What Is CORE Econ and What Does It Offer?

Updated

CORE Econ is a free, open-access platform for teaching and learning economics, built around online ebooks that use real-world problems and current research instead of abstract theory alone. It is aimed mainly at introductory undergraduate economics courses, but the ebooks are open to anyone, and registering unlocks additional instructor and learner resources. If you are looking for a textbook you can read online at no stated cost, or you teach an intro course and want ready-made material, CORE Econ is worth checking. If you need a print textbook with a traditional publisher's support package, this is a different model.

What CORE Econ actually is

The site describes itself as the home of The Economy 2.0 and other economics ebooks, offering "free online textbooks and resources for a new way of teaching and learning economics, using the best research to address the world's most pressing problems."

Two things define it:

  • Open access. The ebooks are presented as free and open access, not as paid products. The site lists Stripe as a payment platform, which relates to supporting the project rather than buying the textbooks.
  • Problem-first teaching. Rather than starting from definitions and models, the material is organized around real economic problems and policy questions.

The main ebooks and resources

The core offering is a set of ebooks, several of which are adaptations of the same base text for different regions and languages.

Resource What it is for
The Economy 2.0: Microeconomics Free, open access text for introductory microeconomics undergraduate courses
The Economy 2.0: Macroeconomics Free, open access text for introductory macroeconomics undergraduate courses
Understanding our Economy Beginner and first-year text, including two-year and four-year colleges and universities in North America
The Economy 1.0 The original free, open access text for a year-long introductory undergraduate course
Economy, Society, and Public Policy Uses policy problems to motivate learning economic concepts and methods
Doing Economics Working through policy problems using real data
Experiencing Economics Classroom experiments and games
CORE Insights Self-contained resource to supplement the ebooks

There are also regional and language adaptations, including The Economy: A South Asian Perspective, La economía 2.0: Microeconomía, L'Économie, L'Économie pour le Lycée, L'economia, La Economía, Talous, A Economia, Die Wirtschaft, and Ekonomika, spoločnosť a verejná politika.

Beyond the ebooks, the site points to complementary material such as S. Bowles and W. Chen, Allocation, Distribution & Policy: Notes, Problems, and Solutions in Microeconomics, described as a problem-based and policy-engaged way to learn microeconomic theory.

Who it suits

  • Students in introductory micro or macro courses whose instructor assigns CORE, or self-learners who want a structured, free text.
  • Instructors who want open-access teaching material and are willing to register for the additional instructor resources.
  • Readers interested in policy rather than pure theory, since several titles are built around policy problems and real data.

It is less suited to someone who wants a short, casual introduction, or who needs extensive printed ancillaries and a commercial support contract.

How to start using it

  1. Go to core-econ.org and browse the ebook list.
  2. Pick the title matching your course level and region — for example, The Economy 2.0: Microeconomics for an intro micro course.
  3. Read online directly; the ebooks are presented as free and open access.
  4. Register on the site if you want the additional instructor and learner resources. Registration is the step that unlocks those extras, so treat the base ebooks and the registered resources as two different levels of access.
  5. If you teach, look at the complementary titles and the experiments in Experiencing Economics to build out a course.

Points to check before committing

  • Language and region. Many titles are adaptations, so confirm you are opening the version that matches your curriculum and language.
  • Course fit. CORE's problem-based sequencing differs from conventional textbooks; if your course follows a standard syllabus, map the chapters before assigning.
  • What registration adds. The site separates open ebooks from registered instructor and learner resources, so decide early whether you need the latter.

The simplest way to judge CORE Econ is to open one ebook and read a chapter against your own course needs.