Modern Principles of Economics has been written with trade-offs in mind and it’s easy to pick and choose from among the chapters when time constrains. We offer a few quick suggestions. Chapter 7 is fun to teach but more difficult to test than some of the other chapters. But don’t worry, you will find plenty of testable material in other chapters, and for your best students the introduction to the price system in Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 will be an eye-opener!

We spend more time on price controls than do other books because we don’t confine ourselves to the usual shortage diagram, but we also illustrate the general equilibrium effects of price controls. We have also included a section of advanced material on the losses from random allocation that may be skipped in larger classes or if time constrains.

We have greatly simplified the presentation on cost curves and removed most of production theory, so do take the time to cover monopoly and the chapter on price discrimination. Students love the material on price discrimination because once they understand the concepts, they see the applications all around them. Chapter 16, “Competing for Monopoly: The Economics of Network Goods,” is a very appealing chapter for students, and we recommend it for its applications, but if you don’t have time, it can be skipped.

Asteroid deflection and the decline of the tuna fisheries are a must, so do cover Chapter 19 on public goods and the tragedy of the commons. Once again, students appreciate the focus on important, real-world applications of the economic way of thinking.

Chapter 20 and Chapter 21 on political economy and ethics are optional. If you can teach only one chapter, we think Chapter 20 on political economy has crucial material for avoiding the nirvana fallacy: We should always compare real-world markets with real-world governments when doing political economy. Chapter 21 on ethics works very well in smaller classes with lots of student interaction—we think it important that the philosophy professors are not the ones who get the only say on questions of ethics!

Chapter 22, “Managing Incentives,” is fun to teach but it goes beyond the core and can be skipped. We believe this chapter will be especially appropriate for management, MBA, and pre-law students.

We encourage everyone to teach Chapter 23 on stock markets, time permitting.

Chapter 25, “Consumer Choice,” is for those instructors who wish to cover indifference curves in considerable detail.

Instructors could cover only a portion of the Solow model in Chapter 28. We sometimes do this in our larger classes so this will be a good choice for many. The chapter has been written so that the most intuitive and important aspects of the model are covered in the beginning, more difficult and detailed material in the middle may be skipped, and then important material on growth and ideas is covered toward the end of the chapter. The material in the middle may be skipped without loss of continuity. Instructors with smaller and more advanced classes can easily cover the full chapter. The instructor’s guide offers excellent tips from John Dawson for covering this material.

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One important point: It is not at all necessary to teach the Solow model to cover our chapters on business fluctuations. The supply side is dealt with by using a long-run aggregate supply curve, which is explained in those chapters without relying on the Solow model.

We have divided the chapters in macroeconomic policy and institutions so that an instructor can cover monetary policy without covering the details of the Federal Reserve system and open market operations, and one can cover fiscal policy without covering the details of the federal budget: taxes and spending. The details are important and these chapters place monetary and fiscal policy within an institutional context so we do not necessarily recommend this approach, but when time is limited, more options are better than fewer.

Finally, one could skip international finance. To us, international economics means primarily that economics can help us to understand the world, not just one country and not just one time. As a result, we have included many international examples throughout Modern Principles. If time constrains, the details of tariffs, exchange rates, and trade deficits may be left to another course. Alas, we live in a finite world.

Most of all, we hope that Modern Principles helps you, the teacher, to have fun! We love economics and we have fun teaching economics. We have written this text for people not afraid to say the same. Don’t hesitate to e-mail us with your questions, thoughts, and experiences, or just to say hello!

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