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Krugman and Wells -- Brief, modular, and the more accessible than ever

When it comes to learning fundamental economic principles, there are no better guides than Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and co-author, Robin Wells. Instead of typical chapters, this version of their text covers the basics of the course through a series of brief "modules," each focused on a single topic and designed to be read comfortably in one sitting. Whether you’re taking economics as part of your major, as a general education requirement, or as an elective, this text (and it’s online component, SaplingPlus) will help you master the material and integrate economic understanding into your own life.

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Section 1 Basic Economic Concepts
Module 1 First Principles
Module 2 Models and the Production Possibility Frontier
Module 3 Comparative Advantage and Trade
Module 4 The Circular Flow Diagram
Appendix: Graphs in Economics

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

Section 3 Market Efficiency and Price Controls
Module 8 Consumer and Producer Surplus
Module 9 Efficiency and Markets
Module 10 Price Controls (Ceilings and Floors)

Section 4 International Trade
Module 11 Gains from Trade
Module 12 Supply, Demand, and International Trade
Section 5 Macroeconomic Measurement
Module 13 Introduction to Macroeconomics
Module 14 National Accounts and the Gross Domestic Product
Module 15 Interpreting Real Gross Domestic Product

Section 6 Unemployment and Inflation
Module 16 Defining Unemployment
Module 17 Categories of Unemployment
Module 18 The Costs of Inflation
Module 19 Measuring Inflation

Section 7 Long-Run Economic Growth
Module 20 Sources of Long-Run Economic Growth
Module 21 Productivity and Growth
Module 22 Long-Run Growth Policy

Section 8 Savings, Investment Spending, and the Financial System
Module 23 Savings and Investment Spending
Module 24 The Market for Loanable Funds
Module 25 The Financial System
Module 26 Present Value and Time Value of Money

Section 9 Income and Expenditure
Module 27 The Multiplier
Module 28 Consumer Spending and Investment Spending
Module 29 The Income-Expenditure Model

Section 10 Aggregate Demand Aggregate Supply
Module 30 Aggregate Demand
Module 31 Aggregate Supply
Module 32 The AD-AS Model

Section 11 Fiscal Policy
Module 33 Fiscal Policy Basics
Module 34 Fiscal Policy and the Multiplier
Module 35 Budget Deficits and the Public Debt

Section 12 Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve System
Module 36 Defining the Measuring Money
Module 37 Banking and Money Creation
Module 38 The Federal Reserve System

Section 13 Monetary Policy
Module 39 The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy
Module 40 The Money Market
Module 41 Monetary Policy and the Interest Rate
Module 42 Money, Output, and Prices in the Long Run

Section 14 Inflation, Disinflation, and Deflation
Module 43 Causes of High Inflation
Module 44 Output Gaps, Inflation, and the Phillips Curve
Module 46 Deflation

Section 15 International Macroeconomics
Module 46 Capital Flows and the Balance of Payments
Module 47 The Foreign Exchange Marke
tModule 48 Exchange Rate Policy
Module 49 Exchange Rates and Macroeconomic Policy

Authors

Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman, recipient of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, taught at Princeton University for 14 years. In 2015, he joined the faculty of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, associated with the Luxembourg Income Study, which tracks and analyzes income inequality around the world. He received his BA from Yale and his PhD from MIT. Before Princeton, he taught at Yale, Stanford, and MIT. He also spent a year on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers in 1982–1983. His research has included trailblazing work on international trade, economic geography, and 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. He is a regular op-ed columnist for the New York Times. His best-selling trade books include End This Depression Now!, The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008, a history of recent economic troubles and their implications for economic policy, and The Conscience of a Liberal, a 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

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.

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