经济学能做什么?经济学能够为大家所提供的东西到底是什么?这些问题显然要涉及到经济学的逻辑与效用,概括地说,经济学并非世俗理解中的一套致富方法或快速见效的使用工具,而仅仅是一套观察世界和分析世界的理论分析方法和应用体系。

Should Tiger Woods MOW His Own Lawn?Tiger Woods spends a lot of time walking around on grass.One of the most tal—ented golfers of all time,he can hit a drive and sink a putt in a way that most ca—sual golfers only dream of doing.Most likely,he is talented at other activities too.For example。let’S imagine that Wloods can mow his lawn faster than anyone else.But{ust because he can mow his lawn fast,does this mean he should? To answer this question,we can use the concepts of opportunity cost and com-parative advantage.Let’s say that WOods can mow his lawn in 2 hours.In thatsame 2 hours,he could film a television commercial for N『ike and earn$10,000.By contrast,Forrest Gump,the boy next door,can mow W60ds’s lawn in 4 hours.Inthat same 4 hours,he could work at McDonald’s and earn$20. In this example,Woods’s opportunity cost of mowing the lawn is$10,000 andForrest’s opportunity cost is$20.Woods has an absolute advantage in mowinglawns because he can do the work in less time.Yet Forrest has a comparative ad-vantage in mowing lawns because he has the lower opportunity cost. The gains from trade in this example are tremendous.Rather than mowing hisown lawn.Woods should make the commercial and hire Forrest to mow the lawn.As 10ng as Woods pays Forrest more than$20 and less than$1 o,000,both of them are better off.Should the United States Trade with Other Countries?Just as individuals can benefit from specialization and trade with one another,asthe farmer and rancher did,so can populations of people in different countries.Many of the goods that Americans enjoy are produced abroad,and many of thegoods produced in the United States are sold abroad.Goods produced abroad and sold domestically are called imports.Goods produced domestically and sold abroad are called exports. To see how countries can benefit from trade,suppose there are two countries,the United States and Japan,and two goods,food and cars.

How People Make Decisions 3
Principle#1:People Face Tradeoffs 3
Principle#2:The Cost of Something
IsWhatYouGiveUPtoGetIt 4
Principle#3:Rational People Think at the Margin 5
Principle#4:People Respond to Incentives 6

HOW People Interact 7
Principle#5:Trade Can Make Everyone Better Off 7
Principle#6:Markets Are Usually a Good Wav
to Organize Economic Activity 8
j Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand 9
Principle#7:Governments Can Sometimes
Improve Market Outcomes 9

HOW the Economy as a Whole Works 1 0
Principle8:A Country’S Standard of Living Depends on
Its Ability to Produce Goods and Services 1 0
Principle#9:Prices Rise When the Government
PrintsTooMuchMoney 11
Principle10:Society Faces a Short—Run Tradeoff
between Inflation and Unemployment 1 2
HOW to Read This Book 13
Conclusion 1 4
Summary 14
KeyConcepts 1 5
Questions for Review 1 5
Problems and Applications 1 5
The Economist as Scientist 1 8
The Scientific Method:Observation,Theor
and More Observation 1 9
The Role of Assumptions 1 9
Economic Models 20
Our First Model:The Circular-Flow Diagram 2 1
Our Second Model:The Production Possibilities
Frontier 22
Microeconomics and Macroeconomics 24
The Economist as Policy Adviser 26
Positive versus Normative Analysis 26
Why Economists Disagree 27
Differences in Scientific Judgments 28
Differences in Values 28
Perception versus Reality 28
Summary 30
Key Concepts 30
Questions for Review 30
Problems and Applications 30
A Parable for the Modern Economy 33
Production Possibilities 33
The Principle of Comparative Advantage 35
Absolute Advantage 36
