Invitation to Economics : Understanding Argument and Policy

Our media is filled with stories of economics and policymaking. This book helps you to keep your head above water in this sea of information by empowering you to spot naive and spurious economic arguments. In short, this book will help you become a critical consumer of economic arguments. Accordingly, the book provides many examples of these arguments, and explains why they are wrong.

It is not, however, just an exercise in negation; it does present some economic theory, though not in a formal and rigorous way. Instead of stressing a well-explicated theory, it inculcates an intuitive ‘feel’ for economics, which economics courses often overlook due to their strong emphasis on the technical apparatus of economics. Even those who have taken some economics courses, therefore, will still find much to learn from this book.

Thomas Mayer is Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of California, Davis. He has also taught at Notre Dame University and Michigan State University, and as a visitor at West Virginia University and the University of California, Berkeley. He has written numerous articles in professional journals, and is the author or co-author of eight previous books. In 1978 he served as president of the Western Economic Association and in 1978-79 as chairman of the International Network for Economic Method, and has served on the editorial boards of several professional journals.