Turner College Economist’s Textbook Hits Shelves

The second edition of Turner College economics professor Frank Mixon’s textbook, Economics and Finance for Leaders, hit shelves in August of 2022.  Beginning with Chapter 1, “The Economic Way of Thinking,” the first several chapters provide students with the basic concepts applied later in the book.  Mixon explained to Turner Business that in doing so the book presents many historical vignettes that the students find interesting.  These include, but are not limited to, a lesson on how the Alchian-Allen theorem helped the Union win the Civil War, and the story of how the Pope’s 1966 decree, Paenitemini, which relaxed the rules on fasting and abstinence outside of Lent, affected at least four major markets.  In addition to coverage of the time value of money, disequilibrium in the pricing of certain goods and services, the present value concept and the determination of bond yields and market interest rates, and how a market for human organs (for transplantation) might improve social welfare, the book also introduces students the games and economic behavior, law and economics and public choice.  These chapters cover an array of issues that most students never realized involved the application of economics concepts.  The book covers many of these issues using examples from sports, current events and pop culture, as well as from military conflict, which Mixon notes is beneficial to the members of the U.S. Army officer corps who enroll in the leadership track of the Turner College’s master’s degree program in organizational leadership (MSOL).