Trade-Offs: An Introduction to Economic Reasoning

Trade-Offs introduces the economic approach to analyzing public policy issues. While economists typically address topics like unemployment, inflation, and budget deficits through detached reasoning, they also apply economic analysis to issues such as organ transplants, cigarette addiction, overeating, and product safety. Harold Winter provides readers with analytical tools to identify and understand the trade-offs associated with these controversial topics. The book emphasizes that effective real-world decision-making requires explicit recognition of the costs and benefits of potential policy solutions. This edition includes recent developments in policy debates, including the rise of "new paternalism"—policies designed to protect people from themselves—alternative approaches to increasing organ supply for transplant, and economic methods for controlling infectious disease. The book is intended for students of economics, public policy, health administration, political science, and law, as well as for general readers interested in current social policy debates.