Principles of Macroeconomics + DiscoverEcon code card

Avoiding excessive reliance on formal mathematical derivations, Frank and Bernanke presents concepts intuitively through examples drawn from familiar contexts. The authors introduce a well-articulated short list of core principles and reinforce them by illustrating and applying each in numerous contexts. Students are periodically asked to apply these principles to answer related questions and exercises. The text also encourages students to become "Economic Naturalists," people who employ basic economic principles to understand and explain what they observe in the world around them. An economic naturalist understands, for example, that infant safety seats are required in cars but not in airplanes because the marginal cost of space to accommodate these seats is typically zero in cars but often hundreds of dollars in airplanes. Such examples engage student interest while teaching them to see each feature of their economic landscape as the reflection of an implicit or explicit cost-benefit calculation.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Introduction 1. Thinking Like an Economist 2. Comparative Advantage: The Basis for Exchange 3. Supply and Demand: An Introduction Part 2 Macroeconomics: Issues and Data 4. Macroeconomics: The Bird's-Eye View of the Economy 5. Measuring Economic Activity: GDP and Unemployment 6. Measuring the Price Level and Inflation Part 3 The Economy in the Long Run 7. Economic Growth, Productivity, and Living Standards 8. Workers, Wages, and Unemployment in the Modern Economy 9. Saving and Capital Formation 10. Money and the Federal Reserve 11. Financial Markets and International Capital Flow Part 4 The Economy in the Short Run 12. Short-term Economic Fluctuations: An Introduction 13. Spending and Output in the Short Run 14. Stabilizing the Economy: The Role of the Fed 15. Inflation, Aggregate Supply, and Aggregate Demand 16. The Practice and Pitfalls of Macroeconomic Policy Part 5 The International Economy 17. International Trade 18. Exchange Rates and the Open Economy

About the Author :
Robert H. Frank received his M.A. in statistics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1971, and his Ph.D. in economics in 1972, also from U.C. Berkeley. He is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics at Cornell University, where he has taught since 1972 and where he currently holds a joint appointment in the department of economics and the Johnson Graduate School of Management. He has published on a variety of subjects, including price and wage discrimination, public utility pricing, the measurement of unemployment spell lengths, and the distributional consequences of direct foreign investment. For the past several years, his research has focused on rivalry and cooperation in economic and social behaviour. Professor Bernanke received his B.A. in Economics from Harvard University in 1975 and his Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1979.  He taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1979 to 1985 and moved to Princeton University in 1985, where he was named the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, where he served as Chairman of the Economics Department.  He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometrics Society.  He was named a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in 2002 and became the chairman of the President's council of Economic Advisers in 2005.  In 2006 Ben Bernanke was selected to be the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.Professor Bernanke's intermediate textbook, with Andrew Abel, Macroeconomics, Fifth Edition (Addison-Wesley, 2004) is a best seller in its field.  He has authored more than 50 scholarly publications in macroeconomics, macroeconomic history, and finance.  He has done significant research on the causes of the Great Depression, the role of financial markets and institutions in the business cycle, and measuring the effects of monetary policy on the economy.  His two most recent books, both published by Princeton University Press, include Inflation Targeting: Lessons from the International Experience (with coauthors) and Essays on the Great Depression.  He has served as editor of the American Economic Review and was the founding editor of the International Journal of Central Banking.  Professor Bernanke has taught principles of economics at both Stanford and Princeton.