The leading economists today started out as students taking the Principles course. Parkin writes in a way that reaches out to all students, encouraging them to think like economists from the first week of class. Economics provides a serious, analytical approach to the discipline by introducing the main ideas and then developing those ideas with the latest research, policy, and data. The result is that students learn to apply economics the way real economists do, by evaluating the decisions in their personal, academic, and professional lives.
The Eighth Edition takes a new approach to modern macroeconomic theory with an earlier integration of international topics that gives an accurate picture of how theory is used to guide and evaluate macroeconomic policy. The microeconomics chapters include the latest research, and incorporate a unifying theme related to the tension between self- and social-interest.