A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus

✍ Scribed by Roberto Serrano, Allan M. Feldman

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 398
• Edition: First
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book provides a concise treatment of the core concepts of microeconomic theory at the intermediate level with calculus integrated into the text. The authors, Roberto Serrano and Allan M. Feldman, start with consumer theory and then discuss preferences and utility, budget constraints, the consumer's optimal choice, demand, and the consumer's choices about labor and savings. They next turn to welfare economics: When is one policy better for society than another? Following are chapters presenting the theory of the firm and profit maximization in several alternative and partial equilibrium models of competitive markets, monopoly markets, and duopoly markets. The authors then provide general equilibrium models of exchange and production and analyze market failures created by externalities, public goods, and asymmetric information. Finally, they offer introductory treatments of decision theory under uncertainty and game theory. Graphic analysis is presented where necessary but distractions are avoided.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Preface
1 Introduction
I Theory of the Consumer
2 Preferences and Utility
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Consumer's Preference Relation
2.3 The Marginal Rate of Substitution
2.4 The Consumer's Utility Function
2.5 Utility Functions and the Marginal Rate of Substitution
2.6 A Solved Problem
Exercises
Appendix. Differentiation of Functions
3 The Budget Constraint and the Consumer'sOptimal Choice
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Standard Budget Constraint, the Budget Set, and the Budget Line
3.3 Shifts of the Budget Line
3.4 Odd Budget Constraints
3.5 Income and Consumption over Time
3.6 The Consumer's Optimal Choice: Graphical Analysis
3.7 The Consumer's Optimal Choice: Utility Maximization Subject to the Budget Constraint
3.8 Two Solved Problems
Exercises
Appendix. Maximization Subject to a Constraint: The LagrangeFunction Method
4 Demand Functions
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Demand as a Function of Income
4.3 Demand as a Function of Price
4.4 Demand as a Function of Price of the Other Good
4.5 Substitution and Income Effects
4.6 The Compensated Demand Curve
4.7 Elasticity
4.8 The Market Demand Curve
4.9 A Solved Problem
Exercises
5 Supply Functions for Labor and Savings
5.1 Introduction to the Supply of Labor
5.2 Choice between Consumption and Leisure
5.3 Substitution and Income Effects in Labor Supply
5.4 Other Types of Budget Constraints
5.5 Taxing the Consumer's Wages
5.6 Saving and Borrowing: The Intertemporal Choice of Consumption
5.7 The Supply of Savings
5.8 A Solved Problem
Exercises
6 Welfare Economics 1: The One-Person Case
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Welfare Comparison of a Per-Unit Tax and an Equivalent Lump-Sum Tax
6.3 Rebating a Per-Unit Tax
6.4 Measuring a Change in Welfare for One Person
6.5 Measuring Welfare for Many People; A Preliminary Example
6.6 A Solved Problem
Exercises
Appendix. Revealed Preference
7 Welfare Economics 2: The Many-Person Case
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Quasilinear Preferences
7.3 Consumer's Surplus
7.4 A Consumer's Surplus Example with Quasilinear Preferences
7.5 Consumers' Surplus
7.6 A Last Word on the Quasilinearity Assumption
7.7 A Solved Problem
Exercises
II Theory of the Producer
8 Theory of the Firm 1: The Single-Input Model
8.1 Introduction
8.2 The Competitive Firm's Problem, Focusing on Its Output
8.3 The Competitive Firm's Problem, Focusing on Its Input
8.4 Multiple Outputs
8.5 A Solved Problem
Exercises
9 Theory of the Firm 2: The Long-Run, Multiple-Input Model
9.1 Introduction
9.2 The Production Function in the Long Run
9.3 Cost Minimization in the Long Run
9.4 Profit Maximization in the Long Run
9.5 A Solved Problem
Exercises
10 Theory of the Firm 3: The Short-Run, Multiple-Input Model
10.1 Introduction
10.2 The Production Function in the Short Run
10.3 Cost Minimization in the Short Run
10.4 Profit Maximization in the Short Run
10.5 A Solved Problem
Exercises
III Partial Equilibrium Analysis: Market Structure
11 Perfectly Competitive Markets
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Perfect Competition
11.3 Market/Industry Supply
11.4 Equilibrium in a Competitive Market
11.5 Competitive Equilibrium and Social Surplus Maximization
11.6 The Deadweight Loss of a Per-Unit Tax
11.7 A Solved Problem
Exercises
12 Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition
12.1 Introduction
12.2 The Classical Solution to Monopoly
12.3 Deadweight Loss from Monopoly: Comparing Monopolyand Competition
12.4 Price Discrimination
12.5 Monopolistic Competition
12.6 A Solved Problem
Exercises
13 Duopoly
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Cournot Competition
13.3 More on Dynamics
13.4 Collusion
13.5 Stackelberg Competition
13.6 Bertrand Competition
13.7 A Solved Problem
Exercises
14 Game Theory
14.1 Introduction
14.2 The Prisoners' Dilemma, and the Idea of DominantStrategy Equilibrium
14.3 Prisoners' Dilemma Complications: Experimental Evidenceand Repeated Games
14.4 The Battle of the Sexes, and the Idea of Nash Equilibrium
14.5 Battle of the Sexes Complications: Multiple or No Nash Equilibria,and Mixed Strategies
14.6 The Expanded Battle of the Sexes, When More Choices MakePlayers Worse Off
14.7 Sequential Move Games
14.8 Threats
14.9 A Solved Problem
Exercises
IV General Equilibrium Analysis
15 An Exchange Economy
15.1 Introduction
15.2 An Economy with Two Consumers and Two Goods
15.3 Pareto Efficiency
15.4 Competitive or Walrasian Equilibrium
15.5 The Two Fundamental Theorems of Welfare Economics
15.6 A Solved Problem
Exercises
16 A Production Economy
16.1 Introduction
16.2 A Robinson Crusoe Production Economy
16.3 Pareto Efficiency
16.4 Walrasian or Competitive Equilibrium
16.5 When There Are Two Goods, Bread and Rum
16.6 The Two Welfare Theorems Revisited
16.7 A Solved Problem
Exercises
V Market Failure
17 Externalities
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Examples of Externalities
17.3 The Oil Refiner and the Fish Farm
17.4 Classical Solutions to the Externality Problem: Pigou and Coase
17.5 Modern Solutions for the Externality Problem:Markets for Pollution Rights
17.6 Modern Solutions for the Externality Problem: Cap and Trade
17.7 A Solved Problem
Exercises
18 Public Goods
18.1 Introduction
18.2 Examples of Public Goods
18.3 A Simple Model of an Economy with a Public Good
18.4 The Samuelson Optimality Condition
18.5 The Free Rider Problem and Voluntary Contribution Mechanisms
18.6 How to Get Efficiency in Economies with Public Goods
18.7 A Solved Problem
Exercises
19 Uncertainty and Expected Utility
19.1 Introduction and Examples
19.2 Von Neumann--Morgenstern Expected Utility: Preliminaries
19.3 Von Neumann--Morgenstern Expected Utility: Assumptionsand Conclusion
19.4 Von Neumann--Morgenstern Expected Utility: Examples
19.5 A Solved Problem
Exercises
20 Uncertainty and Asymmetric Information
20.1 Introduction
20.2 When Sellers Know More Than Buyers: The Market for ``Lemons''
20.3 When Buyers Know More Than Sellers: A Market forHealth Insurance
20.4 When Insurance Encourages Risk Taking: Moral Hazard
20.5 The Principal--Agent Problem
20.6 What Should Be Done about Market Failures Causedby Asymmetric Information
20.7 A Solved Problem
Exercises
Index