Economics: Principles and Policy. Fourth Edition, covers virtually the same materials as other introductory texts in the field. Yet it has a number of distinctive characteristion that ve consider extremely important. The three that head the list are its overriding emphasis on those materials that will continue to be significant to the student after graduation, its encompassing marriage of theoretical analysis and application, and its systea- atio exploration of the virtues and shortcomings of the market mechanism. The first of these concerns has led us to single out explic- itly those materials that clearly merit more than sere memorization for the final examination. Even with the best of intentions, no one can remember forever everything taught in an introductory course to a major discipline: and certainly not everything is of equal long-run importance. We have therefore singled out tvelve fundamental principles that deserve deeper study called in the text 12 Ideas for Beyond the Final Exam. These share three characteristics: they all have significant practical applications they involve an analysis that is far from obvious, and they have been widely misunderstood by journalists, politicians, business managers, and government decision-makers. Many instructors will undoubtedly want to amend our list, adding some items and removing others. But we hope the basic approach will bring to students both an appreciation of those items that are of particularly enduring importance and a feeling that we are leveling with thes in recognizing that not all the subjects of the course will play an equally significant role in their lives. Our second major message is that many and perhaps most real policy problems in economios cannot be analyzed or treated effectively without some understanding of economic theory, and that all or virtually all of the theoretical materials in this book are relevant For that reason the theoretical chapters generally begin with a real problem, a puzzle drawn from current issues. which can be analyzed only after the materials in the chapter are mastered. Each such chapter therefore provides an explicit reexamination of the problem or puzzle with which it began, and an analysis of the problem using the tools of the chapter. Thus, the student is never left until later chapters to see how the theoretical analysis can be applied, or why it is important

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