Economics Today: A Canadian Perspective Microeconomics, 2nd edition
Published by Pearson Canada (March 11, 2025) © 2026
  • Roger LeRoy Miller
  • James Higginson
  • Mustaq Ahmad
  • Igor Siljanoski

Title overview

For two-semester courses in the principles of economics.

Economics brought to life through real-world application

Students learn best when they see concepts applied to examples from their everyday lives, so Economics Today addresses real, cutting-edge issues while facilitating student learning. The text shows students how economics is front and center in their daily routines, while providing them with many ways to evaluate their understanding of key concepts covered in each chapter. Economics Today includes emphasis on behavioral economics, along with all-new problems, vignettes, and features that engage students and help them focus on the central ideas in economics today. With a brand new video program students can also visualize and understand key economics principles in a modern and engaging way.

Hallmark features of this title

  • Explaining Artificial Intelligence (AI) Applications in the Real World. The Canadian edition includes a feature entitled AI - Decision Making through Data. Each chapter contains at least one AI feature box
  • Digital Interactives. Economic principles are not static ideas, and learning them shouldn't be either. Digital Interactives are dynamic and engaging assessment activities that promote critical thinking and application of key economic principles. Each Digital Interactive has 3–5 progressive levels and requires approximately 20 minutes to explore, apply, compare, and analyze each topic. 
  • Single Player Experiments. Experiments are an easy-to-use, fun, and engaging way to promote active learning and mastery of important economic concepts. Single-player experiments allow students to play against virtual players from anywhere at any time so long as they have an Internet connection. 
  • Real-Time Data Analysis Figures use up-to-the-minute, real-time macroeconomic data. These figures communicate directly with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's FRED™ site, so every time FRED posts new data, students see it within the eText

New GenAI Study Tool

We’ve heard how important it is for students to use reliable AI tools in responsible and productive ways. To that end, Pearson is focused on creating tools that combine the power of generative AI with trusted Pearson content to provide students with a simplified study experience, delivering on-demand and personalised support that compliments your teaching and aligns with the text you’ve chosen. The Study Tool is available to students who access the Pearson eText on its own or through MyLab.

What can the AI Study Tool do?

  • Generate simplified explanations of challenging sections
  • Summarize material to help learners focus on key topics and ideas
  • Students can ask for multiple choice or short answer questions related to a specific chapter or section to help fill knowledge gaps
  • For extra practice, students can also generate flashcards and notes based on their chat interaction with the tool

New and Updated Features

  • NEW discussion contrasting the inflation for food Items with those of the rest of the items in the economy with emphasis on the shifting quantity demanded.
  • NEW technological change example links the success of a significant government-mandated and -led transformation of Canada’s current energy mix toward renewable energy sources to the advent of new technology and innovation.
  • NEW description of the rent crisis in Canada in 2021 and 2022.
  • NEW explanation of the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the production efficiency.
  • NEW question related to the questioning of rational behaviour by consumers adds to the discussion of the assumptions of the concept of diminishing marginal utility. It creates a picture that rationality can be a significant factor in consumer behaviour.
  • NEW discussion of the social cost of monopolistic behaviour in the marketplace.

Key features

Important Digital Assets in MyLab Economics

  • New GenAI Study Tool. We’ve heard how important it is for students to use reliable AI tools in responsible and productive ways. To that end, Pearson is focused on creating tools that combine the power of generative AI with trusted Pearson content to provide students with a simplified study experience, delivering on-demand and personalised support that compliments your teaching and aligns with the text you’ve chosen.
  • GEOGEBRA Graphing Question These gradable graphing exercises help students demonstrate their understanding. Assignable alongside our MyLab homework exercises, they enable students to interact directly with the graph in a manner that reflects how students would graph on paper.
  • Current Event boxes bring currency into your classroom with author-written content that connects key concepts with real-life current events. Annually, the authors add new or revised content or data to ensure your students have relevant examples to help them engage with the course.
  • Interactive figures bring concepts to life, helping students see the concepts through directed explorations and purposeful manipulation. These figures are assignable and encourage active learning, critical thinking, and conceptual understanding. These interactive graphs and figures can be found by learners within the eText and can be assigned by instructors through our MyLab Multimedia Library.
  • Dynamic Study Modules: Using a highly personalized, algorithmically driven process, Dynamic Study Modules continuously assess student performance and provide additional practice in the areas where they struggle the most. Each Dynamic Study Module, accessed by computer, smartphone, or tablet, promotes fast learning and long term retention.
  • Digital Interactives. Economic principles are not static ideas, and learning them shouldn't be either. Digital Interactives are dynamic and engaging assessment activities that promote critical thinking and application of key economic principles. Each Digital Interactive has 3–5 progressive levels and requires approximately 20 minutes to explore, apply, compare, and analyze each topic. Digital Interactives can be assigned and graded within MyLab Economics or used as a lecture tool to encourage engagement, classroom conversation, and group work.
  • Single Player Experiments. Experiments are an easy-to-use, fun, and engaging way to promote active learning and mastery of important economic concepts. Single-player experiments allow students to play against virtual players from anywhere at any time so long as they have an Internet connection. Pre- and post-experiment questions are available for assignment within the MyLab.
  • Video Lessons. Video lessons are brief two- to three minute instructional videos that cover key definitions and concepts that are embedded within the eText. They reinforce the content by expanding on examples and explaining key graphs and figures, which help students understand essential and difficult economic concepts. The videos appear in the eText and can be assigned through the multimedia library of MyLab.
  • Real-Time Data Analysis Figures use up-to-the-minute, real-time macroeconomic data. These figures communicate directly with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's FRED™ site, so every time FRED posts new data, students see it within the eText.
  • Ready to Go provides a roadmap to planning your course. Ready to Go helps instructors unlock content and tools available within MyLab. Curated for each title, this website provides a path for instructors to explore and implement resources for teaching and learning. Using the framework of before, during, and after class, this online instructor's manual helps pinpoint the tools you need from the instructor support materials and online platforms to support your course planning for in-class, online, and hybrid instruction.
  • Learning Catalytics™ allows students to use any web-enabled device to participate in class. Instructors can access a library of pre-built questions or construct questions on their own to keep students engaged in the lecture. Learning Catalytics can be assigned to students synchronously or asynchronously and used for individual or group work. It can also place students in discussion groups based on their responses and location, regardless of class size.


