Microeconomics [Paperback]

"Comprehensive, well informed and a joy to read. It was hard to put the book down once I had started to read it. In terms of the coverage, it will be hard to find a matching text"

Dr Sanjit Dhami, University of Leicester

 

This highly regarded text is one of the best-selling advanced microeconomics books to be published in Europe. Updated and revised, the new edition provides a comprehensive exposition of modern microeconomic theory, covering many of the issues currently being researched and debated.

As in previous editions, the third edition offers rigorous treatment of the topics discussed, with the major emphasis placed on giving the student an intuitive understanding of microeconomic models and theories. This book provides the student with a good understanding of the nature and purpose of microeconomic theories and the way the theories interrelate to form a coherent whole. Students are encouraged, with the use of the exercises which are integral to the book, to develop the ability to apply microeconomic theories in solving problems.

 

Key Features

• New!
• Chapter on game theory.

• New! Chapters on uncertainty and asymmetric information have been extended and restructured.
• Microeconomic concepts are dealt with rigorously, comprehensively and in depth.
• Numerous exercises throughout form an integral part of the book.

• The writing style is clear and concise.
• Discussions of literature and suggestions for further reading are in an extensive set of notes at the end of the book.
• Mathematics of optimization is included in a number of short appendices at the end of the book.

Beginning at the intermediate level and ending at a level appropriate for the graduate student, this is a core text for upper level undergraduate and taught graduate microeconomics courses.

Hugh Gravelle is Professor at the National Primary Care Research and Development Center, University of York.

Ray Rees is Professor of Economics, at Ludwig Maximillans University, Germany.

Preface1 The nature and scope of microeconomicsA Concepts and methodsB The economic and social framework2 The theory of the consumerA The preference orderingB The feasible setC The consumption decisionD The comparative statics of consumer behaviourE Offer curves and net demand curvesAppendix 1 : The lexicographic orderingAppendix 2 : Existence of a utility function 3 Consumer theory : dualityA The expenditure functionB The indirect utility function, Roy's identity and the Slutsky equationC Measuring the benefits of price changesD Composite commodities, separability and homotheticity 4 Further models of consumer behaviourA Revealed preferenceB The consumer as a labour supplierC Consumption and the allocation of timeD Households5 ProductionA IntroductionB The production functionB Variations in scaleC Variations in input proportionsD The multi-product case6 CostA IntroductionB Long-run cost minimizationC Short-run cost minimizationD Cost minimization with several plantsE Multi-product cost functions7 Supply and firm objectivesA Long-run profit maximizationB Short-run profit maximizationC The multi-product firmD The profit function and comparative staticsE The entrepreneurial firmF Labour managed firms8 The theory of a competitive marketA Short-run equilibriumB Stability of equilibriumC Long-run equilibrium9 MonopolyA IntroductionB Price and output determination under monopolyC Price discriminationD Monopoly welfare loss10 Input markets A Demand for inputsB MonopsonyC Unions as monopoly input suppliersD Bilateral monopoly11 Capital marketsA IntroductionB Optimal consumption over timeC The optimal investment decisionD Capital market equilibrium under certaintyE Extensions to many periods 12 General equilibrium A IntroductionB Walrasian equilibrium of a competitive economyC Existence of Walrasian equilibriumD Stability of Walrasian equilibriumE Edgeworth exchange theoryF Exchange, equilibrium and the core13 Welfare economics A IntroductionB Pareto efficient resource allocationC Welfare functions and the Pareto criterionD Pareto efficiency and competitive marketsE Distribution and marketsF Arrow's impossibility theorem14 Market failure and government failureA The causes of market failureB Instances of market failureC Theory of the second best D Government failure 15 Game theory A IntroductionB Game representation and solutions C Imperfect and incomplete informationD Mixed strategies E Cooperative bargainingF Non-cooperative bargainingG Delay and disagreement in bargaining16 Oligopoly 17 Choice under uncertaintyA IntroductionB A formalization of 'uncertainty'C Choice under uncertaintyD Properties of the utility functionE Risk aversion and indifference curvesF Measures of risk G Comparative statics under uncertainty 18 Production under uncertaintyA IntroductionB Competitive firm under uncertaintyC Production with futures markets19 Insurance, risk spreading and risk poolingA Introduction B The insurance decisionC Incomplete insurance marketsD Risk spreading: the Arrow-Lind TheoremE Risk poolingF Asymmetric information in insurance markets : adverse selectionG Asymmetric information in insurance markets : moral hazard20 Agency and contract theory 21 General equilibrium under uncertainty and incomplete marketsA Introduction B Complete markets in state contingent claimsC State contingent commoditiesD Efficiency with productionE The stock marketF Incomplete stock marketsFurther readingMathematical AppendicesA Structure of optimisation problemsB Solutions: questions and conceptsC Existence of solutionsD Local and global optimaE Uniqueness of solutionsF Interior and boundary optimaG Location of the optimum: method of LagrangeH Concave programming and the KuhnTucker conditionsI Second order conditions and comparative staticsJ The envelope theoremK Fixed point theoremsL Bayes ruleIndex