#ASSA2021: Browse Titles for Economics Courses

Explore our groundbreaking books that facilitate teaching across disciplines. To request an exam copy, click on “Request an Exam or Desk Copy” on the book page, and this will take you to our distributor’s site where you can order your copy.

Essentials of Development Economics, Third Edition by J. Edward Taylor and Travis J. Lybbert

Providing students with the critical tools and approaches used by development economists, this compact textbook represents an alternative approach to others on the subject. Essentials of Development Economics offers a broad overview of key topics and methods in the field. Its fourteen easy-to-read chapters introduce cutting-edge research and present best practices and state-of-the-art methods. By mastering the material in this time-tested book, students will have the conceptual grounding needed to move on to more advanced development economics courses.

This new edition includes:

updated references to international development policy process and goals
substantial updates to several chapters with new and revised material to make the text both current and policy relevant
replacement of several special features with new ones featuring widely cited studies

Transparent and Reproducible Social Science Research: How to Do Open Science by Garret Christensen, Jeremy Freese, and Edward Miguel

Transparent and Reproducible Social Science Research is the first book to summarize and synthesize new approaches to combat false positives and non-reproducible findings in social science research, document the underlying problems in research practices, and teach a new generation of students and scholars how to overcome them. Understanding that social science research has real consequences for individuals when used by professionals in public policy, health, law enforcement, and other fields, the book crystallizes new insights, practices, and methods that help ensure greater research transparency, openness, and reproducibility. Readers are guided through well-known problems and are encouraged to work through new solutions and practices to improve the openness of their research. Created with both experienced and novice researchers in mind, the coursebook serves as an indispensable resource for the production of high quality social science research.

Essentials of Applied Econometrics by Aaron D. Smith and J. Edward Taylor

Essentials of Applied Econometrics prepares students for a world in which more data surround us every day and in which econometric tools are put to diverse uses. Written for students in economics and for professionals interested in continuing an education in econometrics, this succinct text not only teaches best practices and state-of-the-art techniques, but uses vivid examples and data obtained from a variety of real world sources. The book’s emphasis on application uniquely prepares the reader for today’s econometric work, which can include analyzing causal relationships or correlations in big data to obtain useful insights.

Knowledge Discovery in the Social Sciences: A Data Mining Approach by Xiaoling Shu

Knowledge Discovery in the Social Sciences helps readers find valid, meaningful, and useful information. It is written for researchers and data analysts as well as students who have no prior experience in statistics or computer science. Suitable for a variety of classes—including upper-division courses for undergraduates, introductory courses for graduate students, and courses in data management and advanced statistical methods—the book guides readers in the application of data mining techniques and illustrates the significance of newly discovered knowledge.

Readers will learn to:

appreciate the role of data mining in scientific research
develop an understanding of fundamental concepts of data mining and knowledge discovery
use software to carry out data mining tasks
select and assess appropriate models to ensure findings are valid and meaningful
develop basic skills in data preparation, data mining, model selection, and validation
apply concepts with end-of-chapter exercises and review summaries

Population Health in America by Robert A. Hummer and Erin R. Hamilton

Population Health in America weaves demographic data with social theory and research to help students understand health patterns and trends in the U.S. population. While life expectancy was estimated to be just 37 years in the United States in 1870, today it is more than twice as long, at over 78 years. Yet today, life expectancy in the U.S. lags behind almost all other wealthy countries. Within the U.S., there are substantial social inequalities in health and mortality: women live longer but less healthier lives than men; African Americans and Native Americans live far shorter lives than Asian Americans and White Americans; and socioeconomic inequalities in health have been widening over the past 20 years. What accounts for these population health patterns and trends?

Demographers Robert Hummer and Erin Hamilton provide an easily understandable historical and contemporary portrait of U.S. population health. Perfect for courses such as population health, medical or health sociology, social epidemiology, health disparities, demography, and others, as well as for academic researchers and lay persons interested in better understanding the overall health of the country, the coursebook also challenges students, academics, and the public to understand current health policy priorities and to ask whether considerably different directions are needed.

The Future of the Self: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Personhood and Identity in the Digital Age by Jay Friedenberg

We live in the digital age where our sense of self and identity has moved beyond the body to encompass hardware and software. Cyborgs, online representations in social media, avatars, and virtual reality extend our notion of what it means to be human. This book looks at the progression of self from the biological to the technological using a multidisciplinary approach. It examines the notion of personhood from philosophical, psychological, neuroscience, robotics, and artificial intelligence perspectives, showing how the interface between bodies, brains, and technology can give rise to new forms of human identity. Jay Friedenberg presents the content in an organized and easy-to-understand fashion to facilitate learning. A gifted researcher, author, and classroom teacher, he is one of the most influential voices in the field of artificial psychology.

Religion in America by Lisa D. Pearce and Claire Chipman Gilliland

Religion in America probes the dynamics of recent American religious beliefs and behaviors. Charting trends over time using demographic data, this book examines how patterns of religious affiliation, service attendance, and prayer vary by race and ethnicity, social class, and gender. The authors identify demographic processes such as birth, death, and migration, as well as changes in education, employment, and families, as central to why some individuals and congregations experience change in religious practices and beliefs while others hold steady. Religion in America challenges students to examine the demographic data alongside everyday accounts of how religion is experienced differently across social groups to better understand the role that religion plays in the lives of Americans today and how that is changing.

Inside Ethnography: Researchers Reflect on the Challenges of Reaching Hidden Populations by Miriam Boeri and Rashi K. Shukla

While some books present “ideal” ethnographic field methods, Inside Ethnography shares the realities of fieldwork in action. With a focus on strategies employed with populations at society’s margins, twenty-one contemporary ethnographers examine their cutting-edge work with honesty and introspection, drawing readers into the field to reveal the challenges they have faced.

Representing disciplinary approaches from criminology, sociology, anthropology, public health, business, and social work, and designed explicitly for courses on ethnographic and qualitative methods, crime, deviance, drugs, and urban sociology, the authors portray an evolving methodology that adapts to the conditions of the field while tackling emerging controversies with perceptive sensitivity.