Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity

The fully revised and updated fourth edition of the classic Common Sense Economics.

As the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and debates over the future of work challenge our long-held preconceptions about what careers and the market can be, learning the basics of economics has never been more essential. Principles such as gains from trade, the role of profit and loss, and the secondary effects of government spending, taxes, and borrowing risk continue to be critically important to the way America's economy functions, and critically important to understand for those hoping to further their professional lives—even their personal lives. Common Sense Economics discusses these key points and theories and more, using them to show how any reader can make wiser personal choices and form more informed positions on policy.

Now in its fourth edition, this classic from James D. Gwartney, Dwight R. Lee, Tawni Hunt Ferrarini , Joseph P. Calhoun, and Jane Shaw Stroup has been fully updated to include commentary on the effects of the pandemic on the global economy and the workplace; it offers insight into political processes and the many ways in which economics informs policy, illuminating our world and what might be done to make it better.

James D. Gwartney is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Economics at Florida State University, where he taught for 53 years. He is the lead author of Economics: Private and Public Choice, a widely used economic principles text now in its 17th edition. Dr. Gwartney is also coauthor of the Fraser Institute’s annual report Economic Freedom of the World, which provides information on the consistency of institutions and policies with economic freedom for 165 countries. His publications have appeared in scholarly journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Economic Education, Southern Economic Journal, and Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics. During 1999–2000, he served as Chief Economist of the Joint Economic Committee of the U. S. Congress. He is a past president of the Southern Economic Association and the Association of Private Enterprise Education. His Ph.D. in economics is from the University of Washington.

Dwight R. Lee received his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 1972. He has served on the faculty at the University of Colorado, Virginia Tech University, George Mason University, and the University of Georgia, where he was the Ramsey Professor of Economics and Private Enterprise from 1985 to 2008. He was the William J. O’Neil Professor of Global Markets and Freedom at Southern Methodist University in Dallas from 2008 to 2014. He is currently an Affiliated Visiting Faculty Fellow in the Institute for the Study of Political Economy in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. Professor Lee’s research has covered a variety of areas including the economics of the environment and natural resources; the economics of political decision-making; public finance; law and economics; and labor economics. Lee has published over 170 articles in academic journals and nearly 300 articles in magazines and newspapers; he has coauthored fourteen books and been the contributing editor of five others. Lee has lectured at universities and conferences throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Central America, South America, Asia, and Africa. He was president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education in 1994–1995 and president of the Southern Economic Association in 1997–1998.

Tawni Hunt Ferrarini is the R.W. Plaster Professor of Economic Education at Lindenwood University. Dr. Ferrarini is known nationally and internationally for her work in economic education and her dynamic presentations. She specializes in informing diverse audiences about economic fundamentals, integrating economic reasoning into various disciplines, and using technology to increase audience engagement. Her reputation as an accomplished researcher, textbook author, presenter, and workshop leader contributed to her selection as the 2015 president of the National Association of Economic Educators and her receipt of the National Association of Economic Educators’ Abbejean Kehler Award and International Award. She serves on the advisory board of the Council on Economic Education–Japan and regularly consults with nonprofits, including Junior Achievement USA, Economic Fundamentals Initiative–Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the Korea Development Institute. Dr. Ferrarini publishes in journals of economic education, technology, and education. Her doctorate in economics is from Washington University in St. Louis, where she studied under the 1993 Nobel laureate Douglass C. North.

Joseph P. Calhoun is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Economics at Florida State University and Director of the university’s Gus A. Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education. He currently teaches principles of economics and personal finance classes. He created and leads Unconquered by Debt, an innovative financial wellness program sponsored by the Stavros Center. At no charge, undergraduate students can take workshops or use online resources to develop financial literacy. Dr. Calhoun regularly gives presentations at national teaching conferences on the effective use of media and technology in the classroom. A strong supporter of study-abroad programs, he has taught in Florida State’s international programs in England, Italy, and Spain. Dr. Calhoun has received numerous teaching awards at Florida State, including the university’s Undergraduate Teaching Award. His doctoral degree is from the University of Georgia.

Jane Shaw Stroup (who also writes as Jane S. Shaw) is a writer and freelance editor. She is chairperson of the Raleigh-based James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, where she was previously president. Before that, Ms. Stroup was a senior fellow with PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. Among other books, she coauthored with Michael Sanera Facts, Not Fear: Teaching Children about the Environment. Earlier, she was an associate economics editor of Business Week. She received her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Wellesley College and, in 2020, a master’s degree in history from North Carolina State University. She is a past president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, an editorial adviser to Econ Journal Watch and CL Press, a member of the Editorial Advisory Panel of Regulation, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Council of the Institute of Economic Affairs (London). She is the widow of Richard L. Stroup, a previous coauthor of this book.