NEW! Economic Naturalism: The Economic Naturalist feature of Bob Frank's principles book is also part of Microeconomics and Behavior. The concept aims to teach students to use economic principles to explain details of everyday existence. Throughout the text, Economic Naturalist examples help develop economic intuition and demonstrate the relevance of economics. New examples show how basic microeconomic principles can help answer such questions as:
Why has the demand for luxury grills grown so rapidly in recent years?
Why do doctors and lawyers often offer discounts to people with low incomes?
Why do lawyers in small towns buy cheaper suits than their counterparts in big cities?
Why might a firm build a bigger factory than it would ever need?
Why is it so hard to find a taxi on rainy days?
The book aims not just to enable students to apply economic concepts to such questions, but also to instill in them an inclination to do so.
Expanded coverage of decision pitfalls (Chapter 1): this expansion aids students in learning how to make better decisions and develop stronger analytical skills.
Revamped appendices (Chapters 2, 5, and 13): the revision of these appendices allow instructors to provide more coverage of the topics if they chose to do so while still enabling those who do not to skip the material without any loss of continuity.
Expanded coverage of moral hazard (Chapter 6)
Expanded coverage of game theory (Chapter 13)
Design: The text boasts a design modeled after the successful Frank/Bernanke Principles of Economics text. Line drawings illustrate the Examples and the Economic Naturalist features. The attractive look of the book will aid students in understanding and motivate them to read.
Business Examples: In order to make Microeconomics and Behavior even more relevant for business majors, the text contains more examples that relate to business issues. The Economic Naturalist tackles such questions as:
Why do some amusement parks charge only a fixed admissions fee, with no additional charge even for rides with long lines?
Why do builders use prefabricated frames for roofs but not for walls?
Why do color photographs cost less than black-and-white ones?
Why do theater owners offer students discounts on admission tickets but not on popcorn?
Useful Appendixes: These include the utility function approach to the consumer budgeting problem, additional topics in demand theory, additional applications of rational choice theory, search theory, production theory, cost theory, additional models of monopolistic competition, and a more detailed look at exhaustible resource allocation. The inclusion of this material offers instructors unmatched latitude in their choice of technical level and topic coverage. Those who desire to teach a calculus-based course will find comprehensive coverage of optimization theory in the appendixes to Chapters 3, 9, and 10. Starred problems that require calculus are included in the end-of-chapter problem sets.
An exceptionally clear writing style engages students in the fundamentals of microeconomics.
The generous use of worked examples and exercises promotes a solid understanding of economic principles. These are clearly indicated in the table of contents.
A complete, detailed coverage of the rational consumer choice model (Chapters 3, 4, and 5). Where most texts use abstract examples (If the price of x falls, what happens to the quantity demanded of y?), Frank uses concrete examples. For example, "When the price of computer memory falls, people buy video games with more elaborate graphics."
Distinctive chapters explore incomplete information, altruism, and cognitive limitations (6, 7, and 8). Most intermediate texts provide little or no coverage of economic behavior, even though the importance for understanding these topics is now widely recognized.
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