Microeconomics: Theory and Applications with Calculus (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In Microeconomics: Theory and Applications with Calculus, Perloff brings his hallmark pedagogy to the calculus-based course by integrating Solved Problems and real, data-driven applications in every chapter. This new text offers a serious presentation of calculus-based microeconomic theory and offers a suite of carefully crafted, calculus-based problem sets at the end of each chapter.

Introduction; Supply and Demand; A Consumer’s Constrained Choice; Demand; Consumer Welfare and Policy Analysis; Firms and Production; Costs; Competitive Firms and Markets; Properties and Applications of the Competitive Model; General Equilibrium and Economic Welfare; Monopoly; Pricing and Advertising; Oligopoly and Monopolistic Competition; Game Theory; Factor Markets; Uncertainty; Externalities, Open Access, and Public Goods; Asymmetric Information; Contracts and Moral Hazard.

For all readers interested in calculus-based intermediate microeconomics.

About the Author

Jeffrey M. Perloff is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California at Berkeley. His economic research covers industrial organization, marketing, labor, trade, and econometrics. His textbooks are Modern Industrial Organization (coauthored with Dennis Carlton) and Microeconomics. He has been an editor of Industrial Relations and an associate editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Productivity Analysis and edits the Journal of Industrial Organization Education. He has consulted with nonprofit organizations and government agencies (including the Federal Trade Commission and the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and Agriculture) on topics ranging from a case of alleged Japanese television dumping to the evaluation of social programs. He has also conducted research in psychology. He is a fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association. He received his B.A. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1972 and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. He was previously an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley; United States ed edition (September 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321277945
• ISBN-13: 978-0321277947
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #435,768 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars serious book for serious ADVANCED students, October 30, 2008

By	UofMStudent - See all my reviews

I am a student at the University of Michigan and this is the book we use for our intermediate microeconomics theory class. To start, this is NOT the book for you if you are weak in math (ie. can't stand calculus) and lack a solid understanding of basic microeconomics. If you are only trying to get the fundamentals, like say, how monopolies behave in a market economy or what a supply and demand curve looks like then go for the one by Pindyck. This book is for those who want to gain a DEEPER understanding of micro. Like given a trade between two individuals, what would be the equilibrium bundle reached by both parties considering their unique indifference curves. And how much would a consumer demand given a budget constraint. These are some of the topics covered in this book and Perloff has done a superb job showing the concepts.

The math in this textbook is somewhat advanced for the average undergraduate. if you don't know what a partial derivative is, then you will be lost. There are some first order differential equations and Lagrangians in there as well. In order to get the most out of this book I would say you need to have a solid understanding of calculus I and II, and a basic knowledge of III and IV. The concepts themselves aren't that complicated it's just that Perloff uses a lot of calculus to show them. But like I said, if you ARE good at math then this book will tell you more about intermediate micro and leave you with a far better theoretical background than any other.

Indeed, this is arguably the BEST undergraduate textbook for intermediate microeconomics. It's written like how a true microeconomics theorist would write it, and it is way better than the classic by Varian. The book actually shows you the mathematical derivations behind the concepts and Perloff always cut to the heart of the issue and explain things in the most succinct manner. Plus there's also a ton of problems after each chapter with solutions in the back. Given the fact that microeconomics theory is essentially a physics or a math class, Perloff's book gets an A+ for giving students lots of problems to work on. Without which anyone would be lost on a quantitative based exam.

All in all, I would highly recommend this book for anyone with a serious interest in microeconomics and/or a desire to pursue micro theory at a graduate level later on.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The peak in teaching and learning, January 27, 2009

By	Taty Jean-paul Bafwidinsoni (NIU, DeKalb, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I think that this book is the best among many other I have read so far in Microeconomics. At the same time it includes the foundations of microeconomics, it brings you and raise you to the pragmatic world of how, why precision.

If you like precision, this is the tool for its in Microeconomics.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Only If Required, May 26, 2008

By	S. Dusenberry (San Diego) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The lack of usable sample problems or detailed examples in the text, make this book very difficult to learn from. Only purchase this book if it is required for a course, were even then it has questionable worth.