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The Economy 2.0

The Economy 2.0, the rewrite of the 1.0 edition, will be available soon.

The first edition of The Economy was published in 2017. The world that the book attempts to explain with economics has evolved since then. Consequently, the tools we provide to students need to be updated, so that CORE Econ can continue in its mission to introduce students to what economists do now, and what we know.

Over the years, we received extensive feedback on The Economy 1.0 from committed instructors and learners. In addition, in 2020 we ran a survey of a broader group to better understand how The Economy could be improved to meet the teaching and learning needs of our users.

 

The Economy 2.0 retains CORE Econ’s distinguishing features:

  1. Content: Today’s economics for today’s problems. We use simple ideas from game theory, behavioral economics and constrained optimization to study the decisions of owners, entrepreneurs, employers, workers, customers and governments  – and how they interact. Inequality is embedded within the model because the interactions of the actors depend on the extent of their power and specific endowments. Sustainability and distributional concerns follow as straightforward applications of the models.
  2. Pedagogy: Students experience economics as a powerful tool they can wield to understand their world and the problems it faces. This approach develops economic intuition and an understanding of how economists learn from facts. It brings to the foreground market and government failures and how changes in the rules of the game (whether policies or institutions) affect efficiency, inequality and sustainability.
  3. It’s free for students and instructors: Instructors are supported with a full set of slides, games, step-by-step model-teaching videos, answers and test banks ready to go. Our open access digital-first content includes figures and data charts that students can manipulate, and instant-feedback review questions compatible with Moodle and Canvas, for ease of integration with instructors’ learning management systems.

 

Table of contents

The Economy 2.0 will be divided into a volume for microeconomics, available in Autumn 2023, and a volume for macroeconomics available in early 2024.

The tables below show the correspondence between units in The Economy 2.0 and The Economy 1.0.

Click on the    icon next to the unit titles to read more about how they’re changing.

These units in The Economy 2.0: Microeconomics correspond to… …these units in The Economy 1.0
1. Prosperity, inequality, and planetary limits    1. The capitalist revolution
2. Technology and incentives 

Tip: Watch how Units 1 and 2 discuss the role of colonial rule and slavery in the British Industrial Revolution

 2. Technology, population, and growth
3. Doing the best you can: Scarcity, well-being, and working hours  3. Scarcity, work, and choice
4. Strategic interactions and social dilemmas  4. Social interactions
5. The rules of the game: Who gets what and why  5. Property and power: Mutual gains and conflict
6. The firm and its employees 

Tip: See how the labour market model now integrates a search-and-matching model and the labour discipline model

 6. The firm: Owners managers, and employees
7. The firm and its customers 7. The firm and its customers
8. Supply and demand: Markets with many buyers and sellers 8. Supply and demand: Price-taking and competitive markets
9. Lenders, borrowers, and differences in wealth  10. Banks, money, and the credit market*
10. Market successes and failures: The societal effects of private decisions 12. Markets, efficiency, and public policy

*Only the part about the credit market is included in Unit 9 of The Economy 2.0: Microeconomics

These units in The Economy 2.0: Macroeconomics correspond to… …these units in The Economy 1.0
1. The supply side model: unemployment and real wages 9. The labour market: Wages, profits, and unemployment
2. Supply-side policies, institutions, and inequality New
3. Aggregate demand and the multiplier model 13. Economic fluctuations and unemployment

14. Unemployment and fiscal policy
4. Inflation and unemployment 15. Inflation, unemployment, and monetary policy
5. Monetary and fiscal policy 14. Unemployment and fiscal policy

15. Inflation, unemployment, and monetary policy
6. Money, banks, and debt 10. Banks, money, and the credit market**
7. Systemic instability: financial and environmental New
8. Creative destruction, the labour market and the future of work 16. Technological progress, employment, and living standards in the long run
9. A century of growth, fluctuations and crises: applying the models  17. Capstone: The Great Depression, golden age, and global financial crisis
10. Global growth and inequality New

**Only the part about banks and money is included in Unit 6 of The Economy 2.0: Macroeconomics

What will happen to The Economy 1.0?

The Economy 1.0 will continue to be available online after the 2.0 edition has been published, but it will no longer be updated. It was last updated on 31 March 2022, when:

This page will be updated regularly. Make sure you don’t miss out on updates regarding The Economy 2.0 by:

  • subscribing to the CORE Econ’s newsletter (scroll to the bottom of this page)
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Last updated on 26 July 2023.