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Introduction to Economics



1.1 The Basics of Economics

1.1.1 Defining Economics

1.1.2 What Economists Do

1.1.3 Macroeconomics and Microeconomics

1.1.4 An Overview of Economic Systems

1.1.5 Case Study: The Work of Adam Smith




1.2 Graphs in Economics

1.2.1 Using Graphs to Understand Direct Relationships

1.2.2 Plotting a Linear Relationship between Two Variables

1.2.3 Changing the Intercept of a Linear Function

1.2.4 Understanding the Slope of a Linear Function




1.3 Demand

1.3.1 Determining the Components of Demand

1.3.2 Understanding the Basics of a Demand Curve

1.3.3 Analyzing Shifts in the Demand Curve

1.3.4 Understanding Changes in Other Demand Variables

1.3.5 Deriving a Market Demand Curve




1.4 Supply

1.4.1 Determining the Components of Supply

1.4.2 Deriving a Supply Curve

1.4.3 Understanding a Change in Supply versus a Change in Quantity Supplied

1.4.4 Analyzing Changes in Other Supply Variables

1.4.5 Deriving a Market Supply Curve




1.5 Competitive Equilibrium

1.5.1 Determining a Competitive Equilibrium

1.5.2 Defining Comparative Statics

1.5.3 Classifying Comparative Statics




1.6 Elasticity

1.6.1 Defining Elasticity

1.6.2 Calculating Elasticity

1.6.3 Applying the Concept of Elasticity

Macroeconomic Measurements



2.1 Aggregate Output and Income

2.1.1 The Production Possibilities Frontier: Macroeconomic Applications

2.1.2 The Circular Flow Model

2.1.3 Real GDP

2.1.4 The New BEA Procedure for Calculating Real GDP

2.1.5 Limitations of GDP and Alternative Indexes

2.1.6 Hot Topic: Feminist Economics and the Measurement of GDP

2.1.7 Hot Topic: Off the Books: The Underground Economy




2.2 Approaches to Calculating GDP

2.2.1 The Expenditures Approach

2.2.2 The Income Approach

2.2.3 Hot Topic: The Impact of E-commerce on the Economy




2.3 Cost of Living

2.3.1 Changes in the Cost of Living and the CPI

2.3.2 Case Study: The Index of Leading Economic Indicators

2.3.3 Calculating the Rate of Inflation

2.3.4 Comparing the CPI and the GDP Deflator

Economic Fluctuations: Unemployment and Inflation



3.1 The Business Cycle

3.1.1 Recessions, Depressions, and Booms

3.1.2 Theoretical Explanations for Cycles




3.2 Measuring Unemployment

3.2.1 Measuring the Labor Force and Unemployment

3.2.2 Types of Unemployment

3.2.3 Hot Topic: The Unemployment Rate and the Crime Rate

3.2.4 Hot Topic: Too Old to Work: Are We Discarding Valuable Workers?




3.3 The Natural Rate of Unemployment

3.3.1 Understanding the Natural Rate of Unemployment




3.4 Causes of Unemployment

3.4.1 Minimum Wage Laws

3.4.2 An Analysis of Labor Unions and Unemployment

3.4.3 Case Study: "La Causa": The United Farm Workers

3.4.4 The Theory of Efficiency Wages

3.4.5 Unemployment Insurance




3.5 Inflation

3.5.1 Inflation, Deflation, Stagflation, and Hyperinflation

3.5.2 Inflation and Purchasing Power

3.5.3 Short-Run Causes: Demand-Pull and Cost-Push Inflation

3.5.4 The Quantity Theory of Money

3.5.5 The Costs of Inflation

3.5.6 Case Study: Behavior during Hyperinflation

Aggregate Expenditures Model



4.1 Historical Background

4.1.1 Say's Law and Keynes: An Overview

4.1.2 Case Study: John Maynard Keynes




4.2 Components of Aggregate Expenditures

4.2.1 The Aggregate Expenditures Identity

4.2.2 Average and Marginal Propensities to Consume and Save

4.2.3 The Aggregate Expenditures Model

4.2.4 Case Study: The Paradox of Thrift

4.2.5 Autonomous Investment




4.3 Equilibrium GDP

4.3.1 The Expenditures Approach and the Saving Approach




4.4 The Multipliers

4.4.1 Applications of the Multipliers




4.5 Comparative Statics: The AE Model

4.5.1 Changes in Aggregate Expenditures

4.5.2 Changes in Taxes

4.5.3 Changes in Net Exports

4.5.4 Hot Topic: Does Social Security Need to Be "Saved"?




4.6 Keynes and the Aggregate Expenditures Model

4.6.1 Relating the Keynesian Model to the AD/AS Model




4.7 The Multipliers

4.7.1 Deriving the Multipliers

4.7.2 Case Study: The Paradox of Thrift

4.7.3 Hot Topic: Does Social Security Need to Be "Saved"?

Money: Banking, Spending, Saving, and Investing



5.1 Money in the Economy

5.1.1 The Money Supply

5.1.2 Case Study: The Cashless Society

5.1.3 Determinants of Money Demand

5.1.4 The Money Market




5.2 Financial Markets

5.2.1 Financial Markets and Intermediaries

5.2.2 Hot Topic: Should the U.S. Government Bail Out Failing Financial Institutions?

5.2.3 Stocks and Bonds

5.2.4 The Price of Bonds and the Interest Rate




5.3 The Fed

5.3.1 The Federal Reserve System

5.3.2 Hot Topic: Are Reserve Requirements Necessary?

5.3.3 The Fed's Tools of Monetary Policy




5.4 The Creation of Money

5.4.1 How Goldsmiths Created Money

5.4.2 Case Study: Cigarettes As Money

5.4.3 How Banks Create Money

5.4.4 How the Fed Changes the Money Supply




5.5 Saving and Investment

