Framework of economics

The title of this book relates to its central idea which first appeared in a pamphlet entitled "The Teaching of Economics" published by the Economics Association in 1961. A major aim is to enable the student to retain knowledge already gained whilst grappling with new studies. The work is related to a single outline diagram which is built up step by step until in the end, the whole inter-related nature of the subject becomes clear. All six parts are prefaced with a statement of their content. Within them, each chapter ends with a summary and with exercises related to the text.

It is customary to start an economics text-book with a chapter defining the subject. Definitions by themselves, however, tend to mean very little to the beginner. This book therefore starts with a short but crucial chapter summarizing the scope of the course and related to the problems of a survivor from nuclear disaster. The key note having been set in Part 1, which also contains a chapter on population, the other parts fall into place and deal successively with problems of production and costs, consumption and demand, exchange, distribution and, finally, economic policies and problems, including public finance.

Over the past few years I have felt increasing dissatisfaction with the traditional explanation of economic resources and their rewards. Chapter 15 represents an attempt to make this explanation more realistic and follows the simple double entry approach to the National Income contained in the previous chapter. The whole of the work on the functions of the City of London reflects the views of the Radcliffe Report of 1959 and leads up to a simplified explana tion of economic fluctuations in Chapter 21.