There are two major changes in the eighth edition. A
Chapter Issue section has been added to the end of each
chapter. For example, “Will you be underemployed when
you graduate?” has been added to Chapter 2. Also, Parts
II and III of the chapter on foreign trade were completely
rewritten and simplified.
Some 120 pages were cut from the seventh edition;
in the eighth I tried to simplify some of the more obscure
passages and to provide more practical applications. Here
are some of the new topics:
• Chapter 2: New Extra Help box, “Finding the Opportunity
Cost.”
• Chapter 4: Added section, “Government Failure.”
• Chapter 8: Added discussion of comparative advantage.
New section, “Outsourcing and Offshoring.”
• Chapter 13: Added section, “How Do We Pay Our
Bills?”
• Chapter 16: New box, “The Best and the Brightest.”
• Chapter 20: Added Extra Help box, “Finding Marginal
Cost When Output Is 0.”
New section, “The Production Function and the Law
of Diminishing Returns.”
• Chapter 21: Added Extra Help box, “Accounting
Profit versus Economic Profit.”
New section, “Alternative Calculation of Profit and
Loss.”
• Chapter 24: New box, “The Penalty Box.”
• Chapter 27: Added box, “Sports Strikes and Lockouts.”
• Chapter 28: Added box, “A College Degree Is the
Ticket out of Poverty.”
New section, “The Effects of Employment Discrimination
on Wages.”
Added Advanced Work box, “The Real Minimum
Wage.”
• Chapter 30: Added box, “Abortion, Crime, and
Poverty.”
Added box, “Helping the Poor Get Money Back from
the IRS.”
New section, “The Brookings Institution Theory.”
• Chapter 31: Part II is almost completely rewritten
mainly to simplify the explanation of comparative
advantage. Part III has also been rewritten.
• Chapter 32: Added box, “Sending Money Home.”
Added box, “A Co-Dependent Relationship.”
Two basic ways this book is different from all other
principles texts is that it is a smoother read and it is interactive.
The eighth edition improves on these features.
Most of the really hard stuff is in Advanced Work
boxes and appendices. This relatively difficult material can
be skipped, or perhaps assigned for extra credit. The really
easy stuff—for example, math that should have been
learned in high school—is covered in Extra Help boxes.
These boxes save professors hours of valuable class time.
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2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education