Opportunity Cost and Comparative Advantage 37
Comparative Advantage and Trade 38
Applications of Comparative Advantage 39
Should Tiger Woods Mow His Own Lawn? 39
Should the United States Trade with
Other Countries?40
Conclusion 4 1
Summary 41
Key Concepts 41
Questions for Review 4 1
Problems and Applications 42
Markets and Competition 47
Competitive Markets 47
Competition:Perfect and Otherwise 47
Demand 48
The Demand Curve:The Relationship between Price and
Quantity Demanded 48
Market Demand versus Individual Demand 49
Shifts in the Demand Curve 50
CASE STUDY:Two Ways to Reduce the Quantity
of Smoking Demanded 53
Supply 54
The Supply Curve:The Relationship
between Price and Quantity Supplied 54
Market Supply versus Individual Supply 55
Shifts in the Supply Curve 56
Supply and Demand Together 58
Equiliblrium 58
Three Steps to Analyzing Changes in Equilibrium 60
Conclusion:How Prices Allocate Resources 65
Summary 66
Key Concepts 67
Questions for Review 67
Problems and Applications 68
The Elasticity of Demand 7 1
The Price Elasticity of Demand and Its Determinants 7 1
Computing the Price Elasticity of Demand 72
The Midpoint Method:A Better Way to Calculate
Percentage Changes and Elasticities 73
STUDV Pricing Admission to a Museum 75
On the Road with Elasticity 75
Other Demand Elasticities 76
The Elasticity of Supply 77
The Price Elasticity of Supply and Its Determinants 77
Computing the Price Elasticity of Supply 78
The Variety of Supply Curves 78 ’
Three Applications of Supply,Demand,
and Elasticity 81
Can Good NeWS for Farming Be Bad NeWS for
Farmers?81
Why Did OPEC Fail to Keep the Price of Oil High?83
Conclusion 84 ,
Summary 85
KevConcepts 85
Questions for Review 85
Problems and Applications 86
Controls on Prices 89
HOW Price Ceilings Affect Market Outcomes 89
eASSTUD Y:Lines at the Gas Pump 91
CASE STUDY=The Minimum Wage 92
HOW Price Floors Affect Market Outcomes 92
:Does a Drought Need to Cause a Water
Shortage? 93
Evaluating Price Controls 96
Taxes 97
HOW Taxes on Buyers Affect Market Outcomes 97
How Taxes on Sellers Affect Market Outcomes 99
CASE STUDY=Wh0 Pays the Luxury Tax? 1 01
Conclusion 1 01
Summary 102
Key Concepts 102
Ouestions for Review 102
Problems and Applications 1 02
e}{APTER 7
CONSUMERS,PRODUCERS,
AND THE EFFICIENCY OF MARKETS 106
Consumer Surplus 1 07
Willingness to Pay 107
Using the Demand Curve to Measure Consumer
Surplus 108
HOW a Lower Price Raises Consumer Surplus 109
What Does Consumer Surplus Measure? 1 1 0
Producer Surplus 11 2
Cost and the Willingness to Sell 11 2
Using the Supply Curve to Measure Producer Surplus 1 1 3
How a Higher Price Raises Producer Surplus 1 1 5
Market Efficiency 1 1 6
The Benevolent Social Planner 1 1 6
Evaluating the Market Equilibrium 1 1 7
l Ticket Scalping 1 20
Conclusion:Market Efficiency and Market Failure 1 2 1
Summary 1 22
Key Concepts 1 22
Questions for Review 1 2 2
Problems and Applications 1 23
The Deadweight Loss of Taxation 1 26
HOW a Tax Affects Market Participants 1 2 7
Deadweight Losses and the Gains from Trade 1 29
The Determinants of the Deadweight Loss 1 30
CASE STUDY:The Deadweight Loss Debate 132
Deadweight Loss and Tax Revenue as Taxes Vary 133
Henry George and the Land Tax 134
CASE STUDY:The Laffer Curve and Supply—Side
Economics 1 35
Conclusion 1 37
Summary 138
Key Concepts 1 38
Questions for Review 1 38
Problems and Applications 1 38
The Determinants of nade 1 4 1
The Equilibrium without Trade 1 4 1
The World Price and Comparative Advantage 1 42
The Winners and Losers from Trade 1 43
The Gainsnd Losses of an Exporting Country 1 43
The Gains and Losses of an Importing Country 145
