This book provides an engaging introduction to economics through a literary lens. Drawing on writers such as James Joyce, George Eliot, Edith Wharton, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and Elizabeth Gaskell, each chapter is framed around a quote from a classic text of English literature that helps tease out a key economic concept and demonstrate its broader relevance. While rigorous, the book is virtually free of technical language and aims to give a concise overview of all the main topics in contemporary economics – from supply and demand, pricing, labour markets, externalities, and game theory, to environmental and behavioural economics, fiscal policy and business cycles, modern approaches to macroeconomics and economic growth.
Interweaving literary examples with easy-to-follow explanations and reflective tasks, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach to economics and literature that requires no prior knowledge in either camp, but which illuminates patterns of real-world behaviour observed by novelists and economists alike. This concise and accessible book will be a valuable tool for students embarking on introductory economics courses, economics modules in business studies, and interdisciplinary courses more broadly, as well as the general reader interested in building their knowledge of economics.
Author(s): Geraint Johnes
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 102
City: London
Preface
Contents
1 Demand and Supply—The Price of Oysters
From James Joyce: Ulysses
2 Surpluses—When You’ve Got to Go, You’ve Got to Go
From Lawrence Sterne: Tristram Shandy
3 Perfect Competition—The Competition’s Tough
From Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities
4 Economic Welfare—Why Trade Is Good: Part 1
From Mary Hallock Foote: The Desert and the Sown
5 Monopoly—Last Copy, Sir: Double Price
From Mark Twain: The Innocents Abroad
6 Oligopoly and Game Theory—The Kursaal Flyers
From Jonathan Swift: A Tale of a Tub
7 The Market for Labour—Gizza Job
From Charlotte Bronte: Shirley
From Charlotte Bronte: Shirley
From George Eliot: The Mill on the Floss
From Bankim Chandra Chatterjee—Rajmohan’s Wife
From George Eliot: The Mill on the Floss
8 Externalities—Greta’s Expectations
From Thomas Hardy: Jude the Obscure
From George Orwell—The Road to Wigan Pier
9 International Trade—Why Trade Is Good: Part 2
From George Eliot: The Mill on the Floss
10 Information Economics—Well, What Do You Know?
From Charles Dickens: Nicholas Nickleby
11 Behavioural Economics—Don’t Behave Like That
From Oscar Wilde—The Picture of Dorian Gray
12 Business Cycles—The Swings and Roundabouts of Outrageous Fortune
From Jane Austen: Persuasion
From Charlotte Bronte: The Professor
13 Fiscal Policy—If It Moves, Tax It
From William Shakespeare: Henry VIII
14 Unemployment—The Employers and the Employed
From Elizabeth Gaskell: Mary Barton
15 Monetary Policy—Interesting Times
From William Makepeace Thackeray: The Newcomes
16 Modern Models of the Macroeconomy—From Small Things, Big Things Come
From James Barrie: The Little White Bird
17 Growth—Growing Pains
From Anthony Trollope: Phineas Finn
Index
