Student-Friendly Writing Style: Written in conversational English, not "textbookese", the author conveys economic sensibility to the reader with passion and humor. Students feel as though David Colander is speaking to them directly as a personal tutor. Students truly enjoy reading this textbook, as student feedback on the 5e book website will attest.
Unbiased Coverage: While the author presents all the standard economic models, they are presented neither as gospel nor in isolation. After the models (tools) are presented, the author discusses how economists actually use these models in policy. He also points out those interpretative problems economists face. Economists are presented as fallible human beings making judgments and analyzing situations using a certain way of thinking. Colander describes that "economic" way of thinking and discusses both its strengths and weaknesses.
Historical Perspective: The author's historical perspective and his attempt to open doors to multiple interpretations will be especially interesting to liberal arts students. The book gives these students a real sense of economics and economic thinking.
Tools Boxes: "Applying the Tools," "Knowing the Tools," and "Beyond the Tools" are included in most chapters to reinforce the economic tools presented in the text and help students learn the basics.
Tools not Rules: Colander covers standard economic concepts but does not present them as inflexible rules. Rather, he treats them as tools for making real world judgments and analyses. Once students understand these tools, they consider their real world applications, along with their strengths and weaknesses.
Reorganized Chapters 2-5: Colander has organized the material in Chapters 2 through 5 to make the book easier to use and to allow instructors more choice in presentation. Chapter 2 centers around the production possibility curve, comparative advantage, and trade. Chapter 3 covers economic systems, institutions, and the U.S. economy; the discussion of the role of government was moved from Chapter 5 to this chapter. Chapter 4 includes complete coverage of supply/demand so professors teaching macro can skip Chapter 5, which covers applications.
Upward-Sloping AS Curve and Material on Fiscal Policy: In the macro section, Colander uses upward-sloping AS curve and enhanced fiscal policy discussions to the two model chapters (Chapters 25 and 26). These changes provide more standard coverage and use real examples to help students understand the models.
International Chapters in to Macro split: The international trade and development chapters are in the macro split as well as the micro splits. Because of the increasing importance of international topics and the increasingly global dimension of our own economy, students benefit from this added coverage.
Webnotes: Throughout the book, web icons appear in the margin with a label (such as "4.1 Unemployment"), which ties the textbook to the web through links on the book website.
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2006 McGraw-Hill Higher Education