As an introductory text book, it's not bad. Covers all the important points of micro and macro. However, I was rather dissapointed that the text book emphasises "the new economy" caused by IT. It has all these "e-Insights" and "e-Cases" in all of the chapters, to show how IT is affecting the economy in fundamental ways.... only, is it? After the fall of dot.coms in 2000, I would have expected a more reserved approach, to say the least, not just all these IT glorifications. Especially from Stiglitz, the champion of the economics of information, I didn't imagine such "oh the Internet is great" attitude. Such as; "lowering search costs, the Internet holds out the promise of vastly increasing the efficiency of labor markets." (p.313) Really? I thought the lessons of the dot.com crash was that when people say "enormous" or "vastly" about IT benefits, you should ask "how enourmous/vast?" This text book doesn't do that. "Today, with virtually instantaneous information on sales, production and inventories, managers gan fine tune their production levels, avoiding the types of fluctuations seen in the past." (P.777) Theoretically, yes. But that didn't materialize too well, did it. But no comment on that. It devotes significant pages (well, 4, but with so much ground to cover, this is quite a lot to the history of personal computers and the Internet (pp.6-10). Nice story, but how does that tie in to the theme of economics? The book offers no connection! It's supposed to give an overview of the issues in Economics, but it's not a particulary good one (this industry is a bit peculiar, you know.)

I just hope the undergrads using this text book doesn't start another IT bubble.

On the good side, Stiglitz's experience at the World Bank has a lot of positive effect. The parts about development aid and globalization is strong (although short, but hey, this is only introductory). It's readable and understandable (but I'm in Japan; compared to the cranky jargon-laden econ textbooks here, most American textbooks are sweeter than candy). It's treatment of inflation is rather deep, which is nice. Emphasis of the environmental issues are, well, a bit bent toward the "Litany" (see Lomborg "Skeptical Environmentalist" on this), but it's good to see that they are given some explanation.

All in all, it's not as good as I expected, but still very good and strong. I might say that grabbing the 2nd edition (which is getting real [inexpensive] now...) might offer more U (utility) for your buck.