economics 2nd by mankiw taylor

About the Authors xiii1 Ten Principles of Economics 2 2 Thinking Like an Economist 21 3 Interdependence and the Gains from Trade 52 4 The Market Forces of Supply and Demand 68 5 Elastici

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N Gregory Mankiw Mark P Taylor

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do their utmost to relate textbook theory to real-world economics Up-to-date applications to European economies and elsewhere are

plentiful, especially in light of the recent crisis.” Professor Michael Funke, Department of Economics, Hamburg University, Germany

“Mankiw and Taylor’s Economics combines theory and cases with a European ﬂ avour like no other textbook on the market I am

positive that students will appreciate the clarity of the concepts As a lecturer I greatly value the friendly exercises offered to the

students and the accompanying teaching material – an excellent textbook!”

Professor Philippe Gugler, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

“Mankiw and Taylor is an excellent introductory text for university-level economics Its highly readable and accessible style

provides students with a ﬁ rm grounding in the underlying principles of the subject, while at the same time supplementing the

subject matter with excellent illustrations, case studies and supporting material.”

Professor Andrew Henley, School of Business and Economics, Swansea University, UK

“This text provides a very accessible route into economics for ﬁ rst-year students The authors have an engaging writing style and

there is comprehensive coverage of economic theory which is always backed up by insightful examples.”

Dr Colin Jennings, Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, UK

“I use this academically rigorous and student-friendly textbook in my teaching since its unique application to Europe, the

Middle East and Africa renders concepts extremely relevant to my students.”Professor Monal Abdel-Baki, Department of Economics,

The American University of Cairo, Egypt

Now ﬁ rmly established as one of the

leading economics principles texts in

Europe, the Middle East and Africa, this

highly anticipated second edition of

Economics by N Gregory Mankiw (Harvard

University) and Mark P Taylor (Warwick

University) further enhances the book’s

reputation for clarity, authority and

real-world relevance

The features and content which made

the ﬁ rst edition so successful have been

retained, including:

> An accessible writing style that makes the

science of economics as clear as possible

> The classic ten principles approach to

economics – introduced in Chapter One

and then referred to throughout the book

New to the second edition:

> Two new chapters, one offering highly topical and in-depth analysis

of the causes and effects of the global ﬁ nancial crisis and one providing coverage of Keynesian economics and IS-LM analysis

> Coverage of the latest thinking in economics including recent insights from behavioural economics that help students understand different explanations for economic phenomena

> New case studies and ‘In the News’ articles that provide relevant and topical insights into the real-world economics of Europe, the Middle East and Africa

> Updates to all chapters, new examples and the latest data to help bring economics to life

Economics is essential reading for all students taking introductory

economics modules on undergraduate courses It is also ideal for use with the economics component of MBA courses.

There is a wealth of resources available on the companion website at

www.cengage.co.uk/mankiw_taylor2 to complement your learning from

the book with a wide range of exercises and activities and much more

Economics is also accompanied by Aplia, an online, interactive, auto-graded

learning tool For more information about Aplia please visit:

www.aplia.com/cengageemea/

About the Authors:

N Gregory Mankiw, Professor of

Economics, Harvard University, USA

Mark P Taylor, Professor of Economics

and Dean of Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK

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ECONOMICS

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For our other contributions to

the next generation:

Catherine, Nicholas and Peter;

and Benjamin, Oliver and Harriet

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N Gregory Mankiw and Mark P Taylor

Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States

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Second Edition

N Gregory Mankiw and Mark P Taylor

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About the Authors xiii

1 Ten Principles of Economics 2

2 Thinking Like an Economist 21

3 Interdependence and the Gains from Trade 52

4 The Market Forces of Supply and Demand 68

5 Elasticity and Its Application 94

6 Supply, Demand and Government Policies 117

Welfare 137

7 Consumers, Producers and the Efficiency of

Markets 138

8 Application: The Costs of Taxation 158

9 Application: International Trade 174

Sector 197

10 Externalities 198

11 Public Goods and Common Resources 221

12 The Design of the Tax System 237

of Industry 263

13 The Costs of Production 264

14 Firms in Competitive Markets 287

15 Monopoly 308

16 Monopolistic Competition 338

17 Oligopoly 355

18 The Markets for the Factors of Production 382

19 Earnings and Discrimination 403

20 Income Inequality and Poverty 418

22 Frontiers of Microeconomics 466

23 Measuring a Nation’s Income 486

24 Measuring the Cost of Living 506

Run 523

25 Production and Growth 524

26 Saving, Investment and the Financial System 550

27 The Basic Tools of Finance 572

28 Unemployment 592

Run 615

29 The Monetary System 616

30 Money Growth and Inflation 641

33 Keynes and IS-LM Analysis 706

34 Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply 726

35 The Influence of Monetary and Fiscal Policy onAggregate Demand 757

36 The Short-run Trade-off Between Inflation andUnemployment 782

Macroeconomics 815

37 The Financial Crisis 816

38 Common Currency Areas and European MonetaryUnion 840

39 Five Debates over Macroeconomic Policy 868

Glossary 883

Index 891

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About the Authors xiii

How People Interact 8

Conclusion 17

Key Concepts 18

Questions for Review 18

Problems and Applications 19

The Economist as Scientist 22

The Economist as Policy Advisor 31

Why Economists Disagree 35

Let’s Get Going 39

Key Concepts 40

Appendix Graphing: A Brief Review 42

3 Interdependence and the Gains

A Parable for the Modern Economy 53

The Principle of Comparative Advantage 57

Applications of Comparative Advantage 61

Conclusion 64

Key Concepts 64

Conclusion: How Prices Allocate Resources 89

Key Concepts 91

5 Elasticity and Its Application 94

The Elasticity of Demand 95

The Elasticity of Supply 104

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Three Applications of Supply, Demand and

Elasticity 108

Conclusion 114

Key Concepts 115

6 Supply, Demand and Government

8 Application: The Costs of Taxation 158

The Deadweight Loss of Taxation 159

The Determinants of the Deadweight Loss 164

Deadweight Loss and Tax Revenue as Taxes

Conclusion 170

9 Application: International Trade 174

The Determinants of Trade 175

The Winners and Losers from Trade 177

The Arguments for Restricting Trade 189

Conclusion 193

PART 4

THE ECONOMICS OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR 197

1 0 Externalities 198

Externalities and Market Inefficiency 200

Private Solutions to Externalities 205

Public Policies Towards Externalities 210

Public/Private Policies Towards Externalities 215

Conclusion 217

1 1 Public Goods and Common

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1 2 The Design of the Tax System 237

A Financial Overview of the UK Government 238

Tax Systems in Other Countries 247

Taxes and Efficiency 250

Taxes and Equity 254

Conclusion: The Trade-off Between Equity and

Efficiency 260

PART 5

FIRM BEHAVIOUR AND THE

ORGANIZATION OF INDUSTRY 263

What Are Costs? 265

Production and Costs 267

The Various Measures of Cost 271

Costs in the Short Run and in the Long Run 278

What is a Competitive Market? 288

Profit Maximization and the Competitive Firm’s

The Supply Curve in a Competitive Market 299

Conclusion: Behind the Supply Curve 305

How Monopolies Make Production and Pricing Decisions 313

The Welfare Cost of Monopoly 320

Price Discrimination 323

Public Policy Towards Monopolies 328

Conclusion: The Prevalence of Monopoly 333

1 7 Oligopoly 355

Between Monopoly and Perfect Competition 356

Markets with Only a Few Sellers 357

Game Theory and the Economics of Cooperation 364

Public Policy Toward Oligopolies 373

Conclusion 376

The Supply of Labour 389

Equilibrium in the Labour Market 390

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The Other Factors of Production: Land and

