Customer Reviews

Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach, Seventh Edition

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a decent economics textbook used for my economics class. It has detailed chapters and well drawn figures and good explanations of the material it is presenting, but sometimes skips on the math. A lot of times it will present the big picture and assume you can figure out the math yourself, but it doesn't even tell you which way to go with the math (take derivatives and ratio them then multiply by the price and divide demand is not something I could just figure out myself - I like equations spoon-fed to me).

I bought this book for a master's course. I'm an engineer so economics is not my main field. That's why I considered the clarity of the topics to be very important and the book did not disappoint except for a couple of issues.
I don't think the order in which topics are covered is the best. Fortunately my teacher felt the same way and the course started with topics covering market supply, demand and equilibrium.
Also the figures aren't great as sometimes they are filled with lots of information and curves that are used for many examples. IMHO it'd be clearer to have more figures to show step-by-step how they are constructed.
The book title is spot on!
Bottom line: Highly recommended.

This is the standard intro-level economics textbook at Harvard, and it is well written. Covers all expected topics to good depth, with excellent examples. A reasonably suitable book for reading, and a simply useful textbook. Recommended.

I studied a 2nd year microeconomics unit at uni and the attitude with the staff seemed to be that this was THE book to use and had been around for quite a long time. Frankly, Varian does do an OK job with explaining different concepts, especially when he uses examples. The workbook really is quite ingenious as it takes what you learnt from the book and brings your knowledge of the content to the limit when you try to apply them to the questions.
I would've given this book 5 stars if it had come with the workbook but I'm afraid it's just not good enough on its own merits in my opinion. Varian also seems really really enthusiastic in the text and that enthusiasm can get really quite annoying when you see it so much. He interestingly enough doesn't seem to conform to economic dogma either with his treatment of certain topics, the compensating functions in particular. He calls the Hicks, "Slutsky" & the Slutsky, "Hicks". He places much emphasis on the former when the norm is to concentrate on the latter.
So excluding those things, not a bad textbook overall.

Richard
ozres.com

I received the book ahead of schedule and in the promised condition. It was there in time for Christmas, and I enjoyed opening it Christmas morning. Good job.

Great seller! Arrived on time and in perfect condition, would definitely do business with this seller again!

The book arrived in a timely manner and the condition was just as described. Very satisfied!

I bought this for a graduate school course. Varian makes jokes in his footnotes and his explanations are a bit unclear. I'm not impressed.

The book was i good condition only a few highlighted sections, but over all very good. I receieved the book very quickly as well a good deal.
Thanks

Great book. Very useful. I have the textbook still in shrink wrap, and the workbook that goes along with it. I want to part with it. Sctops140 at aol dot com for details. I purchased it for a microeconomics class at Beloit College. The workbook helps understand the concepts explained in the textbook.