Real issues engage students with the content
• Examination of causality. By studying recent research that reports a positive correlation between expensive weddings and high rates of divorce, students will learn to determine the difference between correlation and causality, and better understand the role of omitted variables (Chapter 2).
• Coverage of the fracking revolution and its impact on oil and gas prices. Supply and demand come alive when students can see how the recent rightward shift in the oil supply curve--due to the development of fracking technologies--has played a role in halving the equilibrium price of oil (Chapter 4).
• Focus on the shared economy. The role of surge pricing in equilibrating Uber driver supply and rider demand is discussed, helping students to more deeply understand the markets that they personally use (Chapter 7).
• Coverage of the recent election to teach topics like probability. Students use analytic tools to understand how to interpret forecasts on the eve of the election (Chapter 15).
• Coverage describing the growth of economic inequality, and emphasizing that inequality is not measured in economic aggregates, such as GDP (Chapter 19).
An evidence based approach using real issues and data
• Evidence-Based Economics (EBE) features show how economists use data to answer the question posed in the opening paragraph of each chapter. EBEs use actual data from field experiments, lab experiments, and the government or naturally occurring data, while highlighting major concepts in the chapter. These features let students get a real look at economics as it plays out in the world around them, and gives them the skills to question systematically and evaluate what they read. Examples include:
o Uber and the invisible hand?
o What can the government do to lower earthquakes in Oklahoma?
• Letting the Data Speak features reinforce the theme of evidence behind the theory. These short, targeted explorations analyze an economic question by using real data as the foundation of the discussion. Among the many issues explored:
o Forecasts on the eve of the election
o The great productivity puzzle--discussing how we may be experiencing a slow-down of aggregate productivity despite the rapid introduction of a range of new technologies in the economy (Chapter 21)
o Democracy and growth, showing the positive impact of democratic political institutions on economic growth (Chapter 22)
o Financing start-ups (Chapter 24)
o The response of consumption to tax cuts (Chapter 27)
• Choice and Consequence features emphasize optimization--one of the key themes in the book--by focusing on making the best decision. These features ask students to make an economic decision, or evaluate the consequences of past real decisions. The authors then explain how an economist might analyze the same decision. Examples of choices investigated include:
o The societal consequences of the expulsion of Jewish faculty from universities in Nazi Germany (Chapter 20)
o Minimum wage laws and employment (Chapter 23)
o Luddite resistance to new technology and what this can teach us about the disruption that new and more productive robots are bringing to the economy today (Chapter 23)
o Obtaining reserves outside of the federal funds market (Chapter 25)
o The new administration’s fiscal policy proposals (Chapter 27)
o The political forces that influence trade policy (Chapter 28)
• Graphical Exhibit describing the relationship between interest rates and net capital outflows, unifying material from several chapters for the analysis of open economy macroeconomics (Chapter 29)
