Introducing Microeconomic Analysis – Issues, Questions, and Competing Views

Blurb

Part I: Basic Economic Problems Is Economics a Science? Is It Useful? (Lawrence Boland, Ian Parker) Is There Such a Thing as a Free Market? (William Watson, Robert Prasch) Part II: Consumers and Firms Is Homo Economicus an Appropriate Representation of Real-World Consumers? (Joseph Persky, Morris Altman) Is the Consumer Sovereign? What Is the Power of Advertising? (Jason L. Saving, Hassan Bougrine & Martti Vihanto) How Do Firms Price Their Products? (Thomas Barbiero, Peter Kriesler) What Do Firms Try to Maximize? (Fanny Demers & Michel Demers, Marc Lavoie) Part III: Governments and Markets How Can Markets Fail? Should They Be Regulated? (Donald McFetridge, Robert Chernomas & Ian Hudson) Is the Private Sector Better than the Public Sector in Providing Goods and Services to the Public? (Niels Veldhuis, Hugh Mackenzie) Does Foreign Ownership of Corporations Matter? (Walid Hejazi, David Leadbeater) Addressing Environmental Problems: Is There a Market Solution? (Elizabeth Wilman, Ric Holt) Part IV: Incomes and Inequality How Does the Market Determine the Distribution of Incomes among Economic Agents? What Are the Effects of Minimum Wages and Trade Unions on Income? (Gilles Grenier, Jim Stanford) Is There Labour Market Discrimination? Are Employment Equity Policies Effective? (Morley Gunderson, Fiona MacPhail) Would the Adoption of a Guaranteed Annual Income Eliminate Poverty? (Derek Hum, Mario Seccareccia) Do Equalization Payments Solve the Problem of Regional Inequality? (Fred McMahon, Brian MacLean & Michael Bradfield)