Economics and Society

This book is intended to be a self-contained introduction to economics. The range of topics as well as the style of delivery is the reflection of current state of economic pedagogy at the Ateneo de Manila University the home institution of the majority of the authors in this book. Guided by the value of cura personalis careful explanations of the material are made to enhance students' understanding. Because the authors are mindful of the target audience 17 or 18 year-olds perhaps even younger the exposition is made as straightforward as much as possible. In the pursuit of academic excellence that is magis the contents of the book have been judiciously selected in such a way that students get a complete introduction to the essential elements of economics. The organization of the book closely follows the standard sequence of a first course in economics.

Chapters 1 and 2 serves as introductory chapters and seek to orient the students to the nature of economics and its basic methodology. Chapters 3 and 4 on supply and demand theory and elasticity respectively are on the front-end because they immediately give the students simple economic concepts that are readily applicable to many real-life situations.

Chapters 5 6 7 8 constitute basic microeconomics. In linear fashion after which the students are ushered into the analysis of markets and market imperfections. Basic macroeconomics takes up more chapters. It starts with introductory topics in macroeconomics found in chapters 9 and 10 which introduces the main macroeconomic variables and concepts.

The Keynesian orientation is evident with the next chapters Chapters 11 12 and 13 whereby demand factors such as investment and other components of aggregate demand are analyzed.

The next set consisting of four chapters namely chapters 14 15 16 and 17 forms another block. This time economic policy takes center stage and fiscal and monetary matters are discussed including the topic of taxation.

The last set of chapters branches out to the realm of applications. Both chapters 18 and 19 on international trade and exchange rates respectively are meant to introduce to the students some basic concepts in international economics. On the other hand chapters 20 and 21 tackle development issues and agrarian reform.