Customer Reviews

Modern Industrial Organization (4th Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've only used 9 textbooks in my undergraduate carrer in Economics, however, this book would probably fit either as the best or 2nd best... I can't really determine which deserves the "coveted" "best" slot.

To say firstly, this book passes the "I havn't attended class for the last 4 weeks and only have read the book, but still recieved an A- for the midterm" test. I think I can say in full confidence that IO is pretty much a standard course and this pretty much covers all the standard topics that any IO course would cover in one semester.

I used this book for a more "advanced" IO course (there are 2 in my university) and I used the book almost exclusively in preperation for my exams. I can say that the books appendices are excellent, despite th previous comment. It displays the material very concisely and in a very formal manner. The presentation in the appendices is not laconic and is very understandable.... I would have to say it achieves almost maximum effeciency with relevent material per page.

Actaully, for my case, the appendices were very much more useful then the actaul text itself. The level of mathematics does not exceed a standard non-formal multi-variable calculus level and is thus very accesible. With regards to applicability of the material, I found no problems in figuring out how the forumale applied with respect to the theory for the most part... However, I suspect if it is obtuse (for the level of maturity in the class) then the instructor would augment the text with problem sets and excercises.

The book starts off with a brief recap of the relevnt micro concepts and tools in the first chapter or so, then goes on to cover topics such as monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition, games in oligopolies (Bertrand, Stakelberg Cournout-Nash etc.). Then it goes on to less "theoretical" (at least in my opinion) topics such as advertising and its effects, price discrimination (1st degree, 3rd degree, bundling strategies etc.).

Overall there is a good mix of "real world" applications and core theory. I never read the numerous examples and unless the class specifically tests on these, I would think they are not needed for understanding of the material. The exposition found in the chapters (less the examples) are usually superb, although a bit wordy for my taste.

There are some problems asked after the end of each chapter, although very few of these employ much mathematics and hence, does not, in my opinion, work well as a gauge of understanding. It seems because of the length of the book, it lends itself off to the instructor to decide how to taylor his curriculum, I don't believe that any chapters are redundent, but I believe all chapters are essentially self contained (given that the reader had read or is competent in the material up to the 6th chapter).

All in all, I was happy with this book and believe it to be of superior stock, although this is pure conjecture on my part since I've only used this book and have only taken one IO course. With respect to flexibility the book deserves good marks and this is likewise true with respect to the exposition in the text.

Extremely well-written book with plenty of modern-day examples. I used this book for my IO course at University of Chicago, and my only regret is that we didn't get through the whole book. It is interesting enough to read just for the heck of it though.

For me this book is a very good guide to the people that like to learn more about the way that the industry and the market works and the link to many things that you can see all the time around you and could explain by the economic theory, things that happend not only in United States also in different countries like Chile. Only bad thing about the book is the colors in the graphs, maybe the next time could include more colors. And if is possible try to translate the book to another language like spanish, because about this topic in spanish is very poor the number of books, and the translation could bring the opportunity to more people to read about this.

I was hoping to get a more indept explaination with example problems. Formulas were shown, but the author never really showed how to utilize the formulas. I have had to reference other books to try to understand this book.

I have the 2000 edition, I like it very much. Practical, easy to follow, great use of Theory of Games exemples.
Douglas Gilson, Management professor.Rio de janeiro, Brasil

There was a lot of writing in the book and also hi- lighter was used throughout . I would never have bought the book if I knew it was in that condition