Acknowledgments

There’s a point in every romantic comedy where the protagonist faces a decision that they don’t yet understand will come to define their life. One option is vanilla; more of the same. But if they pick the other, they’ll get the whole package—an intellectual partner, a passion that makes every day an adventure, and in time they’ll become part of a big, beautiful, and raucous family. That family grows with them, it nourishes them, it believes in them, it sees potential, and sparks bigger things. Those relationships come to define much of their adult lives. And that’s how it was with our textbook family.

Greg Mankiw set us up with a friend he thought might be perfect for us. We exchanged calls, organized a few nervous dinners, and Sarah Keeling Dorger saw some potential for a future together. We felt something in the air and wondered: Was it a zing? Getting to the next step required a leap of faith, and Craig Bleyer made a bet that changed our lives forever. Liz Widdicombe provided the blessings, and our textbook family was formed. Like the families we grew up in, our textbook family pushes us to do our best, provides us room to grow, and lifts us up. And much like the families we grew up in, our textbook family is driven by a sense of purpose and a commitment to educating the next generation. We draw inspiration from them every day.

Our textbook family has a nontraditional form, and at various points, Chuck Linsmeier, Shani Fisher, and Simon Glick have sat at the head of the table. We’re grateful for your wise counsel, big-picture leadership, and the inspiring values you provided. Bruce Kaplan and Sharon Balbos gave us our initial apprenticeship in the business, teaching us what this textbook caper is all about. Thank you for the education. Ann Kirby-Payne took over as our development editor and has improved every word in this book. We wish that we could bottle her positivity, generosity, and enormous writing talent and sprinkle it like fairy dust over the whole world. Lukia Kliossis has been there to shepherd us through to the finish line, and she made sure that every page sparkles. Joshua Hill is that rare talent who is both a master of economics (actually, a doctor) and of pedagogy, and in his wizardlike ways has conjured up much of the ecosystem within which this book lies. We did the fun parts, but Joshua did the important bits. Lindsay Neff has always seen the next generation in her work, and pushed us all to think harder about the role of textbooks in the digital world. She changed the words “digital first” from a slogan into an action plan. Noel Hohnstine made the assessment magic happen. We are fortunate to have had such a talented production and design group for our book, and owe a debt of gratitude to Tracey Kuehn, Lisa Kinne, Robin Fadool, Susan Wein, Lawrence Guerra, Andrew Vaccaro, Diana Blume, Natasha Wolfe, Matt McAdams, Janice Donnola, John Callahan, Dirk Kaufman, Kevin Kall, and Richard Fox. The entire mind-boggling process of production was masterfully coordinated by Martha Emry. Catherine Woods has touched this project dozens of times, from many different perches. Stephanie Ellis, Andrew Zierman, Clay Bolton, Chelsea Simens, Lindsey Jaroszewicz, and Susan Elbe were our market development and marketing gurus. Amanda Gaglione and Courtney Lindwall coordinated an extraordinary quantity of virtual paper flow. And we are grateful to the world-class sales team at Macmillan Learning led by Greg David, who advocate for our text so it can support instructors and students in the Principles course. In many ways, we’ve all grown up together, and it has been a great joy watching the members of our text-book family be promoted to bigger and better assignments.

We have been blessed to have worked with literally hundreds of academic colleagues who shared their vision for the field, dozens of teaching assistants who added their expertise, and thousands of students at the University of Michigan who have shared their experiences. We can’t thank you all by name, but are grateful for your input, and we hope that you see your influence in the DNA of this book. We are particularly grateful to colleagues Ron Caldwell and Scott Cunningham, who have debated every pedagogic choice we’ve made. Anna Paulson and Cindy Ivanac-Lillig of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago gave us detailed feedback to ensure we caught the nuances of monetary policy practices. Dozens of reviewers whose names appear on the following pages challenged us to think harder and be clearer. Our colleague Alan Deardorff gave us detailed and useful feedback on all things trade related. And we want to thank our magnificent research assistants—Jack Bryan, Saskia DeVries, Emily Fletcher, Callie Furmaniuk, Nick Guisinger, Torin Rittenberg, and Jan Zilinsky—who have researched everything from the GDP of South Korea to the box office take of Star Wars. Joanne Moore spent years working late hours and using her insights as a student and instructor to help craft the Chapters at a Glance, and spot errors in the work. Bonnie Kavoussi worked with us tirelessly as we strove to complete our first draft, and we benefited tremendously from her research assistance, but more generally her creativity, excellent writing skills, and passion for economics.

In addition to our textbook family, we also have a domestic family. Balancing it all is a juggling act that we couldn’t have pulled off without the love, support and understanding of Patricia Gruber, Sean Manuel, Cherith Harkness, Jill Benevides, and Ellen Goodman. They nourished our family both literally and metaphorically. Helen and Gordon Stevenson were heroes who stepped into any new role as needed, from emergency house maintenance to beloved grandparent (and caregiver). The love and joy that Matilda and Oliver provide fuel us every day. We hope that their patience in listening to us discuss economics at dinner means that they’re learning to use economics to make good decisions in their own lives.

We express our deep appreciation to the many reviewers who provided invaluable feedback as we developed this project.