Economics: A Very Short Introduction

Description

Economics has the capacity to offer us deep insights into some of the most formidable problems of life, and offer solutions to them too. Combining a global approach with examples from everyday life, Partha Dasgupta reveals the connections between economics, politics, and development, and shows how these interactions create the world we live in today.

• Compares the lives of two children in the Developed and Developing Worlds, and uses this as a key to uncover the processes that shape our lives and our futures.
• Shows how economics uncovers and explains these processes, and how it can form solutions and policies.
• Up-to-date and progressive, this short book is written by an internationally recognized authority in the field.
• Introduces key economic factors and concepts such as individual choices, national policies, efficiency, equity, development, sustainability, dynamic equilibrium, property rights, markets, and public goods.
• Ties in politics, anthropology, ecology, geography, sociology, and development studies.

About the Author(s)

Partha Dasgupta, Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge

Table of Contents

Preface
Prologue
1:Macroeconomic History
2:Trust
3:Communities
4:Markets
5:Science and Technology as Institutions
6:Households and Firms
7:Sustainable Economic Development
8:Social Well-Being and Democratic Government
Epilogue
Further Reading

Reviews

"An excellent introduction... presents mathematical and statistical findings in straightforward prose." - Financial Times

"I wish more people would read Dasgupta's book, and I wish more economists would write variations on its theme. It is a model specimen." - www.economicprincipals.com

"The text is direct, rigorous and thought-provoking. It provides an intelligent, rigorous and readable introduction to economics." - London Book Review.com