educationMy college is currently using the following textbook as an introduction to economics:
Economics: An Analytical Introduction by Amos Witztum
My problem with this text (besides those highlighted by the reviewers), is that it tends to gloss over the mathematics behind the presented economic models and rely on drawing graphs that produce the ‘right’ answer.
So, I am wondering are there viable alternatives to this textbook? For the microeconomics portion of this book, I think Microeconomic Theory by Walter Nicholson looks promising but I am not able to find a good alternative for the macroeconomics portion.
Please provide some recommendations for both microeconomics and macroeconomics. Also, since I am doing my studies on a distance-learning basis, it would be nice if the recommended book(s) has solutions to odd/even numbered exercises or a solution manual that students can purchase.
Thank you in advance for your help.
I recommend Advanced Macroeconomics by David Romer.
The book Modeling Monetary Economies by Champ, Freeman, and Haslag provides a fairly rigorous elementary introduction to macroeconomics based on OLG models.
The best introduction to economics is obviously Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. I think its one of the best selling economics books of all time.
The best textbook-length introduction is probably Man, Economy, and State (MES) by Murray Rothbard. It is written for readers with no previous knowledge of the subject, and it debunks a lot of common fallacies in other textbooks.
They can both be downloaded for free, which is a nice bonus.
This is a bit off-topic, and I don't want to be critical of you or anything, but I would like to make a suggestion. Mathematics is probably the wrong approach to economics.
MES contains in-depth discussions of why mathematics is the wrong approach for studying economics. If you find yourself using a lot of math and equations in your courses, you should definitely give this book a read.
For example, consider the quantity equation:
MV = PT
If a hat sells for \$10, then the equation h = 10 does not hold. The hat sold for \$10 precisely because there was an inequality between the hat and the the \$10. Someone valued the hat more than \$10, and someone else valued $10 more than the hat. At no point was a hat equal to \$10. For the same reason, you can't say that MV = PT.
This is just one example of why math is not a good way to teach economics. It has the potential to cause a lot of errors. MES explains all this very well. Just a suggestion.
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