Modern Principles of Economics

The principles-of-economics textbook Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok wrote for Worth Publishers, paired with the Marginal Revolution University video course. It teaches price theory, incentives, trade and market failure through worked contemporary examples rather than through formalism, and it is the book behind their long-running economics blog’s pedagogy.

Why it’s on the list: It is the only assigned text in Foundations of Microeconomics — the entire course runs on this one book, which is a stronger endorsement of a textbook than a reading list usually makes.

Where I saw it: Assigned in Foundations of Microeconomics on the University of Austin’s Fall 2025 reading list — “65 Texts Our Students Are Reading”, 65 assigned texts across 12 courses, shared by @uaustinorg on November 13 2025 and saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Books To Read”. The full curriculum is transcribed on UATX Fall Reading List.

Connections

• UATX Fall Reading List — the curriculum this was assigned in.
• The University of Austin — the institution whose course list this is.
• Tyler Cowen — co-author.
• Alex Tabarrok — co-author.
• Microeconomics — the course subject.
• Economics
• Incentives — the book’s organising idea.