Capital 395

Conclusion 400

Some Determinants of Equilibrium Wages 404

The Economics of Discrimination 410

Conclusion 415

The Measurement of Inequality 419

The Political Philosophy of Redistributing

Conclusion 434

PART 7

TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY 437

The Budget Constraint: What the Consumer Can

Preferences: What the Consumer Wants 440

Optimization: What the Consumer Chooses 445

Three Applications 453

Conclusion: Do People Really Think This Way? 460

PART 8

THE DATA OF MACROECONOMICS 485

The Economy’s Income and Expenditure 487

The Measurement of Gross Domestic Product 489

Conclusion 502

2 4 Measuring the Cost of Living 506

The Consumer Prices Index 507

Correcting Economic Variables for the Effects of Inflation 516

Conclusion 519

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PART 9

THE REAL ECONOMY IN THE LONG

RUN 523

Productivity: Its Role and Determinants 530

Economic Growth and Public Policy 534

Conclusion: The Importance of Long-run

2 6 Saving, Investment and the Financial

Financial Institutions in the Economy 551

Saving and Investment in the National Income

Present Value: Measuring the Time Value of

Identifying Unemployment 593

Job Search 601

Unions and Collective Bargaining 607

The Theory of Efficiency Wages 609

Conclusion 611

PART 10

MONEY AND PRICES IN THE LONG RUN 615

The Role of Central Banks 622

The European Central Bank and the Eurosystem 624

The Bank of England 625

The Federal Reserve System 626

Banks and the Money Supply 627

Conclusion 637

The Classical Theory of Inflation 643

The Costs of Inflation 653

Conclusion 661

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The International Flows of Goods and Capital 667

The Prices for International Transactions: Real and

Nominal Exchange Rates 673

A First Theory of Exchange Rate Determination:

Purchasing Power Parity 676

Conclusion 683

3 2 A Macroeconomic Theory of the Open

Supply and Demand for Loanable Funds and for

Foreign Currency Exchange 687

Equilibrium in the Open Economy 691

How Policies and Events Affect an Open

Conclusion 702

PART 12

SHORT-RUN ECONOMIC

FLUCTUATIONS 705

The Multiplier Effect 709

General Equilibrium Using the IS-LM Model 717

Conclusion 723

3 4 Aggregate Demand and Aggregate

Three Key Facts about Economic Fluctuations 727

Explaining Short-run Economic Fluctuations 732

The Aggregate Supply Curve 739

Two Causes of Economic Fluctuations 747

Conclusion 753

3 5 The Influence of Monetary and Fiscal

How Monetary Policy Influences Aggregate

3 6 The Short-run Trade-off Between

The Phillips Curve 783

Shifts in the Phillips Curve: The Role of Expectations 785

The Long-run Vertical Phillips Curve as an Argument for Central Bank Independence 793

Shifts in the Phillips Curve: The Role of Supply

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PART 13

TOPICS IN INTERNATIONAL FINANCE

AND MACROECONOMICS 815

Bubbles and Speculation 817

Asymmetric Information, the Bonus

Culture and Risk 820

The Bubble Bursts 822

The Path to Global Recession 824

Summary: The Causes of the Financial

Crisis 825

The Conduct of Monetary Policy 826

Lesson Learned? The Role of the Regulators 832

3 8 Common Currency Areas and European

The Benefits and Costs of a Common Currency 844

The Theory of Optimum Currency Areas 849

Is Europe an Optimum Currency Area? 851

Fiscal Policy and Common Currency Areas 857

Conclusion 862

PART 14

FINAL THOUGHTS 867

3 9 Five Debates over Macroeconomic Policy 868

Are Structural Deficits Real or Not? 870

Should the Government Balance Its Budget? 872

Is Macroprudential Policy the ‘Missing Ingredient’

from the Current Policy Framework? 874

How Did Economists Get it So Wrong? 876

Conclusion 879

Glossary 883

Index 891

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student, he studied economics at Princeton University and the Massachusetts

Insti-tute of Technology As a teacher he has taught macroeconomics, microeconomics,

statistics and principles of economics Professor Mankiw is a prolific writer and a

regular participant in academic and policy debates In addition to his teaching,

research and writing, Professor Mankiw has been a research associate of the

National Bureau of Economic Research, an advisor to the Federal Reserve Bank of

Boston and the Congressional Budget Office From 2003 to 2005, he served as

chairman of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisors Professor Mankiw

lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with his wife Deborah, their three children and

their border terrier Tobin

Warwick and Professor of International Finance He obtained his first degree in

philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University and his master’s

degree in economics from London University, from where he also holds a

doctor-ate in economics and international finance Professor Taylor has taught economics

and finance at various universities (including Oxford, Warwick and New York)

and at various levels (including principles courses, advanced undergraduate and

advanced postgraduate courses) He has also worked as a senior economist at the

International Monetary Fund and at the Bank of England and, before becoming

Dean of Warwick Business School, was a managing director at BlackRock, the

world’s largest financial asset manager, where he worked on international asset

allocation based on macroeconomic analysis His research has been extensively

published in scholarly journals and he is today one of the most highly cited

econ-omists in the world Professor Taylor lives with his family in a 15th century

farm-house near Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, where he collects clocks and

keeps bees

CONTRIBUTOR:

has an MBA and is currently researching for a Ph.D investigating assessment

and the notion of threshold concepts in economics Andrew is an experienced

author writing a number of texts for students at different levels, journal

publica-tions related to his Ph.D research and is currently working on a text on the

busi-ness environment for undergraduates Andrew is Chair of Examiners for a major

awarding body for business and economics and is Editor of the Economics,

Busi-ness and Enterprise Association (EBEA) journal As one of the content editors for

Biz/ed (http://www.bized.co.uk), Andrew writes articles and resources on

busi-ness studies and economics for the website Andrew lives in Rutland with his

wife Sue and their twin sons Alex and Johnny

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‘Economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.’ So wroteAlfred Marshall, the great 19th-century British economist, in his textbook,

Principles of Economics Although we have learned much about the economy

since Marshall’s time, this definition of economics is as true today as it was in

1890, when the first edition of his text was published

Why should you, as a student of the 21st century, embark on the study of nomics? Here are three good reasons The first reason to study economics is that

eco-it will help you understand the world in which you live There are many tions about the economy that might spark your curiosity Why do airlines chargeless for a return ticket if the traveller stays over a Saturday night? Why is JuliaRoberts paid so much to star in films? Why are living standards so meagre inmany African countries? Why do some countries have high rates of inflationwhile others have stable prices? Why have some European countries adopted acommon currency? These are just a few of the questions that a course in econom-ics will help you answer

ques-The second reason to study economics is that it will make you a more astuteparticipant in the economy As you go about your life, you make many economicdecisions While you are a student, you decide how many years to stay in full-time education Once you take a job, you decide how much of your income tospend, how much to save and how to invest your savings One day you mayfind yourself running a small business or a large firm, and you will decide whatprices to charge for your products The insights developed in the coming chap-ters will give you a new perspective on how best to make these decisions Study-ing economics will not by itself make you rich, but it will give you some toolsthat may help in that endeavour if that is what you desire

The third reason to study economics is that it will give you a better standing of the potential and limits of economic policy As a voter, you helpchoose the policies that guide the allocation of society’s resources When decidingwhich policies to support, you may find yourself asking various questions abouteconomics What are the burdens associated with alternative forms of taxation?What are the effects of free trade with other countries? What is the best way toprotect the environment? How does the government budget deficit affect theeconomy? These and similar questions are always on the minds of policymakers

under-Thus the principles of economics can be applied in many of life’s situations.Whether the future finds you reading the newspaper, running a business or run-ning the country, you will be glad that you studied economics

FOR WHOM IS THIS BOOK WRITTEN?

It is tempting for professional economists writing a textbook to take the mist’s point of view and to emphasize those topics that fascinate them andother economists We have done our best to avoid that temptation We havetried to put ourselves in the position of someone seeing economics for the first

econo-time Our goal has been to emphasize the material that students should and do

find interesting about the study of the economy

One result is that this book is briefer than many books used to introduce dents to economics Another is that more of this book is devoted to applicationsand policy – and less to formal economic theory – than is the case with many

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stu-other books written for an introductory course Throughout this book we have

tried to return to applications and policy questions as often as possible All the

chapters include case studies illustrating how the principles of economics are

applied In addition, ‘In the News’ boxes offer highlights from news events

showing how economic ideas shed light on current issues facing society After

students finish their first course in economics, they should think about news

stor-ies from a new perspective and with greater insight

Something else worth pointing out is that the book has a distinctively

European focus This is not to say that it is an introduction to the economics of

the European economy – it is not Nor does the book ignore the importance of

the US economy and the rest of the world – to do so would give a very lopsided

view But what it does attempt to do is to relate economic concepts to an

envi-ronment that will be familiar and interesting to a European student, and we do

examine some important issues relevant specifically to the European economy,

such as the single European currency The case studies and ‘In the News’ boxes

also draw on European material Since this is a book designed to teach students

how to think about the world like an economist, analyses of particular

institu-tional details are necessary primarily in order to illustrate the underlying

eco-nomic principles, but we have used European institutional examples wherever

possible In some instances we have chosen to focus on a particular economy

for reasons of space or clarity of exposition but in this Second Edition we have

been able to introduce analysis of other economies as well, for example, in our

discussion of the tax system we have covered the UK, South Africa and

Germany

HOW IS THIS BOOK ORGANIZED?

