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Essentials of Economics, 7th edition

Published by Pearson (March 27, 2020) © 2021

  • Glenn Hubbard Columbia University
  • Anthony Patrick O'Brien Lehigh University

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For 1-semester principles of economics courses.

The relevance of economics, shown through real-world business examples

Essentials of Economics makes economic principles relevant by demonstrating how real businesses use them to make decisions every day. For instructors, it eases the challenge of conveying how these principles directly impact students' lives.

The 7th Edition exemplifies recent developments in US and world economies through new real-world business and policy examples. No matter their career path, whether it's opening an art studio, trading on Wall Street or bartending at the local pub, students will benefit from grasping the economic forces behind their work.

Hallmark features of this title

Complete economics coverage

  • Real-world business examples and applications help students become educated consumers, voters, and citizens.
  • Economics in Your Life & Career boxes ask students to consider questions related to their lives and careers, adding a personal dimension to the material.

Student-focused features

  • Don't Let This Happen to You boxes alert students to common pitfalls seen throughout the chapters.

Engaging practice

  • Real-Time Data exercises help students build familiarity with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' FREDâ„¢ site, while building skills in data interpretation.
  • Concept Check questions encourage students to stop and check their understanding of fundamental concepts before moving on to the next section.

New and updated features of this title

Real-world coverage

  • UPDATED: Examples and policy discussions detail recent developments in US and world economies. This includes the longest economic expansion in the history of the US economy, the first significant international trade war since the 1930s, and record peacetime federal budget deficits.
  • NEW and UPDATED: Chapter-Opening Cases illustrate how the economic concepts presented in the text impact real-life businesses, such as Nike, Apple and Lyft.

Student-focused features

  • NEW: An Inside Look boxes use news articles to teach students how to apply economic thinking to current events and policy debates.
  • 27 NEW and 73 REVISED: Apply the Concepts features reinforce key concepts and help students interpret the news. Several discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, health care, and trade.

Engaging practice

  • UPDATED: End-of-Chapter Questions, Problems and Critical-Thinking Exercises help students build skills in analyzing info and applying reasoning and logic to new or unfamiliar ideas and situations.
  • 7 NEW: Solved Problems show students how to solve an economic problem by breaking it down step by step.

Highlights of the DIGITAL UPDATE for MyLab Economics (available for Spring 2021 classes)

Instructors, contact your sales rep to ensure you have the most recent version of the course.

  • NEW: With the new Hubbard and O'Brien Podcast, hosted by Glenn Hubbard and Tony O'Brien, and new Blog (hubbardobrieneconomics.com), the authors share hyper-current updates on the economy, including their analysis and discussion points.
  • NEW: With Podcast Exercises, students listen to a podcast and then answer questions. New exercises have been added to the assignment library as well as assignable, gradable versions of the content complete with critical-thinking questions.
  • NEW: Learning Catalytics questions encourage critical thinking and classroom discussion around elements of the economy affected by COVID-19.

Features of MyLab Economics for the 7th Edition; published 2020

  • UPDATED: Animated graphs accompany many key graphs and figures to help students grasp concepts. They've been updated with real-time data from FREDâ„¢.
  • UPDATED: Digital Interactives are dynamic and engaging assessment activities that promote critical thinking and the application of key economic principles.
  • UPDATED: Solved Problem Videos are whiteboard-style videos that walk students in real time through Solved Problem features.

Features of Pearson eText for the 7th Edition; published 2020

10 NEW: Appendices related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its social, political and economic effects, have been added, including:

  • Will Apple Start Making iPhones in the US? (Ch. 2)
  • Lessons from the 1918 to 1919 Influenza Pandemic for the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic (Chs. 5, 12)
  • Can Mom and Pop Businesses Survive the Coronavirus Pandemic? (Chs. 8, 11)
  • Solved Problem: How Will the Coronavirus Pandemic Affect the Airline Industry? (Ch. 9)
  • Using the Aggregate Demand-Aggregate Supply Model to Analyze the Coronavirus Pandemic (Ch. 15)
  • Monetary and Fiscal Policy Responses: The Great Recession vs. The Coronavirus Pandemic (Chs. 17, 18)

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

  1. Economics: Foundations and Models
    • Appendix: Using Graphs and Formulas
  2. Trade-offs, Comparative Advantage, and the Market System
  3. Where Prices Come From: The Interaction of Demand and Supply

PART 2: MARKETS IN ACTION: POLICY AND APPLICATIONS

  1. Market Efficiency and Market Failure
  2. The Economics of Health Care

PART 3: MICROECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS: CONSUMERS AND FIRMS

  1. Firms, the Stock Market, and Corporate Governance
  2. Consumer Choice and Elasticity
  3. Technology, Production, and Costs

PART 5: MARKET STRUCTURE AND FIRM STRATEGY

  1. Firms in Perfectly Competitive Markets
  2. Monopoly and Antitrust Policy
  3. Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly

PART 6: MACROECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS

  1. GDP: Measuring Total Production and Income
  2. Unemployment and Inflation

PART 8: LONG-RUN ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SHORT-RUN ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS

  1. Economic Growth, the Financial System, and Business Cycles
  2. Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply Analysis
    • Appendix: Macroeconomic Schools of Thought

PART 9: MONETARY AND FISCAL POLICY

  1. Money, Banks, and the Federal Reserve System
  2. Monetary Policy
  3. Fiscal Policy
  4. Comparative Advantage, International Trade, and Exchange Rates

About our authors

Glenn Hubbard, policymaker, professor, and researcher. Hubbard is Dean emeritus and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics in the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University and professor of economics in Columbia's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a director of Automatic Data Processing, Black Rock Fixed-Income Funds, and MetLife. He received a PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1983. From 2001 to 2003, he served as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and chair of the OECD Economic Policy Committee, and from 1991 to 1993, he was deputy assistant secretary of the US Treasury Department. He currently serves as co-chair of the nonpartisan Committee on Capital Markets Regulation. Hubbard's fields of specialization are public economics, financial markets and institutions, corporate finance, macroeconomics, industrial organization, and public policy. He is the author of more than 100 articles in leading journals, including American Economic Review; Brookings Papers on Economic Activity; Journal of Finance; Journal of Financial Economics; Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking; Journal of Political Economy; Journal of Public Economics; Quarterly Journal of Economics; RAND Journal of Economics; and Review of Economics and Statistics. His research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and numerous private foundations.

Tony O'Brien, award-winning professor and researcher. O'Brien is a professor of economics at Lehigh University. He received a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1987. He has taught principles of economics for more than 20 years, in both large sections and small honors classes. He received the Lehigh University Award for Distinguished Teaching. He was formerly the director of the Diamond Center for Economic Education and was named a Dana Foundation Faculty Fellow and Lehigh Class of 1961 Professor of Economics. He has been a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie Mellon University. O'Brien's research has dealt with issues such as the evolution of the US automobile industry, the sources of US economic competitiveness, the development of US trade policy, the causes of the Great Depression, and the causes of black-white income differences. His research has been published in leading journals, including American Economic Review; Quarterly Journal of Economics; Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking; Industrial Relations; Journal of Economic History; and Explorations in Economic History. His research has been supported by grants from government agencies and private foundations.

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