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Updating Soon - November 2024
Cover of Principles of Microeconomics v5.0
Publishing: 
November 2024
ISBN (Digital): 
979-8-88794-523-1

Principles of Microeconomics

Version 5.0
By Alan Grant, Libby Rittenberg, and Timothy Tregarthen

Included Supplements

Homework and supplements available November 26, 2024.

Key Features

  • Over 75 embedded links to streaming videos enrich hybrid and online courses. They capture students’ interest, counter the perception of economics as the “dismal science,” and reveal the deeper meanings of economic principles in memorable ways
  • The integrating theme for this volume is the marginal decision rule, a simple approach to choices that optimize the value of some objective. Instead of a hodgepodge of rules for different market conditions, the authors provide a commonly accepted foundational rule that can be applied within any market setting
  • The book’s data-driven approach isn’t limited to the ordinary (GDP, unemployment, inflation, etc.). It also illustrates the interesting and distinctive, such as the unusual efforts of 1700s English homebuilders to avoid the window tax (Section 4.4) or the optimal amount of exercise (Section 8.2)
  • Every chapter begins with a brief Start Up scenario, a timely, real-world attention-getter that often puts students into a decision-making role. Examples include: is going to college a good investment? (Chapter 12) and why is it so hard to find an inexpensive pair of eyeglasses? (Chapter 11)
  • Supportive learning features include:
    • Start Up features vividly demonstrate the link between theory and reality and are revisited throughout the chapter
    • Learning Objectives at the start of each main section preview the material to come and prepare students to learn
    • Heads Up! notes warn of common errors and explain how to avoid making them 
    • Key Takeaways at the end of each main section reflect the corresponding Learning Objectives and summarize key ideas in bullet-point fashion. Key Takeaways enable the learner to pause and consolidate the information just read into a "chunk." This process enables the reader to better understand and retain the section’s content and its key concepts
    • Key Terms and a marginal glossary help students understand and become comfortable with important vocabulary and phrases
    • Pop! Goes the Econ features provide links to contemporary examples that connect with students. Engaging examples include “Ron Swanson Weighs in on Specialization and Exchange” (Section 2.4) and “Market Failure in A Beautiful Mind” (Section 6.4). Each Pop! Goes the Econ video is linked to one or more end-of-chapter problems
    • Try It! problems are organized by main section. These problems encourage active learning and help students confirm they understand the material just covered. Each Try It! problem is linked to a similar end-of-chapter exercise
    • Case in Point scenarios are applications illustrating the influence of economic forces on real issues and real people such as “A Deadly Elasticity” (Section 5.3). Each Case in Point application is linked to an end-of-chapter problem
    • Summary pulls together the information presented in the chapter to enhance recall and facilitate test preparation 
    • End-of-Chapter Concept Problems and Numerical Problems help students check understanding, promote discussion, and prompt learners to analyze and think critically about material just presented
  • Customizable

Principles of Microeconomics is suitable for introductory microeconomics courses usually called Principles of Microeconomics, Microeconomics Principles, Introductory Microeconomics, or similar titles taught primarily at the undergraduate level at two- and four-year colleges and universities. It may also be appropriate for courses taught at the MBA level. This volume encompasses only microeconomic topics and would typically be used in a semester- or quarter-long course. Separate volumes titled Principles of Economics (covering both microeconomic and macroeconomic topics) and Principles of Macroeconomics are also available.


The book’s two core premises structure the narrative and enliven its many supportive learning features:

  1. Economics is a unified discipline and not a bewildering array of seemingly unrelated topics. As a result, this volume is built around key integrating themes of the marginal decision rule (microeconomics).
  2. Basic economic principles are relevant to daily life and should be explained in everyday contexts. In this way, learners more readily perceive and understand the deeper meaning of core economic ideas. Engaging in-text applications and plentiful embedded video links are drawn from sports, politics, campus life, popular culture, and other familiar settings to illustrate the connections between theoretical principles and common experiences. 

Examples of the forward-looking perspective of Version 5.0 include an up-to-date evaluation of the COVID-19 recession, potential impacts of AI, and comparative trade advantages. As in previous versions, there is an appropriate balance between current issues and historical context.

