, and inflation Decode budget deficits and trade gains Understand the science of wealth and prosperity This book gives you everything you need to understand our rapidly evolving economy-as well as the economic fundamentals that never change. What's the best way to fight poverty? How can governments spur employment and wage growth? What can be done to protect endangered species and the environment? This book explains the answers to those questions-and many more-in plain English. Inside... Get the fascinating scoop on behavioral economics Understand the model of supply and demand See how governments use monetary and fiscal policy to fight recessions Discover game theory and the secrets of cooperation

About Sean Masaki Flynn

Sean Flynn, PhD, is an associate professor of economics at Scripps College in Claremont, California. A specialist in behavioral economics, Dr. Flynn has provided economic commentary for numerous news outlets, including NPR, ABC, FOX Business, and Forbes.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 3 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 4 Part 1: Economics: The Science of How People Deal with Scarcity 5 Chapter 1: What Economics Is and Why You Should Care 7 Considering a Little Economic History 8 Pondering just how nasty, brutish, and short life used to be 8 Identifying the institutions that raise living standards 9 Looking toward the future 10 Framing Economics as the Science of Scarcity 10 Sending Microeconomics and Macroeconomics to Separate Corners 11 Getting up close and personal: Microeconomics 11 Zooming out: Macroeconomics and the big picture 14 Understanding How Economists Use Models and Graphs 16 Introducing your first model: The demand curve 17 Drawing your own demand curve 20 Chapter 2: Cookies or Ice Cream? Exploring Consumer Choices 21 Describing Human Behavior with a Choice Model 22 Pursuing Personal Happiness 23 Using utility to measure happiness 23 Taking "selfless" actions into account 23 Self-interest can promote the common good 24 You Can't Have Everything: Examining Limitations 25 Resource constraints 25 Technology constraints 25 Time constraints 26 Opportunity cost: The unavoidable cost 26 Making Your Choice: Deciding What and How Much You Want 27 Exploring Violations and Limitations of the Economist's Choice Model 29 Understanding uninformed decision-making 29 Making sense of irrationality 30 Chapter 3: Producing Stuff to Maximize Happiness 33 Figuring Out What's Possible to Produce 34 Classifying resources 35 Clarifying human capital 35 Diminishing returns 36 Allocating resources 37 Graphing your production possibilities 38 Reaching new frontiers with better technology 41 Deciding What to Produce 42 Comparing market results and government interventions 43 Opting for a mixed economy 49 Promoting Technology and Innovation 52 Part 2: Microeconomics: The Science of Consumer and Firm Behavior 55 Chapter 4: Supply and Demand Made Easy 57 Deconstructing Demand 58 Prices and other stuff: Looking at what affects quantity demanded 59 Graphing the demand curve 60 Opportunity costs: Setting the slope of the demand curve 62 Elasticity: Looking at extreme demand cases 63 Sorting Out Supply 65 Graphing the supply curve 65 Using elasticity to understand extreme supply cases 69 Bringing Supply and Demand Together 70 Market equilibrium: Seeking a balance 71 Demonstrating the stability of the market equilibrium 72 Adjusting to new market equilibriums when supply or demand changes 74 Price Controls: Keeping Prices Away from Market Equilibrium 76 Setting upper limits with price ceilings 77 Propping up prices with price floors 79 Chapter 5: Introducing Homo Economicus, the Utility-Maximizing Consumer 83 Choosing by Ranking 84 Getting Less from More: Diminishing Marginal Utility 85 Choosing Among Many Options When Facing a Limited Budget 88 Trying to buy as much (marginal) utility as you can 88 Purchasing the best combination of two goods to maximize total utility 91 Aiming for equal marginal utility per dollar 93 Deriving Demand Curves from Diminishing Marginal Utility 95 Seeing how price changes affect quantities demanded 96 Graphing the price and quantity changes to form a demand curve 97 Chapter 6: The Core of Capitalism: The Profit- Maximizing Firm 101 A Firm's Goal: Maximizing Profits 102 Facing Competition 103 Listing the requirements for perfect competition 103 Taking prices but setting quantities 104 Distinguishing between accounting profits and economic profits 106 Analyzing a Firm's Cost Structure 107 Focusing on costs per unit of output 108 Examining average variable costs 110 Watching average fixed costs fall 111 Tracking the movement of average total costs 111 Focusing on marginal costs 112 Noticing where marginal cost equals average cost 113 Comparing Marginal Revenues with Marginal Costs 115 Finding where marginal revenue equals marginal cost 116 Visualizing profits 118 Visualizing losses 120 Pulling the Plug: When Producing Nothing Is Your Best Bet 121 Distinguishing between the short run and the long run in microeconomics 122 The short-run shutdown condition: Variable costs exceed total revenues 123 The long-run shutdown condition: Total costs exceed total revenues 125 Chapter 7: Why Economists