Customer Reviews

Essentials Of Economics Study Guide

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was giddy with joy when I found out that this book could be ordered in Kindle format and I can take it around with me on my iPad. I had some technical problems at first, but those were easily resolved after some digging around.

I glanced through the paper version before I bought this, and it looked like a great good. But the E-book version sucked big time. It contained all of the non-essentials (like a picture of LeBron James), but failed to include ANY of the important graphics, such as the numerous charts explaining important economic principles.

How can the author (or the kid who operated the OCR to digitize this book) expect us to understand what's going on WITHOUT any of the vital graphs and charts?! This is terrible!! Epic fail to the 9th level!!

This textbook was assigned for a Graduate Economics course I am taking. I have no background in Economics so I was quite intimidated by the subject. But I have to say that the text is rather easy to read and the way that it is written makes it enjoyable. I really like the "quick quizzes" that are throughout the chapters. I utilize them to check to see if I have retained what I have read. It really helps me out when it comes to taking exams in class. I would highly recommend this text for other professors to use for their classes.

The book is so easy to understand. I recommend to buy the student guide as well. For Homework, it is a good idea for the instructor to assign homework from Aplia website. It is so fun to solve Homework using Aplia

If you are reading this review, it is quite likely you were assigned this book for a college course, and you are just wondering about the quality of the book you will be getting. I used this course for a graduate class in Economics, and was impressed by the writing style and clear explanations offered by Mankiw. He uses very clear graphics and examples to discuss the various effects of changes in the market on supply/demand curves. Elasticity, deadweight loss, taxation, and other changes in the market are clearly explained. Mankiw fills each chapter with practical examples of the mathematics from the modern world, and even has a chapter on monetary policy and the Federal Reserve. It is easy to find the information you need, and important terms are clearly defined. The book is very accessible to the new student.

While it is an excellent book once you have been assigned to read it, it is also one of the most costly textbooks I have purchased. Now that I have learned economics from Mankiw, I can explain that the price is so high because the demand for this book is inelastic. If you've paid $3000 for a graduate level class, you will buy whatever book is assigned, whether that book costs $30, $100, or even $200. Raising the price does not reduce demand significantly (though at some price professors will stop assigning it to their classes).

If you are generally interested in economics, seek a less expensive book. If this was assigned for your class, it is a good choice.

Grad school marked my first brush with Econ, and Mankiw's Essentials answered the mail. Highly recommended.

Pros: Easy to read, Easy to understand, Fun to experience, Knowledge is fantastic

Cons: None

** I would pit this against any required Econ text -- not sure if the economics of college texts is addressed, but it would make a fine case study/ thesis.

this is a required text for econ; it is a quality presentation especially with the supplementary workbook.

This book is the best read of any textbook I've ever had. The examples relate to the readers very well and the author actually has personality. Loved it.

The book arrived just in time for my class! It's in great condition, like new.

Needed this book for class, and book was in better shape than I expected. Thanks!!

I used this book for a college intro to economics class. It has a lot of information for someone who doesn't know a lot about economics and the economy...maybe too much.

I found myself pushing to get through chapters because they were boring and many of the diagrams were confusing. Some of the concepts aren't very clear.

The CD that came with mine was a huge help. I would print off the study guides before I read the chapter, so I would pay the most attention to those parts because those are the ones the author thought were important.

This book had a lot of econ math in it that I was unable to understand. The CD didn't address that very well. Consequently, those are the questions that I missed on the tests.