Table of contents

  1. The Nature of Economics
  2. Scarcity and the World of Trade-Offs
  3. Demand and Supply
  4. Extensions of Demand and Supply Analysis
  5. Market Failures and the Public Sector
  6. Demand and Supply Elasticity
  7. Consumer Choice
  8. The Firm: Cost and Output Determination
  9. Perfect Competition
  10. Monopoly
  11. Monopolistic Competition
  12. Oligopoly and Strategic Behaviour
  13. The Labour Market
  14. Income, Poverty, and Federal Income Support Programs
  15. Environmental Economics

Author bios

Roger LeRoy Miller has served on the faculty of several universities, including the University of Washington, Clemson University, and the University of Miami School of Law. As a professor, he has taught intellectual property law and entertainment law, among other subjects. A widely published and respected author, his work has appeared in the Insurance Counsel Journal, Defense Research, California Trial Lawyers Journal, Antitrust Bulletin, Wisconsin Law Review, and Connecticut Law Review. Professor Miller completed his studies at the University of California at Berkeley and University of Chicago.

Mushtaq Ahmad received his M.A. in economics from the University of Waterloo (Canada) in 1984, and his Ph.D. in economics from Northern Illinois University (USA) in 1988. He was the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Scholar of the Year award in 1985. He has over 30 years of experience in teaching undergraduate economics. He has been teaching economics at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology since 2007. Prior to this, he also taught at Northern Illinois University, USA, 1985–1988; University of Wisconsin, USA, 1988–1993; Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 1993–2005; and Saint Frances Xavier University, Canada, 2005–2007. His research has been published in leading economic journals, including Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Macroeconomics, Economia Internazionale, Indian Journal of Economics, Managerial Finance, and International Journal of Applied Business and Economics Research. 

George Sroka has a M.A. in applied economics from the University of Victoria and an Honours B.A. in economics from the University of Waterloo. George started his post-secondary teaching career in 2004 at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and Grant MacEwan College.

Prior to joining Northern Alberta Institute of Technology full time in 2008, George had over 15 years of private-sector industry experience working as an economist. George has worked in several fields: telecommunications, commercial real estate, and consulting. He has specialized in business planning, forecasting, and economic modelling. His work includes forecasting commercial real estate (retail, industrial, office) demand, municipal population growth, and land-use changes, as well as assessing post-secondary institutions' and school boards' capacity requirements, and performing cost benefit analyses of municipal amalgamation.

Igor Siljanoski received his Honours B.A. in international relations (1996) and M.A. in political science (1998) from the University of Windsor, and his Ph.D. in Economics (2014) from the University of St. Cyril and Methodius, in Skopje, Macedonia. Starting his career in the Ontario Public Service as a Business Planning Consultant and an Economist for the Ministry of Finance, he continued his career as a Manager of Policy and Advocacy for the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Igor started teaching economics and business courses at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, while working in his advocacy role for the business community in 2005, becoming a full-time professor in 2018. Igor has also taught economics courses at the University of Windsor since 2016. Through his diverse educational and professional background, Igor has accumulated vast knowledge and skills in the field of economics and business that benefit his students and are used in his work on this textbook.

His vision is to contribute to a more complete economics education for the next generation of leaders, bringing the science of economics and its many unique aspects and connections with other social sciences and humanities directly to post-secondary students.

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