To write a brief and student-friendly book, we had to consider new ways to

organize familiar material What follows is a whirlwind tour of this text With

any textbook, instructors can choose to cover material in different orders; each

section in the book does contain chapters that build on previous ones, although

but each section can be tackled independently of the others if desired The tour

will, we hope, give instructors some sense of how the pieces fit together

Introductory Material

Chapter 1, ‘Ten Principles of Economics’, introduces students to the economists’

view of the world It previews some of the big ideas that recur throughout

eco-nomics, such as opportunity cost, marginal decision-making, the role of

incen-tives, the gains from trade, and the efficiency of market allocations Throughout

the book, we refer regularly to the Ten Principles of Economics introduced in

Chap-ter 1 to remind students that these ideas are the foundation for all economics An

icon in the margin calls attention to these key, interconnected principles

Chapter 2, ‘Thinking Like an Economist’, examines how economists approach

their field of study It discusses the role of assumptions in developing a theory

and introduces the concept of an economic model It also discusses the role of

economists in making policy The appendix to this chapter offers a brief refresher

course on how graphs are used and how they can be abused

Chapter 3, ‘Interdependence and the Gains from Trade’, presents the theory of

comparative advantage This theory explains why individuals trade with their

neighbours, as well as why nations trade with other nations Much of economics

is about how market forces coordinate many individual production and

con-sumption decisions As a starting point for this analysis, students see in this

chapter why specialization, interdependence and trade can benefit everyone

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The Fundamental Tools of Supply and Demand

The next three chapters introduce the basic tools of supply and demand Chapter 4,

‘The Market Forces of Supply and Demand’, develops the supply curve, thedemand curve and the notion of market equilibrium Chapter 5, ‘Elasticity and itsApplication’, introduces the concept of elasticity and uses it to analyse events inthree different markets Chapter 6, ‘Supply, Demand and Government Policies’,uses these tools to examine price controls, such as rent control, minimum wagelaws, and tax incidence

Chapter 7, ‘Consumers, Producers and the Efficiency of Markets’, extends theanalysis of supply and demand using the concepts of consumer surplus and pro-ducer surplus It begins by developing the link between consumers’ willingness

to pay and the demand curve, and the link between producers’ costs of tion and the supply curve It then shows that the market equilibrium maximizesthe sum of the producer and consumer surplus Thus, students learn early aboutthe efficiency of market allocations

produc-The next two chapters apply the concepts of producer and consumer surplus

to questions of policy Chapter 8, ‘Application: The Costs of Taxation’, showswhy taxation results in deadweight losses and what determines the size of thoselosses Chapter 9, ‘Application: International Trade’, considers who wins andwho loses from international trade and presents the debate over protectionisttrade policies

More Microeconomics

Having examined why market allocations are often desirable, the book then siders how the government can sometimes improve on them Chapter 10,‘Exter-nalities’, explains how external effects such as pollution can render marketoutcomes inefficient and discusses the possible public and private solutions tothose inefficiencies Chapter 11, ‘Public Goods and Common Resources’, consid-ers the problems that arise when goods, such as national defence, have no marketprice Chapter 12, ‘The Design of the Tax System’, describes how the governmentraises the revenue necessary to pay for public goods It presents some institu-tional background about the UK tax system and an outline of the system in Ger-many and South Africa for comparison, and then discusses how the goals ofefficiency and equity come into play when designing a tax system

con-The next five chapters examine firm behaviour and industrial organization.Chapter 13, ‘The Costs of Production’, discusses what to include in a firm’scosts, and it introduces cost curves Chapter 14, ‘Firms in Competitive Markets’,analyses the behaviour of price-taking firms and derives the market supplycurve Chapter 15, ‘Monopoly’, discusses the behaviour of a firm that is thesole seller in its market It discusses the inefficiency of monopoly pricing, the pos-sible policy responses, and the attempts by monopolies to price discriminate.Chapter 16, ‘Monopolistic Competition’, looks at behaviour in a market inwhich many sellers offer similar but differentiated products It also discusses thedebate over the effects of advertising Chapter 17, ‘Oligopoly’, covers markets inwhich there are only a few sellers, using the prisoner’s dilemma as the model forexamining strategic interaction

The next three chapters present issues related to labour markets Chapter 18,

‘The Markets for the Factors of Production’, emphasizes the link between factorprices and marginal productivity Chapter 19, ‘Earnings and Discrimination’, dis-cusses the determinants of equilibrium wages, including compensating differen-tials, human capital and discrimination Chapter 20, ‘Income Inequality andPoverty’, examines the degree of inequality in UK society, alternative views

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about the government’s role in changing the distribution of income and various

policies aimed at helping society’s poorest members

The next two chapters present optional material Chapter 21, ‘The Theory of

Consumer Choice’, analyses individual decision-making using budget constraints

and indifference curves Chapter 22, ‘Frontiers of Microeconomics’, introduces the

topics of asymmetric information, political economy and behavioural economics

Many instructors may choose to omit all or some of this material Instructors

who do cover these topics may choose to assign these chapters earlier than they

are presented in the book, and we have written them to give instructors

flexibility

Macroeconomics

Our overall approach to teaching macroeconomics is to examine the economy in

the long run (when prices are flexible) before examining the economy in the short

run (when prices are sticky) We believe that this organization simplifies learning

macroeconomics for several reasons Firstly, the classical assumption of price

flexibility is more closely linked to the basic lessons of supply and demand,

which students have already mastered Secondly, the classical dichotomy allows

the study of the long run to be broken up into several, easily digested pieces

Thirdly, because the business cycle represents a transitory deviation from the

economy’s long-run growth path, studying the transitory deviations is more

nat-ural after the long-run equilibrium is understood Fourthly, the macroeconomic

theory of the short run is more controversial among economists than the

macro-economic theory of the long run For these reasons, most upper-level courses in

macroeconomics now follow this long-run-before-short-run approach; our goal is

to offer introductory students the same advantage There would be nothing to

stop lecturers who prefer to approach the short run first from so doing – the

book is flexible enough to allow this approach to be adopted

Returning to the detailed organization, we start the coverage of

macroeconom-ics with issues of measurement Chapter 23, ‘Measuring a Nation’s Income’,

dis-cusses the meaning of gross domestic product and related statistics from the

national income accounts Chapter 24, ‘Measuring the Cost of Living’, discusses

the measurement and use of the consumer price indices

The next four chapters describe the behaviour of the real economy in the long

run Chapter 25, ‘Production and Growth’, examines the determinants of the

large variation in living standards over time and across countries Chapter 26,

‘Saving, Investment and the Financial System’, discusses the types of financial

institutions in a modern, advanced economy and examines their role in allocating

resources Chapter 27, ‘The Basic Tools of Finance’, introduces present value, risk

management and asset pricing Chapter 28, ‘Unemployment’, considers the

long-run determinants of the unemployment rate, including job search, minimum

wage laws, the market power of unions and efficiency wages

Having described the long-run behaviour of the real economy, the book then

turns to the long-run behaviour of money and prices Chapter 29, ‘The Monetary

System’, introduces the economist’s concept of money and the role of the central

bank in controlling the quantity of money We also introduce some institutional

background on the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the US

Fed-eral Reserve Chapter 30, ‘Money Growth and Inflation’, develops the classical

theory of inflation and discusses the costs that inflation imposes on a society

The next two chapters present the macroeconomics of open economies,

maintaining the long-run assumptions of price flexibility and full employment

Chapter 31, ‘Open-economy Macroeconomics: Basic Concepts’, explains the

rela-tionship among saving, investment and the trade balance, the distinction

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between the nominal and real exchange rate, and the theory of purchasing-powerparity Chapter 32, ‘A Macroeconomic Theory of the Open Economy’, presents aclassical model of the international flow of goods and capital The model shedslight on various issues, including the link between budget deficits and trade def-icits and the macroeconomic effects of trade policies.