New in This Version

  • Eleven new “Case in Point” features highlight news items, academic research, and economic curiosities to help students connect theory with the real world:
    • “Economics Scores Big in Professional Soccer” (Section 1.3)
    • “Tumbleroot Brewery Gets Out of the Booze Business” (Section 3.3)
    • “Vegas Refuses to Gamble on Water” (Section 5.2)
    • “A Deadly Elasticity” (Section 5.3)
    • “Not Enough Rat Poison in Your Drinking Water” (Section 6.2)
    • “Life in the Fast Lane” (Section 7.2)
    • “Economies of Scale: Ruining Beer Since 1941” (Section 8.3)
    • “Opera Hits Soaring High Notes, Thanks to Copyright” (Section 10.2)
    • “Drought Relief: Two-Way Trade in Virtual Water” (Section 14.3)
    • “A COVID-19 Inequality” (Section 16.2)
    • “People Lie. Their Data Doesn't” (Section 16.4)
  • Dozens of new Pop! Goes the Econ embedded links to streaming videos. To enhance learning, each Pop! Goes the Econ video is now linked to an accompanying end-of-section problem
  • Thorough revision of each chapter’s end-of-chapter problems, including problems linked to each Try It! problem, each Case in Point application and each Pop! Goes the Econ video
  • A new section “The Gains from Trade” (Section 14.2) discusses the sources of comparative advantage
  • Hundreds of new graphing problems in FlatWorld Homework

In Progress

All instructor supplements will be available by November 26, 2024.

Homework system for this title will be live by November 26, 2024.

  • About the Authors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Dedication
  • Preface
  • Chapter 1: Economics: The Study of Choice

  • 1.1 Start Up: Economics in the News
  • 1.2 Defining Economics
  • 1.3 The Field of Economics
  • 1.4 The Economist’s Tool Kit
  • 1.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 2: Confronting Scarcity: Choices in Production

  • 2.1 Start Up: An Attempt to Produce Safer Air Travel
  • 2.2 Factors of Production
  • 2.3 The Production Possibilities Curve
  • 2.4 Applications of the Production Possibilities Model
  • 2.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 3: Demand and Supply

  • 3.1 Start Up: Crazy for Coffee
  • 3.2 Demand
  • 3.3 Supply
  • 3.4 Demand, Supply, and Equilibrium
  • 3.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 4: Applications of Demand and Supply

  • 4.1 Start Up: Better. Faster. Cheaper.
  • 4.2 Putting Demand and Supply to Work
  • 4.3 Government Intervention in Markets: Price Floors and Price Ceilings
  • 4.4 Government Intervention in Markets: Taxes
  • 4.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 5: Elasticity: A Measure of Response

  • 5.1 Start Up: Raise Fares? Lower Fares? What’s a Public Transit Manager to Do?
  • 5.2 The Price Elasticity of Demand
  • 5.3 Responsiveness of Demand to Other Factors
  • 5.4 Price Elasticity of Supply and Putting It All Together
  • 5.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 6: Markets, Maximizers, and Efficiency

  • 6.1 Start Up: A Drive in the Country
  • 6.2 The Logic of Maximizing Behavior
  • 6.3 Maximizing in the Marketplace
  • 6.4 Market Failure
  • 6.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 7: The Analysis of Consumer Choice

  • 7.1 Start Up: A Day at the Grocery Store
  • 7.2 The Concept of Utility
  • 7.3 Utility Maximization and Demand
  • 7.4 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 8: Production and Cost

  • 8.1 Start Up: Street Cleaning Around the World
  • 8.2 Production Choices and Costs: The Short Run
  • 8.3 Production Choices and Costs: The Long Run
  • 8.4 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 9: Competitive Markets for Goods and Services

  • 9.1 Start Up: Always on the Margin; Always on the Edge
  • 9.2 Perfect Competition: A Model
  • 9.3 Profit Maximization in the Short Run
  • 9.4 Perfect Competition in the Long Run
  • 9.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 10: Monopoly

  • 10.1 Start Up: Surrounded by Monopolies
  • 10.2 The Nature of Monopoly
  • 10.3 The Monopoly Model
  • 10.4 Assessing Monopoly
  • 10.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 11: The World of Imperfect Competition

  • 11.1 Start Up: Looking at the World Through Cash-Colored Glasses
  • 11.2 Monopolistic Competition: Competition Among the Many
  • 11.3 Oligopoly: Competition Among the Few
  • 11.4 Extensions of Imperfect Competition: Advertising and Price Discrimination
  • 11.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 12: Factor Markets