Love Free Markets and Competition 127 Ensuring That Benefits Exceed Costs: Competitive Free Markets 128 Examining the traits of a properly functioning market 129 Analyzing the efficiency of free markets 130 Measuring everyone's gains with total surplus 132 When Free Markets Lose Their Freedom: Dealing with Deadweight Losses 138 Coming up short: The deadweight loss from a price ceiling 139 Death and taxes: Finding the deadweight loss of a tax 140 Hallmarks of Perfect Competition: Zero Profits and Lowest Possible Costs 143 Understanding the causes and consequences of perfect competition 144 Peering into the process of perfect competition 145 Graphing how profits guide firm entry and exit 146 Chapter 8: Monopolies: Bad Behavior without Competition 151 Examining Profit-Maximizing Monopolies 152 Zeroing in on the problems monopolies cause 152 Identifying the source of the problem: Decreasing marginal revenues 153 Choosing an output level to maximize profits 158 Comparing Monopolies with Competitive Firms 161 Looking at output and price levels 162 Deadweight losses: Quantifying the harm caused by monopolies 163 Losing efficiency 164 Considering Good Monopolies 165 Encouraging innovation and investment with patents 165 Reducing annoyingly redundant competitors 165 Keeping costs low with natural monopolies 166 Regulating Monopolies 167 Subsidizing a monopoly to increase output 167 Imposing minimum output requirements 167 Regulating monopoly pricing 168 Breaking up a monopoly into several competing firms 171 Chapter 9: Oligopoly and Monopolistic Competition: Middle Grounds 173 Oligopolies: Looking at the Allure of Joining Forces 174 Sharing power over prices 174 Cartel behavior: Trying to imitate monopolists 175 Considering the criteria for coordinating a cartel 176 Understanding Incentives to Cheat the Cartel 176 Fleshing out the Prisoner's Dilemma 177 Enforcing the agreement: Resolving the dilemma with credible threats 180 Seeing that OPEC is trapped in a Prisoner's Dilemma 181 Using an enforcer to help OPEC members stick to quotas 182 Regulating Oligopolies 183 Breaking up dominant firms 184 Attempting to apply antitrust laws 184 Studying a Hybrid: Monopolistic Competition 185 Benefiting from product differentiation 185 Facing profit limits 186 Part 3: Applying the Theories of Microeconomics 191 Chapter 10: Property Rights and Wrongs 193 Allowing Markets to Reach Socially Optimal Outcomes 194 Examining Externalities: The Costs and Benefits Others Feel from Your Actions 195 Noting the effects of negative externalities 196 Accepting positive amounts of negative externalities 198 Dealing with negative externalities 199 Calculating the consequences of positive externalities 200 Subsidizing things that provide positive externalities 201 Tragedy of the Commons: Overexploiting Commonly Owned Resources 202 Overgrazing on a commonly owned field 202 Extinctions and poor property rights 203 Avoiding the tragedy 204 Chapter 11: Asymmetric Information and Public Goods 205 Facing Up to Asymmetric Information 206 Realizing that asymmetric information limits trade 206 Souring on the lemons problem: The used car market 207 Issuing insurance when you can't tell individuals apart 211 Providing Public Goods 215 Taxing to provide public goods 216 Enlisting philanthropy to provide public goods 216 Providing a public good by selling a related private good 217 Ranking new technology as a public good 219 Chapter 12: Health Economics and Healthcare Finance 221 Defining Health Economics and Healthcare Finance 222 Noting the Limits of Health Insurance 222 Adverse selection: Looking at who buys insurance 223 Combating adverse selection 224 Comparing Healthcare Internationally 227 Inflated Demand: Suffering from "Free" and Reduced-Cost Healthcare 228 Diverting funds to lower-value uses 228 Rationing healthcare 229 Facing shortages and higher prices 230 Combatting inefficiency with bureaucracy 231 Investigating Singapore's Secrets 233 Exploring cost-saving features 233 Weighing costs and benefits of medical procedures 234 Supporting cost-cutting innovations 234 Trying to copy Singapore's success 235 Chapter 13: Behavioral Economics: Investigating Irrationality 237 Explaining the Need for Behavioral Economics 238 Complementing Neo-Classical Economics with Behavioral Economics 239 Examining our Amazing, Efficient, and Error-Prone Brains 240 Deciphering heuristics 240 Deconstructing brain modularity 242 Cogitating on cognitive biases 242 Surveying Prospect Theory 244 Shrinking packages and loss aversion 245 Framing effects and advertising 245 Anchoring and credit card bills 246 Examining the endowment effect 247 Stipulating status quo bias 247 Countering Myopia and Time Inconsistency 248 Focusing on myopia 249 Tattling on time inconsistency 249 Beating self-control problems with precommitments 250 Gauging Fairness and Self-Interest 251 Defining fairness 251 Examining the experimental evidence for fairness 251 Digesting the experimental evidence on fairness 253 Part 4: Macroeconomics: The Science of Economic Growth and Stability 255 Chapter 14: How Economists Measure the Macroeconomy 257 Getting a Grip on the GDP (and Its Parts) 258 Leaving some things out of GDP 259 Tallying up what counts in GDP 259 