The second edition provides stronger coverage of the relevant introductory mathematics, including: the equation of a straight line, the summation operator, and logarithms which makes the book more accessible for those students who have limited mathematical skills.

Greater discussion is also provided of data transformations such as growth rate and index numbers.  Index numbers are becoming increasingly important and are frequently used in economics courses.

More material has also been provided on data sources, especially internet data sources which are becoming extremely important as a means of gathering data.  Some students have difficulty with the collection of data and the inclusion of this material will help those students.