5.5.1 Investment Demand

5.5.2 The Market for Loanable Funds and Government Policy

5.5.3 Equilibrium in the Money Market

Aggregate Demand/Aggregate Supply Model



6.1 Aggregate Demand

6.1.1 Deriving the Aggregate Demand Curve

6.1.2 Movement along the Aggregate Demand Curve

6.1.3 Shifts in Aggregate Demand




6.2 Aggregate Supply

6.2.1 The Short-Run Aggregate Supply Curve

6.2.2 The Labor Market

6.2.3 The Long-Run Aggregate Supply Curve




6.3 Differences in the Long Run and the Short Run

6.3.1 The Classical View

6.3.2 Equilibrium in the Short Run

6.3.3 Expectations in the Long Run and the Short Run

6.3.4 Long-Run Macroeconomic Equilibrium

6.3.5 Case Study: The U.S. National Debt




6.4 The Phillips Curve

6.4.1 Definitions and the Historical Record

6.4.2 Expectations and the Phillips Curve

6.4.3 Hot Topic: Is the Roller Coaster Ride Over? The Future of the Business Cycle

Monetary and Fiscal Policy



7.1 Recessions and Booms

7.1.1 Unanticipated Changes in Aggregate Demand

7.1.2 Unanticipated Changes in Aggregate Supply




7.2 Fiscal Policy : The Mainstream

7.2.1 Fiscal Policy Using the AD/AS Model

7.2.2 The Market for Loanable Funds and Crowding Out

7.2.3 Timing Problems and the AD/AS Model

7.2.4 Automatic Stabilizers

7.2.5 Hot Topic: The Political Business Cycle




7.3 Fiscal Policy: Alternative Approaches

7.3.1 New Keynesian and New Classical Approaches to Fiscal Policy

7.3.2 Supply-Side Policy




7.4 Monetary Policy: The Mainstream

7.4.1 The Quantity Theory of Money (review)

7.4.2 Monetary Policy Using the AD/AS Model

7.4.3 Monetary Responses to Changes in the Economy

7.4.4 Monetary Policy: Accommodation

7.4.5 Hot Topic: Should Monetary Policy Be Made by Rule or Discretion?




7.5 Monetary Policy: Alternative Approaches

7.5.1 New Keynesians versus Monetarists

7.5.2 New Classical Macroeconomics

7.5.3 Case Study: Policy in the Great Depression

Productivity and Growth



8.1 The Elements of Productivity and Growth

8.1.1 The Rule of 70, Compounding, and Growth

8.1.2 The PPF, the AD/AS Model, and Long-Run Growth

8.1.3 The Production Function and Growth

8.1.4 The Definition of Productivity and Factors Affecting It




8.2 Policy and Growth

8.2.1 Investment

8.2.2 Other Policies to Encourage Growth

8.2.3 Hot Topic: Women's Roles in Rural Economic Growth

8.2.4 Case Study: Post-WWII Japan




8.3 Emerging Economies

8.3.1 Growth in Emerging Economies

8.3.2 Policies to Promote Growth

8.3.3 Hot Topic: The Myth of Exploding Populations

8.3.4 Case Study: Growing Pains in Indonesia

International Focus



9.1 Microeconomics Background

9.1.1 Determining the Difference between a Closed Economy and an Open Economy

9.1.2 Understanding Exports in an Open Economy

9.1.3 Analyzing a Change in Equilibrium in an Open Economy

9.1.4 Analyzing International Trade Using Comparative Advantage




9.2 Exports, Imports, and Accounting

9.2.1 The International Flow of Goods and Services

9.2.2 Balance of Payments

9.2.3 Trade Balances




9.3 Exchange Rates

9.3.1 Nominal Exchange Rates

9.3.2 Real Exchange Rates

9.3.3 Purchasing Power Parity

9.3.4 Determination of Exchange Rates

9.3.5 Floating and Fixed Systems

9.3.6 The Managed Float




9.4 Government Policies

9.4.1 Government Budget Deficits and Trade

9.4.2 Trade Policy

9.4.3 Hot Topic: Winners and Losers in NAFTA

9.4.4 Political Instability and Trade

9.4.5 Hot Topic: Is the World Trade Organization a Conspiracy?




9.5 Transition Economies

9.5.1 Centrally Planned Economies

9.5.2 Policies to Change to Market Systems

9.5.3 Comparative Economic Performance

9.5.4 Case Study: A Successful Transition in the Czech Republic




9.6 Alternative Systems

9.6.1 Case Study: Post-Mao China

9.6.2 Case Study: Revolution and Reform in Mexico

Steven Tomlinson
Acton School of Business

Steven Tomlinson teaches economics at the Acton School of Business in Austin, Texas. He graduated with highest honors from the University of Oklahoma and earned a Ph.D. in economics at Stanford University. Prof. Tomlinson's academic awards include the prestigious Texas Excellence Teaching Award given by the University of Texas Alumni Association and being named "Outstanding Core Faculty in the MBA Program" several times. He has developed several instructional guides and computerized educational programs for economics.

Prof. Tomlinson is also an accomplished theater artist, with more than half a dozen award-winning solo performances to his credit. One play, Millennium Bug, presents a world in which all human interactions are strictly governed by economic calculations. His most recent play, American Fiesta, won the American Theatre Critics Association's Osborn Award for Best New Play by an Emerging Playwright.

In his Thinkwell presentations, Prof. Tomlinson uses his academic expertise and his stage presence to dispel the notion of economics as "the dismal science."