Economic issues and policies: readings in introductory economics

This book is a collection of readings on contemporary economic issues and policies. Its purpose is to provide, in readily accessible form, supplementary materials that are significant to the introductory course in economics, but belt, of necessity, fully developed in the standard textbooks. It is our belief that a book of readings, in order to complement rather than compete with the text, should consistently pursue its own objective, namely, to illustrate, amplify, and enrich generally the understanding of the principles of economic reasoning by striving to show how they apply to the central

issues of economic policy in the world today. Preface writers often demonstrate a disconcerting tendency to become defensive; their statements disintegrate into lengthy explanations of why particular selections were chosen, and anthologist degenerates into apologist. Suffice it to say here that these readings on economic issues of cur rent public interest have been selected with the following criteria foremost in mind: 1) analytical insight; 2) communicability; 3) current, yet continuing, relevance, and 4) provocativeness.

The book is organized into five major parts. The first is introductory and methodological. The other four are each in turn subdivided to focus on more specific areas and issues. The organization is similar in sequence and in the space devoted to each topic to that generally encountered in basic textbooks. This allocation is only approximate, however, since in dividual textbooks vary in their emphasis on specific topics, and the need for supplementary discussion is not always proportionate to the length of the textbook presentation.