Economics For Dummies, UK Edition E-Book

Peter Antonioni

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 663

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

Untangle the jargon and understand how you're involved in everyday economics

If you want to get to grips with the basics of economics and understand a subject that affects British citizens on a daily basis, then look no further than Economics For Dummies. This easy to understand guide takes you through the world of economics from understanding micro- and macroeconomics to demystifying complex topics such as capitalism and recession.

This updated edition walks you through the history, principles and theories of economics as well as breaking down all the complicated terminology, leaving you clued up on economics in no time.

• Getting to grips – explore the science of economics and how people deal with scarcity

• Keeping an eye on it – learn all about macroeconomics and how economists keep track of everything

• Watch patterns emerge – understand why monitoring consumer behaviour is vital and all you need to know about microeconomics

• Your recession guide – expert advice on recessions and a detailed look at why they occur

Open the book and find:

• Why you should care about economics and how it affects you

• Tools to help you understand a recession

• A guide to seductive economic fallacies

• All you need to know on monetary and fiscal policies

• How supply and demand can be made easy

• Why it's vital to track consumer choices

• An in-depth look at a profit-maximising firm and the core of capitalism

• Guidance on property rights and wrongs

Learn to:

• Look through economic history and spot the trends

• Understand micro- and macroeconomics

• Get to grips with consumer behaviour and its influence on the economy

• Spot the signs of a recession and see how economic decisions affect you

Leseprobe

Economics For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Economics For Dummies®

by Peter Antonioni and Sean Masaki Flynn

Economics For Dummies®

Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, LtdThe AtriumSouthern GateChichesterWest SussexPO19 8SQEngland

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About the Authors

Peter Antonioni was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, and Birkbeck College, London, and has worked in both academic and private sectors as an economist before finally ending up as Lecturer in Management at University College London.

His research interests are diverse, and include the football transfer market, the process of enterprise in technology markets, and the techniques and practice of the arcane field of Long Range Scenario Planning.

His great passions include composing and recording electronic music, practicing the mystical martial arts of ancient China, and weeping with uncontrollable dismay at Spurs’ latest setbacks. Amongst his talents are an uncanny ability to recall every plot point and line of dialogue from Battlestar Galactica, and the superpower of creating a mean penne arrabiata. He blogs some of the above at pja.typepad.com.

Sean Masaki Flynn earned his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, studying under Nobel Prize winners George Akerlof and Daniel McFadden.

He is a member of the American Economic Association, the American Finance Association, the Economic Science Association, and the Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics.

His research focuses on the often puzzling and seemingly irrational behavior of stock market investors, but he’s also investigated topics as wide-ranging as the factors that affect customer tipping behaviour at restaurants and why you see a lot of unionised workers only in certain industries. He’s also a leading expert on closed-end mutual funds.

His great passion is the Japanese martial art of aikido, which he has taught for over a decade to thousands of students both in the United States and abroad. If you like the martial arts, you might enjoy reading his book, Shodokan Aikido: Basics Through 6th Kyu, which gives an insight into both the mental and physical aspects of aikido.

Finally, he’s gone out of his way to post extensive supplementary material for this book at www.learn-economics.com. Check it out.

Author’s Acknowledgments

Many people have left their imprints on me as I’ve traveled through life, and I feel privileged to have benefited from their wisdom and patience along the way.

My parents who impressed on me the return on investment in education.

Paul, who never let me get away with sloppy thinking. Thanks Bro!

Tanya, who taught me how to practise economics as a true art whilst staying sane.

Tim Hames, for three years of the most inspiring tutorials ever.

All the crew at Birkbeck, and especially Professor Ron Smith who actually made econometrics make sense.

Bryan Finn and David Merrick for showing me how it all actually works.

John Cubbin, in whose debt I will be forever, for actually getting me to produce research. Michael Ball for always believing in me, especially when I didn’t.

All my colleagues at UCL, especially Richard Pettinger, who got me into this gig, Irene Brunskill, Linda Hesselman, Jane Walker, and Jane Burns Nurse.

All my students at City University and UCL for making a better economist by making me think about how to actually explain this stuff so it makes sense to someone else, because you never actually know that you know things until you try and tell another what you know.

The entire posse, especially the Eggman, the Tenth Emanation, The Church of Uggy, Cap’n Jules, the Krazza, Noel and Leah, Phil and Sunita, Karen, Alice, Mao, Merv Dawg, and everyone. Big Up!

Big shout out to Andrew, AJ, and Heather for beating me up regularly!

And thanks to Rachael at Wiley, for patiently dealing with my somewhat relaxed attitude to deadlines and my totally blockheaded queries.