Accounting for streams of incomes, and assets 260 Following the funds, around and around 262 Counting stuff when it's made, not when it's sold 263 Watching GDP rise with the good, the bad, and the ugly 264 Diving In to the GDP Equation 265 "C" is for consumption (that's good enough for me!) 266 "I" is for investment in capital stock 268 The big "G" (government, that is) 269 Measuring foreign trade with "NX" 270 Making Sense of International Trade and Its Effect on the Economy 271 "Trade deficit" ain't fightin' words 272 Considering assets - not just cash 273 Wielding a comparative advantage 274 Chapter 15: Inflation Frustration: Why More Money Isn't Always Good 277 Buying an Inflation: When Too Much Money Is a Bad Thing 279 Balancing money supply and demand 279 Giving in to the inflation temptation 282 Tallying up the effects of inflation 286 Measuring Inflation 287 Creating your very own market basket 288 Calculating the inflation rate 289 Setting up a price index 290 Determining the real standard of living with the price index 291 Identifying price index problems 292 Pricing the Future: Nominal and Real Interest Rates 293 Using the Fisher equation 294 Realizing that predictions aren't perfect 294 Chapter 16: Understanding Why Recessions Happen 297 Introducing the Business Cycle 298 Striving for Full-Employment Output 299 Returning to Y*: The Natural Result of Price Adjustments 300 Responding to Economic Shocks: Short- Run and Long-Run Effects 301 Defining some critical terms 301 The tao of P: Looking at price adjustments in the long run 303 A shock to the system: Adjusting to a shift in aggregate demand 304 Dealing with fixed prices in the short run 305 Putting together the long and short of it 308 Heading toward Recession: Getting Stuck with Sticky Prices 309 Cutting wages or cutting workers 310 Adding up the costs of wages and profits 310 Returning to Y* with and without government intervention 311 Achieving Equilibrium with Sticky Prices: The Keynesian Model 312 Adjusting inventories instead of prices 314 Boosting GDP in the Keynesian model 322 Chapter 17: Fighting Recessions with Monetary and Fiscal Policy 325 Stimulating Demand to End Recessions 326 Aiming for full-employment output 326 Back to work: Shifting the AD curve right 328 Generating Inflation: The Risk of Too Much Stimulation 328 Trying to increase output beyond Y* 329 Tracing the movement of real wages 331 Failing to stimulate: What happens when a stimulus is expected 333 Figuring Out Fiscal Policy 336 Increasing government spending to help end recessions 337 Dealing with deficits 338 Dissecting Monetary Policy 340 Identifying the benefits of fiat money over the gold standard 341 Realizing you can have too much money! 342 Getting the basics about bonds 344 Seeing the link between bond prices and interest rates 345 Changing the money supply to change interest rates 346 Lowering interest rates to stimulate the economy 346 Understanding how rational expectations can limit monetary policy 348 Examining quantitative easing and the Great Recession 350 Chapter 18: Grasping Origins and Effects of Financial Crises 353 Understanding How Debt-Driven Bubbles Develop 354 Embracing borrowing in a booming economy 355 Offering larger loans as collateral values rise 355 Relaxing lending standards 356 Borrowing more in hopes of profit 356 Watching the process gain momentum 357 Seeing the Bubble Burst 357 Deleveraging: Trying to ditch debt as prices fall 358 Comprehending bank collapses caused by bursting bubbles 358 Leading into a recession 359 After the Crisis: Looking at Recovery 360 Enduring a broken banking system 360 Struggling with structural mismatches 361 Noting the limits of government policy 362 Part 5: The Part of Tens 363 Chapter 19: Ten Seductive Economic Fallacies 365 The Lump of Labor 365 The World Is Facing Overpopulation 366 Sequence Indicates Causation 366 Protectionism Is the Best Solution to Foreign Competition 367 The Fallacy of Composition 368 If It's Worth Doing, Do It 100 Percent 368 Free Markets Are Dangerously Unstable 369 Low Foreign Wages Mean That Rich Countries Can't Compete 369 Tax Rates Don't Affect Work Effort 370 Forgetting Unintended Consequences 370 Chapter 20: Ten Economic Ideas to Hold Dear 371 Self-Interest Can Improve Society 371 Free Markets Require Regulation 372 Economic Growth Relies on Innovation 372 Freedom and Democracy Make Us Richer 372 Education Raises Living Standards 372 Intellectual Property Boosts Innovation 373 Weak Property Rights Cause All Environmental Problems 373 International Trade Is a Good Thing 373 Government Can Provide Public Goods 374 Preventing Inflation Is Easy 374 Chapter 21: Ten (Or So) Famous Economists 375 Adam Smith 375 David Ricardo 376 Karl Marx 376 Alfred Marshall 377 John Maynard Keynes 378 Kenneth Arrow and Gerard Debreu 378 Milton Friedman 378 Paul Samuelson 379 Robert Solow 379 Gary Becker 380 Robert Lucas 380 Appendix: Glossary 383 Index 389

Additional information

GOR009252303
9781119476382
1119476380
Economics For Dummies, 3rd Edition by Sean Masaki Flynn
Used - Very Good
Paperback
John Wiley & Sons Inc
2018-04-20
432
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

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