Welcome to the 19th edition of the first textbook to introduce the social issues approach to the teaching of economic principles. This text covers both micro and macro topics, making it ideal for one-term, non-major economics issues and social problems courses as a main text. However, this text can also function as a supplement to an economic principles or survey course. Over the years, our revisions to each edition of Economics of Social Issues have attempted to reflect the important societal trends and public debates current at the time. Currency and relevance are the motivations behind the major changes that previous users will quickly find in this volume. Although the specific topics and organization of the material continue to evolve, at least one thing remains a constant: our basic teaching objectives designed to produce economically literate citizens. These objectives are to (1) create student interest in the study of economics and (2) provide a framework of basic analytical tools useful in the understanding of social issues. To reach these objectives, we first introduce and discuss the important aspects of a contemporary social issue. Next, we develop the economic concepts and principles germane to the issue. Finally, we apply these principles to the issue to resolve it. The issues throughout the text are arranged so that basic economic concepts are logically developed and an understanding of these concepts is reinforced through repeated use and application. Enough flexibility is built in, however, to give instructors the ability to experiment with different sequences of topics and chapters. As always, we carefully choose relevant social issues that not only stimulate classroom discussion but also lend themselves to helping students learn the important basic principles of economics.

To support each student's needs, each chapter contains an outline and a checklist of important economic concepts. Opening vignettes illustrating pertinent economic issues introduce chapter discussion, and marginal definitions and notations clarify terms and provide insight into discussions for students. End-of-chapter materials include a summary, discussion questions, a list of additional readings, and Internet resources, all of which reinforce new material. Finally a student-friendly glossary facilitates absorption of new vocabulary.

WHAT'S NEW

Our primary goal throughout the revision process was to enhance the uniqueness of our pedagogical approach to teaching basic economic concepts while continuing to improve the overall quality of our final product. We feel we succeeded in doing this and hope that both our new and our long-time users will agree.

We have retained the same number of chapters, but have reorganized some topics to place more emphasis on issues surrounding the current macroeconomic situation. Specifically, we have combined the topics of unemployment and inflation into one chapter (Chapter 13) and created a new chapter on money, banking, and the financial system (Chapter 12). This new chapter provides an introduction to financial markets allowing for an examination of the financial crisis and its accompanying recession. Instructors should find all the tools necessary to explain and discuss these major economic events within this chapter and the reorganized unemployment and inflation chapter. Our reorganization also allows for a more detailed examination of Federal Reserve policy and interest rate determination and the introduction of the Phillips curve relationship. We believe these modifications will provide instructors with the flexibility to use our recent macroeconomic problems as an opportunity to teach important lessons.

Other significant revisions include an update on China's economic and social progress with special emphasis on its ongoing fight with pollution in Chapter 2, in Chapter 5 a discussion of the sociological statement implicitly being made when goods and/or services are made illegal (always available to the wealthy), a revised summary of the latest available information on the effectiveness of voucher and charter school programs in Chapter 6, based on the Rand Corporation's 2007 revision of its wellreceived "Rhetoric versus Reason: What We Know and What We Need to Know about Voucher and Charter Schools," elimination of the aging section on price discrimination, and a reworking of Chapter 8 on monopoly (note the title change). While we have always carefully distinguished between monopoly and bigness, with the problems posed by the "too big to fail" argument leading to bailouts of AIG and the U.S. auto industry, we have added significant attention to the potential of bigness, without monopoly, to cause economic turmoil. There are many other changes throughout the text that are too numerous to list here and, of course, each chapter was thoroughly revised and updated with the latest statistics and data available at press time.

All ancillary materials are available on the Nineteenth Edition's Online Learning Center, a Web site maintained by Margaret A. Ray and hosted by McGraw-Hill/Irwin. The Instructor's Manual and Test Bank are posted on the password-protected portion of the Web site. Accessible to both students and instructors are PowerPoint presentations, study tips, and self-tests designed to enhance the resources found in our companion Study Guide. Furthermore, links to Web sites relevant to particular social issues and alternative points of view are provided. Visit the Online Learning Center at www.mhhe.com/sharp19e to explore all the site offers.

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THE SOCIAL ISSUES PEDAGOGY

To those instructors who are contemplating the adoption of a social issues approach to teaching economic principles, we would like to call your attention to the following research article: "The Social Issues Pedagogy vs. the Traditional Principles of Economics: An Empirical Examination," The American Economist, vol. 41, no. 1, Spring 1998. This paper was written by Paul along with Professor Paul S. Nelson of the University of Louisiana at Monroe. It presents the results of a controlled experiment comparing the learning of students enrolled in a social issues–oriented course that used a previous edition of this book with students who took traditional principles of economics courses and used a standard encyclopedic text. The results are encouraging in that no significant difference was found between students in the social issues course and students enrolled in the traditional macroeconomics principles course, after controlling for student demographic characteristics, prior experiences, and academic aptitude. Furthermore, the results strongly indicate that the students in the social issues course had a higher probability of course completion relative to those in the control group. In this era, in which student retention is becoming more important, we strongly believe that this result suggests an important positive spillover benefit of our pedagogical approach that those who design economics courses and curriculum should consider.