Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their appreciation to several key people who contributed to this project. We are incredibly pleased to welcome Jane Shaw Stroup to the author team. She was helpful with earlier editions of the book and played a more prominent role in this edition. Numerous comments from fellow teachers, college instructors, and economic educators are incorporated into the text. John Kessler, Kelly Markson, and Michelle Vachris were particularly helpful for the insights they gave us on how to improve this edition. Special thanks are extended to John Morton, Scott Niederjohn, Mark Schug, William Wood, Joe Connors, and Pam Cooper for their contributions to the development of new supplementary materials. And we want to express our appreciation to Kevin Reilly, Meryl Levavi, Gabriel Guma, Olya Kirilyuk, Diane Dilluvio, Lizz Blaise, Kiffin Steurer, and copy editor Kate Davis, and proofreaders Marinda Valenti and Sue McGrath of St. Martin’s Press for their helpful comments and handling of the editorial responsibilities.

For the revision focusing on post-communist countries, we especially want to thank Barbara For­bes who con­trib­uted to the pro­ject in so many ways, es­pe­cially keep­ing us motiv­ated when the pro­cess ap­peared over­whelm­ing. Additional content was provided by Lasha Labadze, Maya Grigolia, Marta Cota and Ante Šterc. Leslie McCall offered major assistance with Section 4. Fi­nally, a spe­cial debt of gratitude is owed by us and our read­ers to the an­onym­ous donor who has sup­por­ted the pro­ject both fin­an­cially and in­tel­lec­tu­ally since its in­cep­tion and enabled the book and EFI’s ancillary materials to be provided free of charge. Lit­er­ally mil­lions of people will have their lives improved by his ded­ic­a­tion to eco­nom­ic and polit­ic­al free­dom.

Through the years, the authors have had approximately 75,000 students in their classes. Numerous discussions with students, both in and outside of class have provided us with meaningful insights, presented us with challenging questions, and provided the foundation for this project. We cherish these interactions, and with this book we express our gratitude to these students, who have enriched our lives and continue to do so.