The Economic System provides an accessible account of introductory economics theory that allows students more fully to appreciate the main features and complexity of the Economic System by integrating microeconomic and macroeconomic principles on a topic-by-topic basis. The purpose of the approach is to allow the student to understand the economy as a system of complex and inter-related features incorporating: consumers, producers, markets and governments based on an understanding of the roles of prices and markets and exchange. This structure provides a context whereby students understand that to analyse issues from an economic perspective often requires the use of both micro- and macroeconomic tools and an appreciation of the interrelationships that exist between them.

An explicit aim in the book is to clarify how models and concepts in economics are useful as tools that support rigorous, methodical and logical analysis and not simply useful to solve mathematical "puzzles" by providing one "correct" answer.