New2Micro

Micro:

Maybe we are now in the  Golden age of Micro? Micro is what many people recognise as the foundations of economics.

Hal Varian wrote a couple of the key Micro textbooks. These are Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach (2010) for undergrads and Microeconomic Analysis (1992) for postgrads. He is now chief economist at Google.

Wyn Morgan has written a Micro textbook with co-authors Katz and Rosen. Their Microeconomics (2009) text is popular and is amongst the top 5 micro books on amazon.co.uk as I type this.

The Economics Anti-Textbook (2010) is a brilliant companion to any standard Micro textbook. It questions some of the received wisdom in micro-economics and is indeed “A Critical Thinker’s Guide to Microeconomics” as the subtitle suggests!  A lot of economics, particularly micro, rests on the assumptions made. This book should help you to challenge those assumptions.

For micro it is also worth knowing about the online Derivative Calculator. You should see this as an alternative to learning how to derivate but it does provide a useful tool for checking your work for complex derivations and as it now shows the steps it can be a useful learning device.

I would also echo much of Marc Bellmare’s advice on How to do well in your economics class. This is mostly applicable to courses in micro.

Game Theory

One major component of microeconomics is game theory, “the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent, rational decision-makers”. This short video gives an introduction to game theory:

Eight game-theorists have won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Among them is John Nash who gives his name to the ‘Nash Equilibrium‘. Nash is the subject of the film A Beautiful Mind (2001).

Game theory applications are everywhere. Common examples are penalty kicks, environmental pollution and the decision of whether to go to nuclear war with another country. Game Theory Tuesdays from the Mind Your Decisions blog will give you more game theory applications.

Copyright © 2013-2014 Will Lobo