A possible alternative, or even complement, is Dan Hamermesh's book, Economics
Is Everywhere (not as sexy a title), Irwin-McGraw-Hill, 2004 (!). It's 19
chapters of vignettes applying economic thinking, sometimes in unusual ways.
I'm not particularly crazy about the question he includes with each vignettes,
but one can do one's own. Here's an example:
"A constant complaint by long-term residents (more than one year) in rapidly
growing Austin, Texas, is that the city is "too crowded." People complain
about traffic, crowded parks and swimming holes, and so on. They never
complain about the growth in the number and variety of restaurants, theaters,
and cultural events, or about the increase in specialized retail outlets in
town. The two are related: Bigger cities bring broader and more diverse
cultural opportunities. The trade-off is that they also bring more crowds and
traffic congestion. New people, those who made the choice to accept the
crowds in exchange for more excitement, are clearly better off. Longer-term
residents may indeed be worse off because they chose to come to the area when
the trade-off was different. Some of them may have benefitted from the
trade-off: They may like the greater breadth of activities more than they
dislike the added congestion. Onter longer-term residents, though, may be
worse off: The change in the trade-off goes against the preferences that
initially drew them to Austin."
Don Coffin
>===== Original Message From Stephen H Karlson <ta0shk1@corn.cso.niu.edu>
=====
>The book has some potential for a survey course or an economics of public
>policy course. The author lives in Chicago and has all sorts of
>public-choice based commentary on the joys of Illinois politics. He's got
>a lot of the usual contrarian stuff about incentives, taxes, and trade
>protection.
>
>No graphs, no formulas, might be a substitute for Landsburg's _Armchair
>Economist_
>
>I may have posted a few comments at http://coldspringshops.blogspot.com
>about the book some months ago.
>
>> I am wondering if anyone has read or used Charles Wheelan's Naked
Economics.
>> I found a few principals syllabuses using it as a supplementary text, but
>> without comments. I am looking for something a bit more lively than the
>> typical dull textbook.
>> Bill Sjostrom
>
>Stephen Karlson skarlson@niu.edu *-- 154393
>Department of Economics http://www.niu.edu/~ta0shk1
>Northern Illinois University 815 753 6980 (voice)
>DeKalb, Illinois 60115 815 752 1019 (fax)
>
>ATTITUDE is a nine letter word. BOATSPEED.
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