After developing the long-run theory of the economy in Chapters 25 through

to 32, the book turns to explaining short-run fluctuations around the long-runtrend This organization simplifies teaching the theory of short-run fluctuationsbecause, at this point in the course, students have a good grounding in manybasic macroeconomic concepts A new feature of the Second Edition is to startthis process by looking at Keynesian economics and introducing the IS-LMmodel, leading into Chapter 34, which begins with some facts about the businesscycle and then develops the ‘Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply’ model.Chapter 35, ‘The Influence of Monetary and Fiscal Policy on Aggregate Demand’,explains how policy makers can use the tools at their disposal to shift the aggre-gate demand curve Chapter 36, ‘The Short-run Trade-off between Inflation andUnemployment’, explains why policy makers who control aggregate demandface a trade-off between inflation and unemployment It examines why thistrade-off exists in the short run, why it shifts over time, and why it does notexist in the long run

Chapter 37, ‘The Financial Crisis’ provides an overview of the main causes ofone of the most turbulent economic periods in recent times and introduces some

of the key questions facing economists and policy makers in the wake of thecrisis

Chapter 38, ‘Common Currency Areas and European Monetary Union’, looks

at the costs and benefits of adopting a common currency among a group of tries, focusing particularly on European monetary union In doing so, it draws onmany of the tools of macroeconomic analysis that have been introduced in previ-ous chapters in developing the theory of optimum currency areas and applying it

coun-to the European case

The book concludes with Chapter 39, ‘Five Debates Over MacroeconomicPolicy.’ This capstone chapter considers five controversial issues in economicstoday: the role of information in developing sound policy; the idea of a structuraldeficit, the importance of balancing the government’s budget; the role of regula-tion in the prevention of future financial crises; and the debate between econo-mists on the importance of demand in recessions and efficient markets For eachissue, the chapter presents both sides of the debate and encourages students tomake their own judgements

LEARNING TOOLS

The purpose of this book is to help students learn the fundamental lessons of nomics and to show how such lessons can be applied to the world in which theylive Towards that end, we have used various learning tools that recur through-out the book

eco-• Case studies Economic theory is useful and interesting only if it can be applied

to understanding actual events and policies This book, therefore, containsnumerous case studies that apply the theory that has just been developed

• ‘In the News’ boxes One benefit that students gain from studying economics is

a new perspective and greater understanding about news from around theworld To highlight this benefit, we have incorporated discussions of newsevents including excerpts from newspaper articles These articles, together

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with our brief introductions, show how basic economic theory can be applied

and raise important questions for discussion

• ‘FYI’ boxes These boxes provide additional material ‘for your information’.

Some of them offer a glimpse into the history of economic thought Others

clarify technical issues Still others discuss supplementary topics that

instruc-tors might choose either to discuss or skip in their lectures

• Definitions of key concepts When key concepts are introduced in the chapter,

they are presented in bold typeface In addition, their definitions are placed

in the margins This treatment should aid students in learning and reviewing

the material

• Quick quizzes After most major sections, students are offered a ‘quick quiz’ to

check their comprehension of what they have just learned If students cannot

readily answer these quizzes, they should stop and reread material before

continuing

• Chapter summaries Each chapter ends with a brief summary that reminds

stu-dents of the most important lessons that they have just learned Later in their

study it offers an efficient way to revise for exams

• List of key concepts A list of key concepts at the end of each chapter offers

stu-dents a way to test their understanding of the new terms that have been

intro-duced Page references are included so that students can review the terms they

do not understand All key terms can also be found in the glossary at the end

of the book

• Questions for review At the end of each chapter are questions for review that

cover the chapter’s primary lessons Students can use these questions to

check their comprehension and to prepare for exams

• Problems and applications Each chapter also contains a variety of problems and

applications that ask students to apply the material they have learned Some

professors may use these questions for homework assignments Others may

use them as a starting point for classroom discussions

WHAT’S NEW IN THE SECOND EDITION?

One of the most interesting things about economics is that though a science, it is

built on shifting sands – dynamic and forever changing What we understand

about human behaviour and the way in which the economy works is constantly

being updated to take account of new data and new events The Second Edition

brings you some new, and not so new, thinking to help you understand the

debates and dilemmas facing economists and policy makers in making sense of

the world The financial crisis which began to gather pace in 2007 and the

subse-quent recession have led to a major rethink about some fundamental

assump-tions in economic theory The consequences of the crisis have raised new

questions for economists as well as challenging some widely held assumptions

and beliefs These topical issues are introduced throughout the book where

appropriate to highlight the dynamic nature of the discipline All chapters have

been thoroughly revised and updated with the latest data at the time of writing

The growing influence of behavioural economics is acknowledged throughout

the book and attempts have been made to use new case studies and ‘In the

News’ articles to reflect the European focus of the book and the importance of

business economics Together the new and revised chapters provide a range of

fascinating new topics to explore All the issues and economic concepts covered

will be familiar to students and provide them with further food for thought in

their quest to ‘think like an economist’

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Quick quizzes are provided at the end of each

section and allow students to check their comprehension of what they have just learned.

Problems and applications allow students to

apply the material they have learned within the chapter These can also be used for classroom discussions or homework assignments.

Questions for review cover each chapter’s

primary lessons These can be used to check comprehension and to prepare for exams.

Summaries at the end of each chapter remind

students of what they have learned so far, offering

a useful way to review for exams.

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‘In the News’ articles relate key ideas covered in

the chapter to topical news events to highlight the application of economic ideas and introduce new angles to consider in topical debates.

Ten Principles of Economics references within

the text are marked by a coin icon in the margin.

FYI provides additional material ‘for your

information’; the boxes offer a range of

supplementary material, such as a glimpse into the

history of economic thought, technical issues and

current topics that can be discussed in lectures.

Case studies are provided throughout the text that

apply the theory that has been developed to understanding events and policies.

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Cengage Learning offers various supplements for instructors and students who usethis book These resources are designed to make teaching the principles of econom-ics easy for the instructor and learning them easy for the student.

ABOUT THE WEBSITE

Please visit the Economics Second Edition website for all the following material at:

www.cengage.co.uk/mankiw_taylor2

For Instructors

Teaching the principles of economics can be a demanding job The supplementsdesigned for the instructor make the job less difficult The instructor’s supplementshave been written by Chris Downs of University College, Chichester and AndrewAshwin

• Instructor’s Manual – a detailed outline of each chapter of the text that

pro-vides learning objectives, identifies stumbling blocks that students may face,offers helpful teaching tips and provides suggested in-classroom activities for

a more cooperative learning experience The Instructor’s Manual also includessolutions to all of the end-of-chapter exercises, Quick Quizzes, Questions forReview, and Problems and Applications found in the text

• PowerPoint Lecture Slides and Exhibit Slides – instructors can save valuable

time as they prepare for classes using these fully adaptable comprehensive ture presentations with integrated graphs, tables, lists and concepts A sepa-rate exhibit presentation provides instructors with all of the tables andgraphs from the main text

lec-• ExamView Testbank – with test generator software included, allows lecturers

to create online, paper and local area network (LAN) tests specifically for thisbook

For Students

The supplements designed for the student enrich and support the learning ence, providing excellent revision tools and further study opportunities

experi-• Learning Objectives – listed for each chapter, they help the student to

moni-tor their understanding and progress through the book

• Exhibit Slides – provided in PowerPoint, the exhibit presentations provide

students with animated figures from the main text

• Glossary – the full glossary of key terms that appears at the end of the book in

a downloadable PDF file

• Multiple Choice Questions – test yourself, chapter by chapter.

