Melanie Fox - Economics DeMYSTiFieD

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To our boys:

Eli & Alex and Max

Melanie Fox was born and raised in the Montrose area in Houston, Texas. She attended the University of Houston, where she studied Economics and Russian. After she received her bachelors degree in Economics, she was awarded a Stella Earhardt Fellowship and continued at the University of Houston, where she received masters and doctoral degrees in Economics. More recently, she expanded her training to include a graduate certificate in Public Health. Since 2005, she has been teaching economics at Austin College, where she teaches introductory economics, health economics, development economics, monetary theory, labor economics, game theory, and research methods. In addition to receiving several awards for teaching, her publications have appeared in the American Economic Review and Economics and Human Biology. In 2006, she co-created the Economics Scholars Program with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas to motivate undergraduate research in economics. She has served as a faculty consultant for the Educational Testing Service, reading AP Economics free-response exams, since 2007. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, baking, knitting, and running, and hopes to some day get back in the left seat of a cockpit again. She lives in Sherman, Texas, with her son, Max.

Eric Dodge was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and received his BA in Business Administration from the University of Puget Sound and his MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Oregon. Since 1995, he has been teaching economics at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana. He teaches a wide variety of courses, such as principles of microeconomics, principles of macroeconomics, intermediate microeconomics, environmental economics, labor economics, industrial organization, quantitative methods for economics and business, econometrics, and the benefits and costs of dams. He is the author of 5 Steps to a 5 in Microeconomics/Macroeconomics and the Teachers Resource Binder and Test Bank for the popular Advanced Placement textbook Krugmans Economics for AP. Since 2000, he has served as a consultant for the AP economics program and has been a reader of free-response questions, table leader, and question leader at the annual AP Economics Reading. When he is not teaching or writing about economics, he enjoys hiking, traveling, home brewing, and playing golf. Eric lives in Madison, Indiana, with his son, Eli.

The book you are holding is a good start toward learning basic economic concepts. If you have bought (or are thinking about buying) this book, you are probably one of the following:

A college student who needs a supplement to a textbook in a course on principles of microeconomics, principles of macroeconomics, fundamentals of economics, or some other similar introductory course

A college student in an introductory course who needs some additional practice problems to prepare for an exam

A high school student taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses in microeconomics or macroeconomics for college credit

A student in an undergraduate or MBA program who needs a quick go-to guide for reference in intermediate or advanced economics courses