Economics provides us with a set of tools to think about important real-world problems and issues in a logical and structured way. Many students find this subject difficult and abstract, but it does not have to be so.

South African Workbook for Economics is intended for first-year students in Economics. It is not a textbook, but aims to give students practice in some of the more analytical and difficult concepts, and can be used as a tutorial set for both resident and correspondence students. Answers to questions as well as explanations are included.

The workbook does not follow any particular textbook. The overall structure is standard and will fit in well with most universities’ and tertiary colleges’ curricula. Questions are graded as ‘standard’ or ‘difficult’. Topics covered include introductory concepts, demand and supply, elasticity, consumer behaviour, production and cost theory, perfect and imperfect competition, macroeconomic concepts and goals, the Keynesian aggregate expenditure model, the AD-AS model and international trade.

The authors are experienced lecturers in undergraduate Economics. Corné van Walbeek and Nicholas Samouilhan are from the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town, and Waldo Krugell is from the School of Economics at North-West University.