• Advanced Critical Thinking Questions – short scenario-related questions and

answers

• Discussion Questions – these can be used to practise and improve your

essay-writing skills

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• Short-answer-questions – a series of questions requiring some thorough and

some more extended writing to assess understanding and application skills

• Case studies – a case study will be available for each chapter focusing on

some aspect of the content in the chapter and developing the theory covered,

introducing new and relevant research material along with a series of

ques-tions to promote thinking and develop writing skills

• Practice Questions – test yourself on a set of questions for each chapter, with

the chance to check your answers once you have finished

• Internet Activities – interesting and practical tasks for the student to

under-take using internet research linked to the content of each chapter

• Maths Workout – introductory guide and questions on the use of maths in

economics related to appropriate topics in relevant chapters

OTHER SUPPLEMENTARY RESOURCES

Global Economic Watch Cengage Learning’s Global Economic Watch is a

powerful, continuously updated online resource which stimulates discussion and

understanding of the global downturn through articles from leading publications,

a real-time database of videos, podcasts and much more

Aplia Cengage Learning’s Aplia is an online homework solution, is dedicated to

improving learning by increasing student effort and engagement Aplia has been

used by more than 1 million students at over 1,200 institutions It offers chapter

assignments, tutorials, news analyses, and experiments to make economics

rele-vant and engaging All assignments are automatically graded, and there are

detailed explanations for every question to help students stay focused, alert, and

thinking critically

CourseMate Cengage Learning’s CourseMate brings course concepts to life

with interactive learning, study and exam preparation tools that support the

printed textbook Watch student comprehension soar as your class works with

the printed textbook and the textbook-specific website CourseMate includes: an

interactive eBook; interactive teaching and learning tools including videos, games,

quizzes and flashcards (resources are mapped to specific disciplines so the range of

resources will vary with each text); Engagement Tracker, a first-of-its-kind tool that

monitors student engagement in the course

For more information about these digital resources, please contact your local

Cengage Learning representative

Virtual Learning Environment All of the web material is available in a

for-mat that is compatible with virtual learning environments such as Moodle,

Black-board and WebCT

TextChoice The home of Cengage Learning’s online digital content It provides

the fastest, easiest way for you to create your own learning materials You may

select content from hundreds of our best selling titles to make a custom text

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The authors would like to thank the following reviewers for their comments.

Robert Ackrill – Nottingham Trent UniversitySverrir Arngrimsson – Iceland Engineering CollegeMichael Artis – European University Institute, FlorenceSnæfríður Baldvinsdóttir – Bifrost School of Business, Iceland

Dr John Ball – University of SwanseaJürgen Bitzer – Free University BerlinRandy Bootland – Webster UniversityPhil Bowers – University of EdinburghPeter Clarke – University of LincolnPaul de Grauwe – Catholic University, LeuvenJulia Darby – University of Strathclyde

Kevin Denny – University College DublinMichael Devereux – University of WarwickSebastian Dullien – HTW Berlin, University of Applied SciencesJames Duncan – Robert Gordon University

Robert Eastwood – University of SussexPeter Else – University of SheffieldKirstín Flygenring – Reykjavik University – IcelandVanina Farber – Webster University, Geneva CampusMichael Funke – University of Hamburg – GermanyHeather Gage – University of Surrey

Erich Gundlach – Kiel Institute for World Economics/Helmut-Schmidt University HamburgBjarni Már Gylfason – Commercial College of Iceland

Heinz-Deiter Hardes – University of TrierPhilippe Gugler – University of Fribourg, SwitzerlandBolli Héðinsson – Reykjavik University, IcelandAndrew Henley – Swansea University

David Higgins – University of YorkHilary Ingham – Lancaster UniversityIan Jackson – Staffordshire UniversityColin Jennings – University of StrathclydeBrendan Kennelly – NUI Galway

Xander Koolman – Erasmus University Medical CentreRichard Ledward – Staffordshire University

Oliver Marnet – University of AberystwythMichael J McCrostie – University of BuckinghamLukas Menkhoff – University of HannoverJonathan Michie – Director of the Oxford University Department for Continuing EducationKerry Patterson – University of Reading

Martin Peiz – International University in GermanyOdile Poulsen – University of East Anglia

Tom Segers – Group T Leuven Engineering SchoolFrank Seitz – Amberg-Weiden University of Applied SciencesKunal Sen – University of East Anglia

Lorena Škuflic – University of ZagrebTilman Slembeck – University of St Gallen and Zurich University of Applied SciencesIan Smith – University of St Andrews

Remigiusz Smolinski – Leipzig Graduate School of ManagementFrank H Stephen – Manchester School of Law

Kristian Sund – University of Applied Sciences, ChurBenjamin Swalens – Vrije Universiteit BrusselsOliver Taylor – University of CambridgeKaren Thomas – University of the Free State, South AfricaElsie Tosi – EAI CERAM, Sophia Antipolis

Jan Janse van Rensburg – University of Pretoria, South AfricaRolf Weder – University of Basel

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INTRODUCTION

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1 TEN PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

The word economy comes from the Greek word oikonomos, which means ‘one

who manages a household’ At first, this origin might seem peculiar But, infact, households and economies have much in common

A household faces many decisions It must decide which members of thehousehold do which tasks and what each member gets in return: Who cooks din-ner? Who does the laundry? Who gets the extra slice of cake at tea time? Whochooses what TV programme to watch? In short, the household must allocate itsscarce resources among its various members, taking into account each member’sabilities, efforts and desires

Like a household, a society faces many decisions A society must decide whatjobs will be done and who will do them It needs some people to grow food,other people to make clothing and still others to design computer software.Once society has allocated people (as well as land, buildings and machines) tovarious jobs, it must also allocate the output of goods and services that they pro-duce It must decide who will eat caviar and who will eat potatoes It mustdecide who will drive a Jaguar and who will take the bus

The management of society’s resources is important because resources are

scarce Scarcity means that society has limited resources and therefore cannot

produce all the goods and services people wish to have Just as a household not give every member everything he or she wants, a society cannot give everyindividual the highest standard of living to which he or she might aspire

can-Economicsis the study of how society manages its scarce resources In mostsocieties, resources are allocated not by a single central planner but through the ©

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combined actions of millions of households and firms Economists therefore

study how people make decisions: how much they work, what they buy, how

much they save and how they invest their savings Economists also study how

people interact with one another For instance, they examine how the multitude

of buyers and sellers of a good together determine the price at which the good is

sold and the quantity that is sold Finally, economists analyse forces and trends

that affect the economy as a whole, including the growth in average income, the

fraction of the population that cannot find work and the rate at which prices are

rising

Although the study of economics has many facets, the field is unified by

sev-eral central ideas In the rest of this chapter we look at Ten Principles of Economics.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand them all at first, or if you don’t find them

completely convincing In the coming chapters we will explore these ideas more

fully The ten principles are introduced here just to give you an overview of what

economics is all about You can think of this chapter as a ‘preview of coming

attractions’

HOW PEOPLE MAKE DECISIONS

There is no mystery to what an ‘economy’ is Whether we are talking about the

economy of a group of countries such as the European Union, or the economy of

one particular country, such as the United Kingdom, or of the whole world, an

economy is just a group of people interacting with one another as they go about

their lives Because the behaviour of an economy reflects the behaviour of the

individuals who make up the economy, we start our study of economics with

four principles of individual decision-making

C A S E S T U D Y

A Decision of Life and Death

Millions of people every day use medicinal drugs for a variety of reasons but

mostly because taking them brings some benefit In some cases, the use of

medicinal drugs helps to alleviate relatively mild conditions but for a large

number of patients, for example, those suffering from different types of

can-cer, such drugs can literally mean the difference between life and death In

recent years there have been a large number of drugs developed by

compa-nies to help cancer sufferers The complexity of the illness, however, means

that the cost of developing such drugs can be extremely high In Europe, the

European Medicines Agency (EMA) evaluates and supervises medicines for

human and animal use In the UK, the National Institute for Health and

Clin-ical Excellence (NICE) carries out a similar role and licenses drugs for use

within the National Health Service (NHS) It has to decide whether to

recom-mend drugs for use within the NHS It balances out the costs of using a drug

against the benefits to patients It also considers the wider costs and benefits

as well If the costs outweigh the benefits then it may reject the use of the

drug under the NHS

One example of such a rejection occurred in November 2009 The drug in

question was called sorafenib or, to give it its brand name, Nexavar The drug

is produced by German pharmaceutical company Bayer and is for treatment

of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) This is a cancer of the liver, a disease

which affects around 3 000 people in the UK every year Of these, around

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600–700 would benefit from the drug; it is not a cure but extends the life ofpatients for up to six months Given the life expectancy of patients with thisillness, this can be a significant benefit The prognosis for liver cancer suf-ferers is poor; 80 per cent die within a year of diagnosis and 95 per cent diewithin five years.

Despite the benefits, NICE rejected the use of the drug on the NHS becausethe cost of licensing greatly outweighed the benefits This was not simply thefinancial cost of administering the drug, estimated at £3 000 per month, butthe wider costs in terms of the benefits to other patients with other illnessesthat would have to be foregone The NHS budget, like most other health bud-gets across Europe, is limited Decisions have to be made on who to treat andwho not to because resources are scarce in relation to demand NICE decidedthat the money that could be spent on sorafenib could be better spent ontreating other patients; the value of the benefits to those patients would out-weigh the value of the benefits to liver cancer sufferers Andrew Dillon, chiefexecutive of NICE, said: ‘The price being asked by Bayer is simply too high tojustify using NHS money which could be spent on better value cancertreatments.’