TheEffectsofal.ariff 147
l Life in Isoland 149
The Effects of an Import Quota 1 50
The Arguments for Restricting Trade 1 52
F￥k 0ther Benefits of International Trade 1 53
The 10bs Argument 1 53
The National—Security Argument 1 54
The Infant—Industry Argument 1 54
The Unfair—Competition Argument 1 54
The Protection—as—a—Bargaining—Chip Argument 1 55
CASE STU DY:Trade Agreements and the World Trade
Organization 1 55
l Globalization 1 56
Conclusion 1 57
Summary 1 58
Key Concepts 1 59
Questions for Review 1 59
Problems and Applications 1 59
Externalities and Market Inefficiency 1 63
Welfare Economics:A Recap 1 64
Negative Externalities 1 65
Positive ExternaHties 1 66
CASE STUDY:Technology Spillovers and Industrial Policy 1 67
Private Solutions to Externalities 1 68
The Types of Private Solutions 1 68
The Coase Theorem 1 69
Why Private Solutions Do Not Always Work 170
Public Policies toward Externalities 17 1
Regulation 17 1
Pigovian Taxes and Subsidies 172
CASE STUDY:Why Is Gasoline Taxed So Heavily?173
Tradable Pollution Permits 174
Objections to the Economic Analysis of Pollution 17 5
Conclusion 176
Summary 177
Key Concepts 17 7
Questions for Review 17 7
Problems and Applications 17 7
The Different Kinds of Goods 1 8 1
Public Goods 1 82
The Free—Rider Problem 183
Some Important Public Goods 183
CASE STUDY=Are Lighthouses Public Goods?185
The Difficult Job of Cost—Benefit Analysis 186
Common Resources 187
The Tragedy of the Commons 1 87
Some Important Common Resources 1 88
lThe Singapore Solution 188
CASE STUDY:Whv the Cow Is Not Extinct 190
:Should Yellowstone Charge as Much as
Disney W6rld? 19 1
Conclusion:The Importance of Property Rights 1 92
Summary 193
Key Concepts 1 93
Questions for Review 1 93
Problems and Applications 1 93
A Financial Overview of the U.S.Government 1 96
The Federal Government 1 96
State and Local Government 200
Taxes and Efficiency 202
Deadweight Losses 202
CASE STUD Y=Should Income or Consumption
BeTaxed?203
Administrative Burden 204
Marginal Tax Rates versus Average Tax Rates 204
CASE STU DV:Iceland’s Natural Experiment
Lump—Sum Telxes 205
lHow Taxes Affect Married women 206
Taxes and Equity 207
The Benefits Principle 208
The Ability—to—Pay Principle 208
eSTUDY:How the Tax Burden Is Distributed 209
CASE STUDY:HorizontalEquityandtheMarriageTax 211
Tax Incidence and Tax Equity 21 2
The Case against Taxing
Capital Income 21 3
eSUV Who Pays the Corporate Income’rax? 214
Conclusion:The Tradeoff between Equity and。
Efficiency 214
Summary 215 ’
Key Concepts 21 5
Questions for Review 2 16
Problems and Applications 216
What Are Costs?221
Total Revenue,Total Cost,and Profit 2 2 1
Costs as OpportuniW Costs 221
The Cost of Capital as an Opportunity Cost 222
Economic Profit versus Accounting Profit 223
I ue Profit versus Fictitious Profit 224
Production and Costs 224
The Production Function 225
From the Production Function to the Total—Cost
Curve 226
TheriOUS Measures of Cost 228
Fixed and Variable Costs 2 29
Average and Marginal Cost 230
Cost Curves and Their Shapes 23 1
TVpical Cost Curves 232
Costs in the Short Run and in the Long Run 233
The Relationship between ShortRun and Long——Run
Average Total Cost 233
Economies and Diseconomies of Scale 236
FE Lessons from a Pin Factory 236
Conclusion 237
Summary 238
Key Concepts 238
Questions for Review 23jB
Problems and Applications 239
What Is a Competitive Market? 242
The Meaning of Competition 242
The Revenue of a Competitive Firm 243
Profit Maximization and the Competitive Firm’s Supply
Curve 244 -
A Simple Example of Profit Maximization 244
The Marginal—Cost Curve and the Firm’s Supply
