Many instructors of microeconomic theory have been waiting for a text that provides balanced and in-depth analysis of the essentials of microeconomics. Masterfully combining the results of years of teaching microeconomics at Harvard University, Andreu Mas-Colell, Michael Whinston, and Jerry Green have filled that conspicuous vacancy with their groundbreaking text, Microeconomic Theory . The authors set out to create a solid organizational foundation upon which to build the effective teaching tool for microeconomic theory. The result presents unprecedented depth of coverage in all the essential topics, while allowing professors to "tailor-make" their course to suit personal priorities and style. Topics such as noncooperative game theory, information economics, mechanism design, and general equilibrium under uncertainty receive the attention that reflects their stature within the discipline. The authors devote an entire section to game theory alone, making it "free-standing" to allow instructors to return to it throughout the course when convenient. Discussion is clear, accessible, and engaging, enabling the student to gradually acquire confidence as well as proficiency. Extensive exercises within each chapter help students to hone their skills, while the text's appendix of terms, fully cross-referenced throughout the previous five sections, offers an accessible guide to the subject matter's terminology. Teachers of microeconomics need no longer rely upon scattered lecture notes to supplement their textbooks. Deftly written by three of the field's most influential scholars, Microeconomic Theory brings the readability, comprehensiveness, and versatility to the first-year graduate classroom that has long been missing.
Author
(form personal webpage) Andreu Mas-Colell is Professor of Economics (Catedrático) at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain (currently on leave). Formerly he was Professor of Economics at Harvard University (1981-96), Professor of Economics and Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley (1972-80) and Chairman of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (2006-2010). He holds Honoris Causa Doctorates from the universities of Alacant, Toulouse, HEC (Paris) and Universidad Nacional del Sur (Argentina). He has received the Rey Juan Carlos I Prize in Economics (1988), the Pascual Madoz (National Research Prize), (2006) and the Premio Fundación BBVA Fronteras del Conocimiento en Economía, Finanzas y Gestión de Empresas -shared with H. Sonnenschein- (2009). He has served as main Editor of the Journal of Mathematical Economics (1985-88), and of Econometrica (1988-92). Professor Mas-Colell is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and was its President in 1993. In 1997 he was elected Foreign Associate to the US National Academy of Sciences and Foreign Honorary Member of the American Economic Association. He has been a Sloan Fellow (1978-1980) and Guggenheim Fellow (1985-1986). Also from 1999 to 2005 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Economic Association. In the year 2006 he served as President of the European Economic Association. From 2000 to 2003 he was Minister for Universities and Research of the Government of Catalonia and President of the Advisory Scientific Committee of Telefónica Investigación y Desarrollo (2005-2008). He has been General Secretary of the European Research Council from July 2009 to August 2010. At present he is Minister of Economy and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia (from December 2010). A. Mas-Colell has written some 100 research papers on subjects ranging from abstract general equilibrium theory and the structure of financial markets to pricing policy for public firms. He is the author of The Theory of General Economic Equilibrium: A Differentiable Approach (Cambridge University Press, 1985) and co-author with M. Whinston and J. Green, of the graduate textbook Microeconomic Theory (Oxford University Press, 1994).