For liver cancer sufferers the decision by NICE was a major blow The sion means that some will be deprived of additional months of good qualitylife which they could have had if they had access to the drug For other can-cer patients, the decision might be good news – it may mean there is moremoney available to treat them and that money may result in a longer period

deci-of good quality life The decision may seem like a cold and calculating one,but in simple economics terms it makes sense

Principle 1: People Face Trade-offs

The first lesson about making decisions is summarized in an adage popular witheconomists: ‘There is no such thing as a free lunch’ To get one thing that we like,

we usually have to give up another thing that we also like Making decisionsrequires trading off one goal against another

Consider a student who must decide how to allocate her most valuableresource – her time She can spend all of her time studying economics; she canspend all of her time studying psychology; or she can divide her time betweenthe two fields For every hour she studies one subject, she gives up an hour shecould have used studying the other And for every hour she spends studying, shegives up an hour that she could have spent in the gym, riding a bicycle, watching

TV, napping or working at her part-time job for some extra spending money

Or consider parents deciding how to spend their family income They can buyfood, clothing or a family holiday Or they can save some of the family incomefor retirement or perhaps to help the children buy a house or a flat when theyare grown up When they choose to spend an extra euro on one of these goods,they have one less euro to spend on some other good

When people are grouped into societies, they face different kinds of trade-offs.The classic trade-off is between ‘guns and butter’ The more we spend onnational defence (guns) to protect our country from foreign aggressors, the less

we can spend on consumer goods (butter) to raise our standard of living athome Also important in modern society is the trade-off between a clean environ-ment and a high level of income Laws that require firms to reduce pollutionraise the cost of producing goods and services Because of the higher costs,these firms end up earning smaller profits, paying lower wages, charging higherprices, or some combination of these three Thus, while pollution regulations give

us the benefit of a cleaner environment and the improved levels of health that

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come with it, they have the cost of reducing the incomes of the firms’ owners,

workers and customers

Another trade-off society faces is between efficiency and equity Efficiency

means that society is getting the most it can from its scarce resources Equity

means that the benefits of those resources are distributed fairly among society’s

members In other words, efficiency refers to the size of the economic cake, and

equity refers to how the cake is divided Often, when government policies are

being designed, these two goals conflict

Consider, for instance, policies aimed at achieving a more equal distribution of

economic well-being Some of these policies, such as the social security system or

unemployment insurance, try to help those members of society who are most in

need Others, such as the individual income tax, ask the financially successful to

contribute more than others to support the government Although these policies

have the benefit of achieving greater equity, they have a cost in terms of reduced

efficiency When the government redistributes income from the rich to the poor,

it reduces the reward for working hard; as a result, people work less and

pro-duce fewer goods and services In other words, when the government tries to

cut the economic cake into more equal slices, the cake gets smaller

Recognizing that people face trade-offs does not by itself tell us what decisions

they will or should make A student should not abandon the study of psychology

just because doing so would increase the time available for the study of

econom-ics Society should not stop protecting the environment just because

environmen-tal regulations reduce our material standard of living The poor should not be

ignored just because helping them distorts work incentives Nevertheless,

acknowledging life’s trade-offs is important because people are likely to make

good decisions only if they understand the options that they have available

Quick Quiz Does the adage ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’

simply refer to the fact that someone has to have paid for the lunch to be

provided and served? Or does the recipient of the ‘free lunch’ also incur a

cost?

Principle 2: The Cost of Something is What

You Give Up to Get It

Because people face trade-offs, making decisions requires comparing the costs

and benefits of alternative courses of action In many cases, however, the cost of

some action is not as obvious as it might first appear

Consider, for example, the decision whether to go to university The benefit is

intellectual enrichment and a lifetime of better job opportunities But what is the

cost? To answer this question, you might be tempted to add up the money you

spend on tuition fees, books, room and board Yet this total does not truly

repre-sent what you give up to spend a year at university

The first problem with this answer is that it includes some things that are not

really costs of going to university Even if you decided to leave full-time

educa-tion, you would still need a place to sleep and food to eat Room and board are

part of the costs of higher education only to the extent that they are more

expen-sive at university than elsewhere Indeed, the cost of room and board at your

university might be less than the rent and food expenses that you would pay

liv-ing on your own In this case, the savliv-ings on room and board are actually a

ben-efit of going to university

The second problem with this calculation of costs is that it ignores the largest

cost of a university education – your time When you spend a year listening to

equity

the property of distributing economic perity fairly among the members of society

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pros-lectures, reading textbooks and writing essays, you cannot spend that time ing at a job For most students, the wages given up to attend university are thelargest single cost of their higher education.

work-The opportunity cost of an item is what you give up to get that item When

making any decision, such as whether to go to university, decision makersshould be aware of the opportunity costs that accompany each possible action

In fact, they usually are University-age footballers who can earn millions if theyopt out of higher education and play professional football are well aware thattheir opportunity cost of going to university is very high It is not surprisingthat they often decide that the benefit is not worth the cost

Quick Quiz Assume the following costs are incurred by a student over athree-year course at a university: • Tuition fees at €3 000 per year = €9 000

• Accommodation, based on an average cost of €4 500 a year = €13 500

• Opportunity cost based on average earnings foregone of €15 000 per year

= €45 000 • Total cost = €67 500 • Given this relatively large cost whydoes anyone want to go to university?

Principle 3: Rational People Think at the Margin

Decisions in life are rarely black and white but usually involve shades of grey Atdinner time, the decision you face is not between fasting or eating as much asyou can, but whether to take that extra serving of fries When examinationsroll around, your decision is not between completely failing them or studying

24 hours a day, but whether to spend an extra hour revising your notes instead

of watching TV Economists use the term marginal changes to describe small

incremental adjustments to an existing plan of action Keep in mind that ‘margin’means ‘edge’, so marginal changes are adjustments around the edges of whatyou are doing

In many situations, people make the best decisions by thinking at the margin.Suppose, for instance, that you asked a friend for advice about how many years

to stay in education If he were to compare for you the lifestyle of a person with aPh.D with that of someone who finished secondary school with no qualifica-tions, you might complain that this comparison is not helpful for your decision.Perhaps you have already been at university for a few years but you’re getting alittle tired of studying and not having enough money and so you’re decidingwhether or not to stay on for that last year To make this decision, you need toknow the additional benefits that an extra year in education would offer (higherwages throughout your life and the sheer joy of learning) and the additionalcosts that you would incur (another year of tuition fees and another year of fore-

gone wages) By comparing these marginal benefits and marginal costs, you can

evaluate whether the extra year is worthwhile

As another example, consider an airline company deciding how much tocharge passengers who fly standby Suppose that flying a 200-seat aeroplanefrom London to Warsaw costs the airline €100 000 In this case, the average cost

of each seat is €100 000/200, which is €500 One might be tempted to concludethat the airline should never sell a ticket for less than €500 In fact, however, theairline can raise its profits by thinking at the margin Imagine that a plane isabout to take off with ten empty seats, and a standby passenger is waiting atthe gate willing to pay €300 for a seat Should the airline sell it to him/her? Ofcourse it should If the plane has empty seats, the cost of adding one more pas-

senger is minuscule Although the average cost of flying a passenger is €500, the

marginal cost is merely the cost of the airline meal that the extra passenger will

opportunity cost

whatever must be given up to obtain some

item – the value of the benefits foregone

(sacrificed)

marginal changes

small incremental adjustments to a plan

of action

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consume (which may have gone to waste in any case) and possibly an extremely

slight increase in the amount of aircraft fuel used As long as the standby

passen-ger pays more than the marginal cost, selling him or her a ticket is profitable

As these examples show, individuals and firms can make better decisions by

thinking at the margin A rational decision maker takes an action if and only if

the marginal benefit of the action exceeds the marginal cost

Principle 4: People Respond to Incentives

Because people make decisions by comparing costs and benefits, their behaviour

may change when the costs or benefits change That is, people respond to

incen-tives When the price of an apple rises, for instance, people decide to eat more

pears and fewer apples because the cost of buying an apple is higher At the

same time, apple orchards decide to hire more workers and harvest more apples,

because the benefit of selling an apple is also higher As we shall see, the effect of

price on the behaviour of buyers and sellers in a market – in this case, the market

for apples – is crucial for understanding how the economy works

Public policy makers should never forget about incentives, because many

pol-icies change the costs or benefits that people face and, therefore, alter behaviour