Decision 246
The Firm’s Short—Run Decision to Shut Down 247
Spilt Milk and Other Sunk Costs 249
eASE STUDY=Near—Empty Restaurants and Off—Season
Miniature Golf 250
The Firm’s Long—Run Decision to Exit or Enter
aMarket 250
Measuring Profit in Our Graph for the Competitive
Firm 251
The Supply Curve in a Competitive Market 253
The Short Run:Market Supply with a Fixed Number
ofFirms 253
’The Long Run:Market Supply with Entry and Exit 254
Whv Do Competitive Firms Stay in Business If They Make
Zero Profit? 255
A Shift in Demand in the Short Run and Long Run 256
Why the Long—Run Supply Curve Might Slope
Upward 256
Conclusion:Behind the Supply Curve 258
Summary 259
Key Concepts 259
Ouestions for Review 259
Problems and Applications 260
Why Monopolies Arise 263
Monopoly Resources 264
Government—Created Monopolies 264
Natural Monopolies 265
How Monopolies Make Production
and Pricing Decisions 266
Monopoly versus Competition 266
A Monopoly’s Revenue 268
Profit Maximization 270
Vi。Whv a Monopolv Does Not Have
a Supply Curve 271
A Monopoly’s Profit 272
CASE SU0Monopoly Drugs versus
Generic Drugs 272
The Welfare Cost of Monopolv 2 74
The Deadweight LOSS 2 74
The Monopoly’s Profit:A Social Cost? 2 76
Public Policy toward Monopolies 277
Increasing Competition with Antitrust Laws 277
Regulation 278
Public Ownership 2 79
Doing Nothing 280
:Public Transport and
Private Enterprise 280
Price Discrimination 282
A Parable about Pricing 282
The Moral of the Story 283
The Analytics of Price Discrimination 284
Examples of Price Discrimination 285
Why People Pay More Than Dogs 286
Conclusion:The Prevalence of Monopolv 288
Summary 289
Key Concepts 289
Questions for Review 289
Problems and Applications 290
Between Monopoly and Perfect Competition 294
Markets with Only a Few Sellers 295
A Duopoly Example 296
Competition,Monopolies,and Cartels 296
The Equilibrium for an Oligopoly 297
How the Size of an Oligopoly Affects
the Market Outcome 298
eASg STUDY:OPEC and the WOrld Oil Market 300
Game Theory and the Economics 0f Cooperation 300
i :The Growth of Oligopoly 301
The Prisoners’Dilemma 302
Oligopolies as a Prisoners’Dilemma 303
Other Examples of the Prisoners’Dilemma 304
The Prisoners’Dilemma and the Welfare of Society 306
Whv People Sometimes Cooperate 307
eASSiUDY:The Prisoners’Dilemma Tournament 308
Public Policy toward Oligopolies 309
Restraint of Trade and the Antitrust Laws 31 0
Controversies over Antitrust Policy 31 0
一eASE STUDY:The Microsoft Case 312
ls:Antitrust in the New Economy 314
Conclusion 31 4
Summary 31 5
Key Concepts 31 5
Questions for Review 31 5
Problems and Applications 31 5
Competition with Differentiated Products 31 9
The Monopolistically Competitive Firm
intheShortRun 319
The Long—Run Equilibrium 320
Monopolistic versus Perfect Competition 322
Monopolistic Competition and the Welfare of Society 324
f:y{。Is Excess Capacity a Social Problem?32 5
Advertising 325
The Debate over Advertising 326
CASE STUDY:Advertising and the Price of Eyeglasses 327
Advertising as a Signal of Quality 327
Brand Names 328
Conclusion 330
Summary 331
Key Concepts 331
Questions for Review 33 1
Problems and Applications 332
The Demand for Labor 335
The Competitive Profit—Maximizing Firm 336
The Production Function
and the Marginal Product of Labor 337
The Value of the Marginal Product
and the Demand for Labor 338
What Causes the Labor Demand Curve to Shift?340
The Supply of Labor 340
The Tradeoff between Work and Leisure 340
What Causes the Labor Supply Curve to Shift?341
Equilibrium in the Labor Market 342
Shifts in Labor Supply 342
Shifts in Labor Demand 343
CASE STUDY:Productivity and Wages 344
