Economics: Private and Public Choice, 12^th edition

by James Gwartney, Richard Stroup, Russell Sobel and David Macpherson

Published by  South-Western /Cengage Learning, 2008

For many years, this classic text has been the choice of instructors wanting to stress the power of economic reasoning and its application to the real world. It provides a clear and easily understandable presentation of the basics of economics and uses them to explain how both markets and the political process work, and when they may not work so well. More than any other introductory text, this book stresses the importance of gains from trade, secure private-property rights, entrepreneurship, competition, and monetary stability as sources of economic growth and human progress.  It analyzes the importance of institutions and policies and uses them to explain why countries like Chile, China and India have grown rapidly while other poor countries have continued to stagnate. The concluding section applies the tools of economics to various topics including social security, the stock market, health care, earnings differences between men and women, and the economics of doomsday scenarios. The text is also available in micro and macro paperback splits.