[catchingROBYNN]

hey! right, so i have my first semester book list, for economics at stirling. it's telling me i have to get specific editions of books, for example the 8th edition of a book. would it be okay to buy the 7th edition, because they're about 30 quid cheaper. is there much difference between the books, and do a lot of people have older editions of their textbooks?

[.ACS.]

Out of curiosity, what books are recommended and for which modules?

In regard to buying books: (1) Don't worry about editions, seldom does much change from one to the next apart from maybe case studies or the colouring of the front cover. (2) Also be wary of buying all the textbooks from the reading list, often you will find you only need at most one text from the list, and often your library has sufficient copies of certain texts so you may never need to buy a textbook. At Southampton, for example, all core necessary texts are available in the Reserve Section of the library, so if you're willing to stay in the library to do work (since you can't take the texts out for more than three hours at a time, so no one bothers), you never need buy a textbook.

Hope this helps.

[catchingROBYNN]

Thanks!!

Text for ECN111:
Economics (8th Edition 2011), M Parkin, M Powell & K Matthews, Addison-Wesley ISBN 9780273736554
Text for ECN211:
Morgan, W, Katz, M. & Rosen, H, Microeconomics, 2nd European ed., McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-007712177-8,
Text for ECN311:
Microeconomic Theory – Basic Principles and Extensions, (International Edition, 11th edition) by Christopher Snyder
& Walter Nicholson, South-Western, Cengage Learning, ISBN-13: 978-1-111-52551-4.

That's the information I was given. They're each about 50+ pound to buy new, and 30+ to buy second hand, but the second most recent edition of each is a lot cheaper. I'm just worried in case there is information in the newer edition that isn't in the one before.
And I heard that buying all three might not be needed, but it's a case of knowing which ones I should buy, and which I shouldn't. :/

[.ACS.]

I wouldn't buy all three. That's a bit excessive!

The best first/second year text in microeconomics is Intermediate Microeconomics by Varian. It's a bit technical, but not overly so and will come in handy in following years.

As for macroeconomics, it depends on the content covered, but generally speaking it's either Macroeconomics by Mankiw or Macroeconomics by William Stephenson.

In regard to buy past editions, that is fine too since little changes between editions.