A tax on petrol, for instance, encourages people to drive smaller, more

fuel-efficient cars It also encourages people to use public transport rather than drive

and to live closer to where they work If the tax were large enough, people

would start driving electric cars

When policy makers fail to consider how their policies affect incentives, they

often end up with results they did not intend For example, consider public

pol-icy regarding motor vehicle safety Today all cars sold in the European Union

have to have seat belts fitted by law (although actual seat belt use – especially by

rear-seat passengers – varies widely, with official estimates ranging from about

30 per cent of car occupants in some member states to around 90 per cent in

others, notably Sweden)

How does a seat belt law affect car safety? The direct effect is obvious: when a

person wears a seat belt, the probability of surviving a major car accident rises

But that’s not the end of the story, for the law also affects behaviour by altering

incentives The relevant behaviour here is the speed and care with which drivers

operate their cars Driving slowly and carefully is costly because it uses the

dri-ver’s time and energy When deciding how safely to drive, rational people

com-pare the marginal benefit from safer driving to the marginal cost They drive

more slowly and carefully when the benefit of increased safety is high It is no

surprise, for instance, that people drive more slowly and carefully when roads

are icy than when roads are clear

Quick Quiz The emphasis on road safety throughout Europe has

increased over the last 25 years Not only are cars packed with safety

technology and devices but roads are also designed to be safer with the

use of safety barriers and better road surfaces, for example Is there a case,

therefore, for believing that if people feel that they are safer in their cars

there is an incentive to drive faster because the marginal cost is now

outweighed by the marginal benefit?

Consider how a seat belt law alters a motorist’s cost–benefit calculation Seat

belts make accidents less costly because they reduce the likelihood of injury or

death In other words, seat belts reduce the benefits of slow and careful driving

People respond to seat belts as they would to an improvement in road

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conditions – by faster and less careful driving The end result of a seat belt law,therefore, is a larger number of accidents and so it will affect both motorists andpedestrians The decline in safe driving has a clear, adverse impact on pedes-trians, who are more likely to find themselves in an accident but (unlike themotorists) don’t have the benefit of added protection.

At first, this discussion of incentives and seat belts might seem like idle lation Yet a 1981 study of seat belt laws in eight European countries commis-sioned by the UK Department of Transport showed that the laws did appear tohave had many of these effects Similar evidence was also presented in a 1975study of US seat belt laws by the American economist Sam Peltzman It doesindeed seem that seat belt laws produce both fewer deaths per accident andmore accidents The net result is little change in the number of motorist deathsand an increase in the number of pedestrian deaths

specu-This is an example of the general principle that people respond to incentives.Many incentives that economists study are more straightforward than those ofthe car-safety laws No one is surprised that people drive smaller cars in Europe,where petrol taxes are relatively high, than in the United States, where petroltaxes are lower Yet, as the seat belt example shows, policies can have effectsthat are not obvious in advance When analysing any policy, we must considernot only the direct effects but also the indirect effects that work through incen-tives If the policy changes incentives, it will cause people to alter theirbehaviour

Quick Quiz List and briefly explain the four principles of individualdecision-making

HOW PEOPLE INTERACT

The first four principles discussed how individuals make decisions As we goabout our lives, many of our decisions affect not only ourselves but other people

as well The next three principles concern how people interact with one another

Principle 5: Trade Can Make Everyone Better Off

The Americans and the Japanese are often mentioned in the news as being petitors to Europeans in the world economy In some ways this is true, becauseAmerican and Japanese firms do produce many of the same goods as Europeanfirms Airbus and Boeing compete for the same customers in the market for air-craft Toyota and Citroën compete for the same customers in the market for cars.Yet it is easy to be misled when thinking about competition among countries.Trade between Europe and the United States or between Europe and Japan is notlike a sports contest, where one side wins and the other side loses (a zero-sumgame) In fact, the opposite is true: trade between two economies can make eacheconomy better off

com-To see why, consider how trade affects your family When a member of yourfamily looks for a job, he or she competes against members of other families whoare looking for jobs Families also compete against one another when they goshopping, because each family wants to buy the best goods at the lowest prices

So, in a sense, each family in the economy is competing with all other families

Despite this competition, your family would not be better off isolating itselffrom all other families If it did, your family would need to grow its own food,

Music, TV and television producer and

executive Simon Cowell understood

opportunity cost and incentives He

decided to leave school before

completing his post-16 education and is

reported to earn in excess of £50 million a

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make its own clothes and build its own home Clearly, your family gains much

from its ability to trade with others Trade allows each person to specialize in the

activities he or she does best, whether it is farming, sewing or home building By

trading with others, people can buy a greater variety of goods and services at

lower cost

Countries as well as families benefit from the ability to trade with one another

Trade allows countries to specialize in what they do best and to enjoy a greater

variety of goods and services The Japanese and the Americans, as well as the

Egyptians and the Brazilians, are as much our partners in the world economy as

they are our competitors

Principle 6: Markets Are Usually a Good Way

to Organize Economic Activity

The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the 1980s

may be the most important change in the world during the past half century

Communist countries worked on the premise that central planners in the

govern-ment were in the best position to guide economic activity These planners

decided what goods and services were produced, how much was produced,

and who produced and consumed these goods and services The theory behind

central planning was that only the government could organize economic activity

in a way that promoted economic well-being for the country as a whole

Today, most countries that once had centrally planned economies have

aban-doned this system and are trying to develop market economies In a market

economy, the decisions of a central planner are replaced by the decisions of

mil-lions of firms and households Firms decide whom to hire and what to make

Households decide which firms to work for and what to buy with their incomes

These firms and households interact in the marketplace, where prices and

self-interest guide their decisions

At first glance, the success of market economies is puzzling After all, in a

market economy, no one is considering the economic well-being of society as a

“You’ll have to look harder than that to find a job, son.”

market economy

an economy that allocates resources through the decentralized decisions of many firms and households as they interact

in markets for goods and services

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whole Free markets contain many buyers and sellers of numerous goods andservices, and all of them are interested primarily in their own well-being Yet,despite decentralized decision-making and self-interested decision makers, mar-ket economies have proven remarkably successful in organizing economic activ-ity in a way that promotes overall economic well-being.

In his 1776 book An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,

the British economist Adam Smith made the most famous observation in all ofeconomics: households and firms interacting in markets act as if they are guided

by an ‘invisible hand’ that leads them to desirable market outcomes One of ourgoals in this book is to understand how this invisible hand works its magic Asyou study economics, you will learn that prices are the instrument with whichthe invisible hand directs economic activity Prices reflect both the value of agood to society and the cost to society of making the good Because householdsand firms look at prices when deciding what to buy and sell, they unknowinglytake into account the social benefits and costs of their actions As a result, pricesguide these individual decision makers to reach outcomes that, in many cases,maximize the welfare of society as a whole

There is an important corollary to the skill of the invisible hand in guiding nomic activity: when the government prevents prices from adjusting naturally tosupply and demand, it impedes the invisible hand’s ability to coordinate the mil-lions of households and firms that make up the economy This corollary explainswhy taxes adversely affect the allocation of resources: taxes distort prices and thus

eco-F Y I

Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand

Adam Smith’s great work An Inquiry into

the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of

Nations was published in 1776 and is a

landmark in economics In its emphasis

on the invisible hand of the market

econ-omy, it reflected a point of view that was

typical of so-called ‘enlightenment’

writers at the end of the 18th century –

that individuals are usually best left to

their own devices, without the heavy

hand of government guiding their actions

This political philosophy provides the

intellectual basis for the market economy

Why do decentralized market

econo-mies work so well? Is it because people

can be counted on to treat one another

with love and kindness? Not at all Here

is Adam Smith’s description of how

peo-ple interact in a market economy:

Man has almost constant occasion for

the help of his brethren, and it is vain for

him to expect it from their benevolence

only He will be more likely to prevail if hecan interest their self-love in his favour,and show them that it is for their ownadvantage to do for him what he requires

of them.…It is not from the benevolence

of the butcher, the brewer, or the bakerthat we expect our dinner, but from theirregard to their own interest.…