f:Yt:Monopsony 346
The 0ther Factors of Production:Land and Capital 346
Equilibrium in the Markets for Land and Capital 346
l:What Is Capital Income? 348
Linkages among the Factors of Production 348
CASE STUDY:The Economics of the Black Death 349
Conclusion 350
Summary 350
Key Concepts 350
Questions for Review 35 1
Problems and Applications 351
Some Determinants of Equilibrium Wages 354
Compensating Differentials 354
Human Capital 354
eASE STUDV The Increasing Value of Skills 355
Ability,Effort,and Chance 356
Looking for True Love?Go to Schoo、357
CASE STUDY:The Benefits of Beauty 358
An Alternative View of Education:Signaling 358
The Superstar Phenomenon 359
l Are Elite Colleges Worth
the Cost?360
Above—Equilibrium Wages:Minimum—Wage Laws,
Unions,and Efficiency Wages 360
The Economics of Discrimination 362
Measuring LaborMarket Discrimination 362
Discrimination by Employers 364
Discrimination by Customers and Governments 364
CAS E STU DY:Discrimination in Sports 36 5
Conclusion 366
Summary 366
Key Concepts 367
Questions for Review 367
Problems and Applications 368
The Measurement of Inequality 371
U.S.Income Inequality 37 1
CASE STUDY:The Women’8 Movement and the Income
Distribution 372
CASSTUD Y=Inequalitv Around the World 373
The Poverty Rate 374 ·
Problems in Measuring Inequality 375
Economic Mobility 377
The Political Philosophy of Redistributing Income 378
Utilitarianism 378
Liberalism 379
Libertarianism 380
Policies to Reduce Poverty 381
Minimum—Wage Laws 382
Wlfare 382
Should the Government Trv to Help
Poor Re~ions?383
Ne~ative Income Tax 384
In—Kind 11ransfers 385
Antipoverty Programs and Work Incentives 385
Conclusion 386
School Vouchers 387
Summary 388
Kev Concepts 389
Questions for Review 389
Problems and Applications 389
The Budget Const
raint:What me Consumer
CanAfiord 393
Preferences:What the Consumer Wants 395
Representing Preferences with Indifference Curves 395
Four Properties of Indifference Curves 396
Two Extreme Examples of Indifference Curves 397
Optimizatiomat the Consumer Chooses 399
The Consumer’s Optimal Choices 400
F;:Utility:An Alternative Wav to Describe Preferences
and Optimization 401
How Changes in Income Affect the Consumer’s
Choices 401
How Changes in Prices Affect the Consumer’s Choices 402
Income and Substitution Effects 403
DerivinK the Demand Curve 405
Three Applications 407
Do A11 Demand Curves Slope Downward?407
How Do Wages Affect Labor Supply?408
CASE STUDV Income Effects on Labor Supply:
Historical Trends,Lottery Winners,and
the Carnef~ie Conjecture 411
How Do Interest Rates Affect Household Saving?41 2
Conclusion:Do People Really Think This Way?41 4
Summary 41 5
Key Concepts 41 5
Questions for Review 41 5
Problems and Applications 41 6
Asymmetric Information 41 9
Hidden Actions:Principals,Agents,
and Moral Hazard 41 9
Hidden Characteristics:Adverse Selection
and the Lemons Problem 420
Signaling to Convey Private Information 42 1
eASSTUDV:Gifts as Signals 422
Screening to Induce Information Revelation 422
Asymmetric Information and Public Policy 423
Political Economy 424
The Condorcet Voring Paradox 424
Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem 42 5
The Median Voter Is King 426
Politicians Are People Too 427
Behavioral Economics 428
People Aren’t Always Rational 428
THEVV:Farm Policy and Politics 42 9
People Care About Fairness 43 1
People Are Inconsistent over Time 432
Conclusion 432
Summarc 433
Key Concepts 433
Questions for Review 433
Problems and Applications 434
Glossarc 435
……

经济学能做什么?经济学能够为大家所提供的东西到底是什么?这些问题显然要涉及到经济学的逻辑与效用,概括地说,经济学并非世俗理解中的一套致富方法或快速见效的使用工具,而仅仅是一套观察世界和分析世界的理论分析方法和应用体系。