Economic Theory (Alfred A. Knopf books in economics) [Hardcover]

Gary Stanley Becker (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 222 pages
• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill College; 1st edition (June 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394314921
• ISBN-13: 978-0394314921
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,019,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Deepening your understanding in microeconomics, April 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Economic Theory (Alfred A. Knopf books in economics) (Hardcover)

This book is very innovative in the sense that some concepts taken for granted are challenged. For instance, even if the consumer behaves irrationally, the demand tends to be negatively inclined, because the resources are scarce. Sometimes, the book gets very difficult, and the reader has to derive some equations. It is very interesting the presentation of the creative theory of allocation of time. The book does not argue General Equilibrium, but it has an extensive and non usual discussion about human capital. Also, note that this is not a subject usually covered in introductory books. Finally, it should be pointed out that some exercises are really hard, although they are not mathematically demanding. I do not recommend this book for beginners, but for those who wish to deepen his knowledge about microeconomics.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars solid book on price theory, September 21, 2009

By 

israel arroyo martinez - See all my reviews

This review is from: Economic Theory (Paperback)

Good old price theory, Chicago style. Complements nicely more theoretical approaches like those of Mas-Colell et al. or Reny and Jehle.

5.0 out of 5 stars Dense, but pleasantly written and very useful, October 28, 2011

By 

Harald Anderson "Living at 78 rpm" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Economic Theory (Paperback)

This book is the edited transcript of a course in microeconomics given by Prof. Becker in the late 1960s. It was originally published in 1971; in a second edition, some problems were added. The "Second, enlarged" edition, which this is, includes a new introduction by the author, but the text itself remains unchanged (so far as I could tell) from the 1971 edition. (Many of the examples are so dated now - such as the discussion of the 1967 devaluation of sterling.)

For me, this book was incredibly useful for reviewing microeconomic principles and the philosophy of economics in general - as a macroeconomist, it's been useful for refining the way I talk about prices. Being derived from lectures, it alternates between being general and being extremely dense, with very important and complicated concepts expressed in just a few lines. For this reason, the margins of my copy are almost completely full of annotations. Still, it's very well-written, is not condescending in the least, and has a pleasant, almost friendly tone, which is surprising given its origin.