Macroeconomics

Hubbard & O'Brien is the only book that motivates students to learn economics through real business examples. The #1 question students of economics ask themselves is: "Why am I here, and will I ever use this"? Hubbard & O'Brien answer this question by demonstrating that real businesses use economics to make real decisions daily. This is motivating to all students, whether they are business majors or not. All students can relate to businesses they encounter in their everyday lives. Whether they open an art studio, do social work, trade on Wall Street, work for the government, or bartend at the local pub, students will benefit from understanding the economic forces behind their work.Hubbard & O'Brien is the only book that motivates students to learn economics through real business examples. The #1 question students of economics ask themselves is: "Why am I here, and will I ever use this"? Hubbard & O'Brien answer this question by demonstrating that real businesses use economics to make real decisions daily. This is motivating to all students, whether they are business majors or not. All students can relate to businesses they encounter in their everyday lives. Whether they open an art studio, do social work, trade on Wall Street, work for the government, or bartend at the local pub, students will benefit from understanding the economic forces behind their work. "Do your students ask themselves: "Why am I here? When will I use this information?" How do you motivate them to see that economics is a dynamic, relevant discipline?"Chapter-Opening Cases about how the economics about to be learned impact a real business (a) set a real context for learning (b) spark students' interest (c) provide a unifying theme for the chapter. For example, Chapter 3 - "Where Prices Come From: The Interaction of Demand and Supply", opens with a discussion of how Hewlett-Packard's 2001 forecast for printers was off, because the company had not anticipated two significant events that reduced demand for computers. pgs. 62-63Chapter Examples and Figures consistently revisit the business discussed in the opener and use that business (or industry) to motivate the economic principles. For example, in Chapter 3, supply and demand is discussed using price per printer, and quantity of printers demanded. Information from Epson, Lexmark, and Hewlett-Packard is used to show how to derive a market supply curve for the printer market, and so on. pgs. 72-73: Making the Connection - "Estimating the Demand for Printers at Hewlett-Packard" pgs. 74-75: Figure 3.7 - "Deriving the Market Supply Curve from the Individual Supply Curves (for Epson, Lexmark, and Hewlett-Packard)" An Inside Look concludes chapters with a newspaper article illustrating how a key principle taught in the chapter was used by the chapter-opening case company to make a real business decision. The authors provide an analysis of the article, corresponding graph(s), and Thinking Critically exercises. For example, the Inside Look of Chapter 3 shows how Hewlett-Packard, utilizing knowledge of supply and demand laws, actually cut the price of their computers (and their profitability) to stimulate demand for their printers and ink cartridges (which are more profitable). Students (a) see how businesses use economics (b) gain a better understanding of the business climate (c) learn to critically read and analyze newspaper articles. pgs 88-89OTHER POINTS OF DISTINCTION "How are your students' basic problem solving skills? Are they comfortable with "word problems"? Do they knowi where to begin solving an applied economics problem? Do you find that many of the questions you get are less related to real economics, and more related to a lack of problem-solving skills?" Solved Problems provide models of how to solve an economic problem by breaking it down step-by-step. Each Solved Problem includes a problem statement, delineated steps to solve the problem, a graph, and a "Your Turn" feature directing students to a related end-of-chapter problem(s) for immediate practice. This keeps students focused on the main ideas of each chapter, and prevents them from getting bogged down due to a lack of basic math or "word problem" skills. pgs. 80-81 Additional Solved Problems are provided throughout the materials that support the textbook. Students can access additional, interactive versions at the MyEconLab site and in the print study guide. Instructors can walk students through solved problems using provided interactive PowerPoint solutions, and/or by utilizing the additional solved problems provided in the Instructors Manual (and tied to the relevant chapters). pg. 314 pg. 357"Are you dissatisfied with the AD-AS model as it's currently covered in your course? Do you feel as though it's not really presenting an accurate, realistic picture of inflation?" Are you interested in extending the model to account for more real world macroconomic scenarios?"A Dynamic AD-AS Model extends the traditional AD-AS model. The AD-AS is a static model that attempts to account for dynamic changes in real GDP and the price level. This problem is most evident when using the model to explain a recession caused by a decline in AD. The static AD-AS model indicates that the price level falls in this situation, which has not happened in the post-World War II era. The authors carefully develop the AD-AS model and then make it dynamic by emphasizing two points: (1) changes in the position of the short-run curve may depend on the state of expectations of the inflation rate (2) the existence of growth in the economy means that the long-run AS curve shifts to the right every year. The dynamic AD-AS model makes it possible to explain real-world macroeconomic scenarios, something both the professor and the student will appreciate. Chapter 12/24, pgs. 388 in the split "Would you like to add a further business emphasis to your course?"Optional Additional Business Emphasis: cover a core of macroeconomics topics, then lend an additional business emphasis to your course by covering a very unique chapter - Ch. 6: Business Firms, Corporate Governance, and the Stock Market. Table of Contents, Ch. 6 "How do you like to cover Monetary and Fiscal Policy in your course?"Separate Chapters on Monetary and Fiscal Policy with a provocative look at the policies: some books combine the coverage of Monetary and Fiscal Policy in one single chapter. This confuses students who do not understand the differences and how separate out the two different types of Policies. Hubbard/O'Brien's two separate chapters on Monetary and Fiscal Policy make clear the concepts and allow for numerous, current, real-world examples to motivate students to learn the material. Not only do the authors make this coverage clear, but they discuss the interesting and provocative issues that students hear about in the news and imagine Macroeconomics to be--further proving Hubbard/O'Brien's ability to motivate students through examples that they know and find interesting. Table of Contents, Ch. 14 & 15 Superb Examples pp. 452 & 454