Customer Reviews

Microeconomics

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Considering it as an advanced Microeconomic textbook, I do find mathematical proof in this book very easy to understand. Most importantly, this book gives you both the intuition behind the equations and mathematical explanations for them. The chapter in welfare economics is particularly good. In comparison to other advanced micro text such as Mascolell's Microeconomic Theory and Varian's Microeconomic Analysis, this book certainly has its own place. Varian's attempt to keep his book concise often forces him to skip some steps in mathemtical proof which makes readers who are not good at maths like me hard to follow,though his verbal explanation is very brialliant. And Mascollel's explanation tends to confuse you though it is the most comprehensive book in the market. i believe this book nicely fulfills the gap between these two books.

This book is truely amazing. It covers most topics in microeconomics with clarity, rigor,detail and most of all giving the economic intuiton that students need so badly. The best presentation on uncertainty and insurance markets that I have seen so far. This book is all an undergraduate or even a graduate student needs to find his way in the deep waters of microeconomics. A must!

It is a fairly advanced book on microeconomics, at a higher level then Varian's famous undergraduate textbook 'Intermediate Microeconomics' containing mathematical treatment of topics. The book does not contain very advanced treatment of micro (like the one you find in MWG - which becomes almost impossible to understand, if you do not already have expert knowledge of Micro)and is also not at the undergraduate level containing no mathematical/calculus treatment of various topics. Thus, it is a book suitable for those who have undergraduate level familiarity with Micro but find MWG (or for that matter even Varian's graduate textbook 'Micoreconomic Analysis')very difficult to follow. One of the best book on advanced microeconomics is 'Advanced Microeconomics' by Jehle, which can be taken up beofre attempting MWG/Varian, but this book could be the first book if one has difficulty following even the Jehle book. In addition, the book could be quite suitable for first year Masters level Microeconomcis as taught in various universities across the globe. This book is certainly at a higher level then another popular book in Europe, by Perloff titled 'Microeconomics theory and applications with calculus'.

The third edition contains all the modern advances in Microeconomic theory and is perfectly aligned with the topics covered nowadays in Microeconomic courses in best of the universities - like Game theory, expected utilities, contract etc, though briefly, in addition to regular stuff - consumer theory and producer theory. It also contains Mathematical (optimization) appendix at the end which even discusses Kuhn-Tucker condtions!!

However, there are some serious issues which must be pointed out here for helping students make an infromed decisions. Although there are good number of questions/exercises (at the end of each section!) there are no answeres at the end, which is a big letdown as you can not check you answeres. Further, there does not appear to be any answere book/solution manual availabe (I am not sure, but I could not locate one). Further, the presentation and style of the book is not very clear and intutive and sometimes it is difficult to follow what the authors are trying to convey (though this may be a subjective experience of mine and may be different for other readers).


Despite these serious shortcomings, the book, is recommended for anyone who is looking for a fairly advanced microeconomics textbook before tackling the heavy ones like MWG/Varian.

A very comprehensive coverage of Microeconomics with reasonable mathematical rigour.

Each topic is covered in depth with proofs that are clear and easy to follow. This text is able to overcome the main limitations of the Varian book and provides a much more in depth coverage of the topics with a much better mathematical exposition.

Another notable feature is the focus on intuitive reasoning which is sometimes lacking in other econ texts.

Given the choice of 1 book on Micro-economics this would be it.

I read this book as it's one of set books for my MSc course, it tries to cover a lot information but without enough explaination. By the way, this book may satisfy those mathematically included, but those without strong mathematics background may find it's difficult to read.

I read the book as it's one of set books for my MSc course. It tries to cover a lot information but without enough explaination. By the way, it may be good for those mathematically inclinded, but those without strong mathematics background could find it's difficult to read.