  • 12.1 Start Up: College Pays
  • 12.2 Labor Markets: Demand and Supply
  • 12.3 Labor Markets in Perfect Competition
  • 12.4 Imperfectly Competitive Labor Markets: Monopoly and Monopsony
  • 12.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 13: Public Finance and Public Choice

  • 13.1 Start Up: Your Tax Dollars at Work
  • 13.2 The Role of Government in a Market Economy
  • 13.3 Financing Government
  • 13.4 Choices in the Public Sector
  • 13.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 14: International Trade

  • 14.1 Start Up: Support Your Local Poet
  • 14.2 The Gains from Trade
  • 14.3 Partial Equilibrium and Two-Way Trade
  • 14.4 Restrictions on International Trade
  • 14.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 15: The Economics of the Environment and Natural Resources

  • 15.1 Start Up: Environmental Headwinds
  • 15.2 Maximizing the Net Benefits of Pollution
  • 15.3 Alternatives in Pollution Control
  • 15.4 Natural Resources and Conservation
  • 15.5 Review and Practice
  • Chapter 16: Inequality, Poverty, and Discrimination

  • 16.1 Start Up: Occupy Wall Street; Change the World?
  • 16.2 Income Inequality
  • 16.3 The Economics of Poverty
  • 16.4 The Economics of Discrimination
  • 16.5 Review and Practice
  • Appendix A: Indifference Curve Analysis of Consumer Choice

  • A.1 Indifference Curve Analysis: An Alternative Approach to Understanding Consumer Choice
  • A.2 Review and Practice
  • Appendix B: Graphs in Economics

  • B.1 Graphs in Economics
  • B.2 Nonlinear Relationships and Graphs Without Numbers
  • B.3 Using Graphs and Charts to Show Values of Variables
  • B.4 Review and Practice
  • Instructor’s Manual

    Instructor’s Manual

    The Instructor’s Manual guides you through the main concepts of each chapter and important elements such as learning objectives, key terms, and key takeaways. Can include answers to chapter exercises, group activity suggestions, and discussion questions.

    PowerPoint Lecture Notes

    PowerPoint Lecture Notes

    A PowerPoint presentation highlighting key learning objectives and the main concepts for each chapter are available for you to use in your classroom. You can either cut and paste sections or use the presentation as a whole.

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    Test Bank Files for Import to Learning Management Systems

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    Solutions Manual

    Solutions Manual

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    Test Item File

    Test Item File

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    Alan Grant Baker University

    Alan Grant (PhD Kansas State University) is the Barbara and Charles A. Duboc University Professor at Baker University. A past president of the Omicron Delta Epsilon international honor society for economics, Grant has been nationally recognized for teaching excellence. His research has been published in numerous professional journals and has been highlighted in The Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, The Economist, NPR’s Planet Money, and The New York Times. Alan is the author or co-author of two FlatWorld titles: Economic Analysis of Social Issues and, with Libby Rittenberg and Timothy Tregarthen, Principles of Economics, including its two-volume version Principles of Macroeconomics and Principles of Microeconomics. Alan is also the co-author of the mass-market economics book, Seinfeld and Economics: Lessons on Everything from the Show about Nothing. He is currently writing a second mass-market economics book, Game Theory of Thrones.

    Libby Rittenberg Colorado College

    Libby Rittenberg (PhD Rutgers University) is Professor Emerita of Economics at Colorado College. She also served as the Dean of Summer Programs as well as the college’s ombudsperson. As a professor, she frequently taught Principles of Economics, Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory, Comparative Economic Systems, and a senior seminar on the International Political Economy. Throughout her academic career, Libby was deeply involved in study abroad education and directed programs in central Europe and Turkey. She was honored to have been a Fulbright Lecturer. Her research has focused on the internationally oriented areas of economics, with numerous articles on comparative and development economics, and a particular emphasis on the Turkish economy. 

    Timothy Tregarthen University of Colorado Colorado Springs

    Timothy Tregarthen (PhD University of California, Davis) is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. There is one word that captures the essence of Tim Tregarthen—inspiring. Tim was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1975, yet, he continued a remarkable academic career of teaching and research which includes an autobiography recounting his experiences with multiple sclerosis titled Suffering, Faith, and Wildflowers. Tim was formerly on faculty at University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. 

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