Very big thanks indeed to Sean Masaki Flynn for an incredibly well-created US original.

Any omissions are my own fault and if you feel you have been unjustly omitted from the thanks you can demand a pint anytime as recompense. I may even buy you one.

– Peter Antonioni

I’d like to thank the many great economists who managed to get things into my head despite my very thick skull.

Among my teachers, I can’t help but thanks Caroline Betts, Tim Cason, Richard Ciccetti, Michael DePrano, Richard Easterlin, Robert Kalaba, Timur Kuran, Jeffrey Nugent, and Morton Shapiro for the excellent education I received as an undergraduate at the University of Southern California.

I was equally blessed at UC Berkeley, where I got to complete a doctorate under the tutelage of some true intellectual giants including George Akerlof, David Card, J. Bradford DeLong, Jan deVries, Barry Eichengreen, Richard Gilbert, Daniel McFadden, Maurey Obstfeld, Matthew Rabin, David Romer, Christina Romer, and Janet Yellen. It was especially fun when Professors McFadden and Akerlof won their respective Nobel Prizes during my last two years at Cal.

However, my fellow economics students often did more than my professors to explain things to me when I wasn’t getting them. And they continue to educate me even now. So a very heartfelt thank you to Corinne Alexander, Lorenzo Blanco, Mark Carlson, Carlos Dobkin, Tim Doede, Mike Enriquez, Fabio Ghironi, Petra Geraats, Aaron Green, Galina Hale, Alan Marco, Carolina Marquez, Marcelo Moreira, Petra Moser, Marc Muendler, Stefan Palmqvist, Doug Park, Raj Patel, Steve Puller, Desiree Schaan, Doug Schwalm, Mark Stehr, Sam Thompson, Carla Tully, Jeff Weinstein, and Marta Wosinska.

I’ve also got to thank my students here at Vassar College. You’re bright, diligent, and incredibly hardworking. By asking me so many challenging, insightful questions, you’ve made me a far better economist.

A big thank you to my literary agent Linda Roghaar and my old friend Mike Jones for getting me this book deal. They heard Dummies and immediately thought of me.

The entire production team at Wiley also deserve huge praise. All their edits, suggestions, and formatting have turned out a book that’s far better than anything I could have come up with on my own.

I also have to deeply thank Dr Robert Harris, whose comments and suggestions have made the text far better than it would have been otherwise.

Finally, I must thank Melissa Lape. She read my copy and made numerous suggestions that helped make Economics For Dummies both clear and concise.

If you’ve had the patience to read this far, you’ll also likely have an inclination to go check out www.learn-economics.com, where I’ve posted lots of supplementary material to accompany Economics For Dummies. You just can’t get enough, can you?

– Sean Masaki Flynn

Dedication

To all the family, friends, and colleagues who did so much to set me on the true path, and especially to Andrew Scott, who showed an inordinate amount of faith in me, and Vinetta Archer-Dyer who tirelessly cleared up the mess I left in my wake.

– Peter Antonioni

To my dad, Thomas Ray Flynn, who always impressed upon me the importance of good economic policy both for improving our quality of life and as our last, best hope for lifting billions out of poverty and disease.

– Sean Masaki Flynn

Publisher’s Acknowledgements

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Part I

Economics: The Science of How People Deal with Scarcity

In this part . . .

Economics studies how people deal with scarcity and the inescapable fact that our wants typically exceed the means available to satisfy them. The fact that life has limits may not at first seem like a good basis for an entire social science, but every government decision, every business decision and a large chunk of your personal decisions all come down to deciding how to get the most out of limited resources. Consequently, as we explain in this part, economics is fundamental to almost all aspects of life.

Chapter 1

What Does Economics Study? And Why Should You Care?

In This Chapter

Taking a quick peek at economic history

Observing how people cope with scarcity

Separating macroeconomics and microeconomics

Growing the economy and avoiding recessions

Understanding individual and firm behaviour

Getting a grip on the graphs and models that economists love to use

Economics is the science that studies how people and societies make decisions that allow them to get the most out of their limited resources. Because every country, every business and every person deals with constraints and limitations, economics is literally everywhere.

For example, you could be doing something else right now instead of reading this book: exercising, watching a film or talking with a friend. The only reason for you to be reading this book is that doing so is the best possible use of your very limited time.

In the same way, you hope that the paper and ink used to make this book have been put to their very best use. Similarly, we all hope that every last tax pound that the government spends is being used in the best possible way, and not being dissipated on projects of secondary importance.

Economics gets to the heart of these issues, analysing individual and firm behaviour, as well as social and political institutions, to see how well they perform at converting humanity’s limited resources into the goods and services that best satisfy human wants and needs.