There is a combined edition of Economics for Life designed for a 1-semester survey course. Economics for Life: Making Smart Choices combines the 18 most important chapters from Microeconomics for Life and Macroeconomics for Life, organized in 4 parts:

Part 1: Microeconomics: Basics of Smart Choices
Part 2: Microeconomics: Applications of Smart Choices
Part 3: Macroeconomics: Measuring Economic Performance
Part 4: Macroeconomics: Theory and Policy

See the complete table of contents.

Choosing Chapters for a 1-Semester Survey Course

We have included 18 chapters to give you choices in selecting a manageable set of chapters to fit your specific survey course. Our experience is that 12 chapters is proba­bly a reasonable number to cover in one term, depending on the number of weeks you have. Here are our sugges­tions for choosing 12 chapters.

Balanced Micro and Macro (6 micro, 6 macro)         
For micro, Chapters 1-6, and for macro, Chapters 13-18

More Micro Focus (8 micro, 4 macro)
For micro, Chapters 1-7, 9, and for macro, Chapters 12-15

More Macro Focus (5 micro, 7 macro)
For micro, Chapters 1-5, and for macro, Chapters 12-18

Given time constraints, our suggestion, even for the More Micro choice, is to omit Chapter 8 on perfect competition. Chapter 7, on market structure and pricing, includes the basic assumptions and results of the perfect competition model. Chapter 9 covers the profit-maximizing rule of setting MR = MC, which applies to all market structures, including perfect competition.

Chapter 8 is a traditional perfect competition chapter, with the development of cost curves, and discusses short-run and long-run equilibrium. We find that takes too much time out of a one-term course, because cost curves are the most challenging concepts for students, even in a full-term micro course. We believe that the opportunity cost of covering Chapter 8 is too high! But if it is important for you, it is there.

For the macroeconomic chapters, the choices, based on the chapter titles, should be straightforward.

As teachers, we all have individual preferences, and choice is a good thing! Regardless of your chapter selection, you will have made a smart choice to have your students engage with, and learn from, Economics for Life: Making Smart Choices.

These are only suggestions. We are interested in hearing from you about which chapters you choose to cover, and whether our chapter organization meets your needs.

For more details, request an Instructor Copy and look at the Preface for Instructors.

Choosing Micro vs Macro Balance