First published in 1980, Economic Behaviour: An Introduction has been written specifically to speed up the settling-in process of students new to the subject of economics. It starts at the shallow end with the family budget and proceeds via an examination of business decision-taking to the analysis of supply and demand in goods and factor markets. The second half of the book deals with the major macroeconomic aggregates, national income, employment and the price level – giving both Keynesian and Monetarist approaches a fair hearing. The book ends with two chapters on economic policy and concludes with a chapter on methods of building and testing economic models – a subject which is both interesting and useful by the time students have grasped the essence of economic analysis.

Throughout, the author makes economics relevant and at the same time presents basic theoretical techniques of analysis and controversies in a manner which makes translation to one of the major standard theory texts as smooth as possible.

Contents

Part 1: Introduction: Consumer and Producer Behaviour 1. The Family Budget 2. The Business of Production Part 2: Prices and Markets 3. The Allocation of Resources 4. Supply and Demand in the Market for Goods 5. The Prices of Factors of Production Part 3: National Income Output and the Price Level 6. The National Income 7. The Determination of the National Income 8. Money Part Four: Economic Policy 9. Economic Policy: I Macroeconomics 10. Economic Policy: II Microeconomics Part 5: The Nature of Economics 11. The Methods of Economics: Tools and Techniques