Every individual…neither intends topromote the public interest, nor knowshow much he is promoting it.…Heintends only his own gain, and he is

in this, as in many other cases, led by

an invisible hand to promote an endwhich was no part of his intention

Nor is it always the worse for the ety that it was no part of it By pursuinghis own interest he frequently promotesthat of the society more effectually thanwhen he really intends to promote it

soci-Smith is saying that participants in theeconomy are motivated by self-interest

and that the ‘invisible hand’ of the ketplace guides this self-interest intopromoting general economic well-being

mar-Many of Smith’s insights remain atthe centre of modern economics Ouranalysis in the coming chapters willallow us to express Smith’s conclusionsmore precisely and to analyse fully thestrengths and weaknesses of the mar-ket’s invisible hand

Adam Smith

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the decisions of households and firms It also explains the even greater harm

caused by policies that directly control prices, such as rent control And it also

explains the failure of communism In communist countries, prices were not

deter-mined in the marketplace but were dictated by central planners These planners

lacked the information that gets reflected in prices when prices are free to respond

to market forces Central planners failed because they tried to run the economy

with one hand tied behind their backs – the invisible hand of the marketplace

Principle 7: Governments Can Sometimes Improve

Market Outcomes

If the invisible hand of the market is so wonderful, why do we need

govern-ment? One answer is that the invisible hand needs government to protect it

Mar-kets work only if property rights are enforced A farmer won’t grow food if he

expects his crop to be stolen, and a restaurant won’t serve meals unless it is

assured that customers will pay before they leave We all rely on

government-provided police and courts to enforce our rights over the things we produce

Yet there is another answer to why we need government: although markets

are usually a good way to organize economic activity, this rule has some

impor-tant exceptions There are two broad reasons for a government to intervene in the

economy – to promote efficiency and to promote equity That is, most policies

aim either to enlarge the economic cake or to change the way in which the cake is

divided

Although the invisible hand usually leads markets to allocate resources

effi-ciently, that is not always the case Economists use the term market failure to

refer to a situation in which the market on its own fails to produce an efficient

allocation of resources One possible cause of market failure is an externality,

which is the uncompensated impact of one person’s actions on the well-being of a

bystander (a third party) For instance, the classic example of an external cost is

pol-lution Another possible cause of market failure is market power, which refers to

the ability of a single person (or small group) to unduly influence market prices

For example, if everyone in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands needs water

but there is only one well, the owner of the well is not subject to the rigorous

competition with which the invisible hand normally keeps self-interest in check In

the presence of externalities or market power, well designed public policy can

enhance economic efficiency

The invisible hand may also fail to ensure that economic prosperity is

distrib-uted equitably A market economy rewards people according to their ability to

produce things for which other people are willing to pay The world’s best

foot-baller earns more than the world’s best chess player simply because people are

willing to pay more to watch football than chess The invisible hand does not

ensure that everyone has sufficient food, decent clothing and adequate health

care Many public policies, such as income tax and the social security system,

aim to achieve a more equitable distribution of economic well-being

To say that the government can improve on market outcomes at times does

not mean that it always will Public policy is made not by angels but by a

politi-cal process that is far from perfect Sometimes policies are designed simply to

reward the politically powerful Sometimes they are made by well intentioned

leaders who are not fully informed One goal of the study of economics is to

help you judge when a government policy is justifiable to promote efficiency or

equity, and when it is not

Quick Quiz List and briefly explain the three principles concerning

market power

the ability of a single economic agent (or small group of agents) to have a substantial influence on market prices

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HOW THE ECONOMY AS A WHOLE WORKS

We started by discussing how individuals make decisions and then looked athow people interact with one another All these decisions and interactionstogether make up ‘the economy’ The last three principles concern the workings

of the economy as a whole A key concept in this section is economic growth –

the percentage increase in the number of goods and services produced in aneconomy over a period of time usually expressed over a quarter and annually

Principle 8: An Economy’s Standard of Living Depends

on its Ability to Produce Goods and Services

Table 1.1 shows gross domestic product per head of the population in a number

of selected countries It is clear that many of the advanced economies have a atively high income per capita; in the UK it is $35 728 whilst in Germany andFrance it is $39 442 and $42 092 respectively In Spain average income is a littlelower at $31 142, somewhat higher in Ireland at $51 128, higher still in Switzer-land at $66 127 and an enviable $94 418 in Luxembourg These figures comparewith an income per person of about $39 000 in Canada and $46 500 in the UnitedStates But once we move away from the prosperous economies of Western Eur-ope, North America and parts of Asia, we begin to see differences in income andliving standards around the world that are quite staggering For example, in thesame year, 2009, average income in Poland was $11 098 almost a third of thelevel in Spain, while in Argentina it was just $7 508, in India $1 033 and in Ethio-pia just $418 – less than one half of a per cent of the annual income per person inLuxembourg Not surprisingly, this large variation in average income is reflected

rel-in various other measures of the quality of life and standard of livrel-ing Citizens of

high-income countries have better nutrition, better health care and longer lifeexpectancy than citizens of low-income countries, as well as more TV sets, moreDVD players and more cars

Changes in the standard of living over time are also large Over the last

50 years, average incomes in Western Europe and North America have grown

at about 2 per cent per year (after adjusting for changes in the cost of living) Atthis rate, average income doubles every 35 years, and over the last half-centuryaverage income in many of these prosperous economies has risen approximatelythree-fold On the other hand, average income in Ethiopia rose by only a thirdover this period – an average annual growth rate of around only 0.5 per cent

What explains these large differences in living standards among countries andover time? The answer is surprisingly simple Almost all variation in living stan-

dards is attributable to differences in countries’ productivity – that is, the amount

of goods and services produced from each hour of a worker’s time In nationswhere workers can produce a large quantity of goods and services per unit oftime, most people enjoy a high standard of living; in nations where workers areless productive, most people must endure a more meagre existence Similarly, thegrowth rate of a nation’s productivity determines the growth rate of its averageincome

The fundamental relationship between productivity and living standards issimple, but its implications are far-reaching If productivity is the primary deter-minant of living standards, other explanations must be of secondary importance.For example, it might be tempting to credit trades unions or minimum wagelaws for the rise in living standards of European workers over the past 50 years.Yet the real hero of European workers is their rising productivity

economic growth

the increase in the amount of goods and

services in an economy over a period of

time

gross domestic product per head

the market value of all final goods and

services produced within a country in a

given period of time divided by the

popu-lation of a country to give a per capita

figure

standard of living

refers to the amount of goods and services

that can be purchased by the population

of a country Usually measured by the

inflation-adjusted (real) income per head

of the population

productivity

the quantity of goods and services

pro-duced from each hour of a worker’s time

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The relationship between productivity and living standards also has profound

implications for public policy When thinking about how any policy will affect

living standards, the key question is how it will affect our ability to produce

goods and services To boost living standards, policy makers need to raise

pro-ductivity by ensuring that workers are well educated, have the tools needed to

produce goods and services, and have access to the best available technology

TABLE 1.1

Gross Domestic Product Per Capita, Current Prices, US dollars 2009

Country GDP per capita

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Principle 9: Prices Rise When the Government Prints Too Much Money

In Germany in January 1921, a daily newspaper was priced at 0.30 marks.Less than two years later, in November 1922, the same newspaper was priced at

70 000 000 marks All other prices in the economy rose by similar amounts This

episode is one of history’s most spectacular examples of inflation, an increase in

the overall level of prices in the economy

While inflation in Western Europe and North America has been much lowerover the last 50 years than that experienced in Germany in the 1920s, inflationhas at times been an economic problem During the 1970s, for instance, the over-all level of prices in the UK more than tripled By contrast, UK inflation from

2000 to 2008 was about 3 per cent per year; at this rate it would take more than

20 years for prices to double In more recent times, Zimbabwe has experiencedGerman-like hyperinflation In March 2007 inflation in the African state wasreported to be running at 2 200 per cent That meant that a good priced at theequivalent of €2.99 in March 2006 would be priced at €65.78 just a year later InJuly 2008 the government issued a Z$100 billion note At that time it was justabout enough to buy a loaf of bread Estimates for inflation in Zimbabwe in July

2008 put the rate of growth of prices at 231 000 000 per cent In January 2009, the

“… but if daddy increased your allowance he’d be hurting the economy by stimulating inflation You wouldn’t want him to do that, would you?”

inflation

an increase in the overall level of prices in

the economy

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economics 2nd by mankiw taylor

THE ECONOMIST AS POLICY ADVISOR

A PARABLE FOR THE MODERN ECONOMY