Economics at the Wheel: The Costs of Cars and Drivers

Book Description
Economics at the Wheel is about cars and driving, and all the problems that cars and drivers create for America. It explains actual government policy intended to reduce the damage cars and drivers do to us, and it explains why these government policies are almost all failures because they attack the wrong problem or attack it in the wrong way. The reader will come away with a much fuller understanding of air pollution, global warming, highway safety, auto insurance, gasoline taxation, rush-hour congestion, leaking underground storage tanks, and many other auto-related issues.

Key Features
* Presents continuous application to real policy issues of introductory microeconomic theory
* Looks at common actions and circumstances from an economics perspective
* Readable with accessible prose style and few footnotes
* Includes questions to provoke student thinking and boxed sections of side materials to stimulate discussions
* Maintains a breezy style; begun as class note, the author has tried to keep the book as near the give-and-take of a small class as possible
* Makes the immense technical economic literature on automobiles accessible to undergraduates with a minimum of formal theory, math, and graph abilities


Book Info
In his examination of automobiles, driving habits, and government policies, Richard Porter presents an analysis and critique of cars and the ways they are regulated. His conclusions are both surprising and compelling. Softcover.


From the Back Cover
Beyond issues of convenience, style, safety, innovation, and mobility, automobiles raise questions about the ways that markets work and do not work. Almost all of our automobile problems arise from the car's generation of external costs. These costs, when added to the private costs of driving, make driving a socially expensive habit. And by evaluating this habit from an economic perspective, we can develop cost-effective policies to save lives, use less gasoline, and decrease pollution. In his examination of automobiles, driving habits, and government policies, Richard Porter presents an analysis and critique of cars and the ways they are regulated. His conclusions are both surprising and compelling.


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Economics at the Wheel is about cars and driving, and all the problems that cars and drivers create. It explains actual government policy intended to reduce the damage cars and drivers do to us, and it explains why these government policies are almost all failures because they attack the wrong problem or attack it in the wrong way. The reader will come away with a much fuller understanding of air pollution, global warming, highway safety, auto insurance, gasoline taxation, rush-hour congestion, leaking underground storage tanks, and many other auto-related issues.


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