-
Seasonal Offer:
This title is part of our Seasonal Offers promotion.
Economics : A Very Short Introduction
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Economics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
An excellent introduction... presents mathematical and statistical findings in straightforward prose. (Financial Times )
I wish more people would read Dasgupta's book, and I wish more economists would write variations on its theme. It is a model specimen. (www.economicprincipals.com )
The text is direct, rigorous and thought-provoking. It provides an intelligent, rigorous and readable introduction to economics. (London Book Review.com )
I wish more people would read Dasgupta's book, and I wish more economists would write variations on its theme. It is a model specimen. (www.economicprincipals.com )
The text is direct, rigorous and thought-provoking. It provides an intelligent, rigorous and readable introduction to economics. (London Book Review.com )
London Book Review.com
"The text is direct, rigorous and thought-provoking. It provides an intelligent, rigorous and readable introduction to economics."
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Becky, who is 10 years old, lives with her parents and an older brother Sam in a suburban town in America's Midwest. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Becky, who is 10 years old, lives with her parents and an older brother Sam in a suburban town in America's Midwest. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The problem with the low reviews of this book is that they are expecting a short treatise explaining the complexities of the economic world to people whose desire is to learn about current affairs more than economics as a subject.
This book is not attempting to explain the history of finance (Niall Ferguson's ascent of Money is excellent for this) or the reasons for the credit crunch (try Peston, Who runs Britian for a UK perspective).
Rather, it introduces the layperson to economics as a discipline particularly the kinds of questions/topics economists are concerned with and the methodologies and conceptual frameworks employed to deepen our understanding.
If considered from this perspective, Professor Dasgupta (who was tutored by Nobel Laureate James Mirlees) has written an excellent short introduction. Its core strengths are twofold. Firstly, Dasgupta considers some of the most interesting and counterintuitive economic concepts ( such as Trust) and the implications of such ideas on interaction and economic results. Secondly, Professor Dasgupta has a gift for highlighting and drawing attention to the most theoretically interesting issues, whilst at the same time explaining these in language that is clear for non-experts to understand.
So, if you want to understand economics and not just the business pages of the Times, this book will be worth reading.
This book is not attempting to explain the history of finance (Niall Ferguson's ascent of Money is excellent for this) or the reasons for the credit crunch (try Peston, Who runs Britian for a UK perspective).
Rather, it introduces the layperson to economics as a discipline particularly the kinds of questions/topics economists are concerned with and the methodologies and conceptual frameworks employed to deepen our understanding.
If considered from this perspective, Professor Dasgupta (who was tutored by Nobel Laureate James Mirlees) has written an excellent short introduction. Its core strengths are twofold. Firstly, Dasgupta considers some of the most interesting and counterintuitive economic concepts ( such as Trust) and the implications of such ideas on interaction and economic results. Secondly, Professor Dasgupta has a gift for highlighting and drawing attention to the most theoretically interesting issues, whilst at the same time explaining these in language that is clear for non-experts to understand.
So, if you want to understand economics and not just the business pages of the Times, this book will be worth reading.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The fundamental problem with this book was that it just didn't do what I wanted it to do.
When I bought this book, I was expecting something that quickly taught/explained to me exactly what fundamental Economic concepts meant - in a concise but interesting manner too. Like any reader, all I wanted was a simple introduction to the topics so typically associated with Economics; such as supply & demand, inflation and currencies. Sadly, this book wasn't what I expected at all - it didn't give me my no-nonsense jargon-free introduction. To be honest, it felt rather deepend, philosophical and prose-like; whereas I'd imagine most readers expect something more factual, simplistic and somewhat text-book like.
It's a bit like a book about cars - whilst one type of book may tell you about the history of cars & the "passion" behind racing, another type of book may just give you a quick overview of famous models and their core specs. This book is certainly the former, but I expected the latter.
To give the author some credit, I do understand why he took this direction for this book. Now a BSc Economics student, I can understand why he chose to introduce Economics in more rounded, depthful and discussive way. After all, Economics (a social science), is much more than a few theories about prices, interest rates and economies. But if you are like me, and wanted this book because for a quick intro to daily economic topics, then this isn't for you. But if you want something that gives a very depthful introduction into the core foundations of economic thinking, this is great. Mixed feelings!
When I bought this book, I was expecting something that quickly taught/explained to me exactly what fundamental Economic concepts meant - in a concise but interesting manner too. Like any reader, all I wanted was a simple introduction to the topics so typically associated with Economics; such as supply & demand, inflation and currencies. Sadly, this book wasn't what I expected at all - it didn't give me my no-nonsense jargon-free introduction. To be honest, it felt rather deepend, philosophical and prose-like; whereas I'd imagine most readers expect something more factual, simplistic and somewhat text-book like.
It's a bit like a book about cars - whilst one type of book may tell you about the history of cars & the "passion" behind racing, another type of book may just give you a quick overview of famous models and their core specs. This book is certainly the former, but I expected the latter.
To give the author some credit, I do understand why he took this direction for this book. Now a BSc Economics student, I can understand why he chose to introduce Economics in more rounded, depthful and discussive way. After all, Economics (a social science), is much more than a few theories about prices, interest rates and economies. But if you are like me, and wanted this book because for a quick intro to daily economic topics, then this isn't for you. But if you want something that gives a very depthful introduction into the core foundations of economic thinking, this is great. Mixed feelings!
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a great book and Professor Dasgupta was an excellent choice of author. But I want to warn everyone that the publisher messed up and so the Sterling edition has a lot of typos in it which make some of the calculations very confusing. There are about six pages of errors in the Sterling edition so make sure you only buy the Oxford University Press Edition.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not as simple and well-written as it needs to be
I picked up this book to try to gain a basic understanding of simple economic concepts and theories. Read more
Published 7 months ago by J. Welford
Economics
To be honest, I bought this book to give me a "short introduction" and I hoped to gain a bit of information of Economics prior to reading other books for university. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Marcus
Highly Recommended
I read this book, it explains a lot about the central purpose and use of economics, and the economic situation of various countries. Read more
Published 12 months ago by HH
An entirely misleading title
As someone who has never studied economics beyond reading newspapers, I thought that this 'introduction' to economics would be a good place to start. Read more
Published 15 months ago by E. J. Berge
Disappointing-title should be economics of the rich and poor
Before I start I just want to say that the author is a excellent authority on economics, and apart from a few books (including this one), OUP's Very Short Introductions have been... Read more
Published on 18 May 2009 by H.P.J.M.
Substandard and a waste of reading time
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has bought this book thinking it would rid me of my ignorance of the economic crises that have beset the world. Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2009 by J. Denham
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Biographies & Histories > Business & Economic History
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Economics > Economic Systems
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Economics > International Economics > Development
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Economics > Labour
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Economics > Theory & Philosophy
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Professional Finance > Forecasting
- Books > History
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Academic Philosophy
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
