Lectures on Microeconomics: The Big Questions Approach

by Romans Pancs (Author)

Publisher: The MIT Press

Publication Date: August 21, 2018

Print Length: 344 pages

Economic concepts and techniques are presented through a series of “big questions,” with models that demonstrate how to pose a question rigorously and work toward an answer. The book helps readers master economic concepts by tackling fundamental economic and political questions, such as when markets help translate uncoordinated, selfish actions into the best outcomes for all, whether markets change people for better or worse, and whether Marx’s ideas have merit. Other topics include income inequality, the morality of markets, matching theory, and theories of justice.

Arguments are presented in a theorem-proof format, distinguishing results derived from fully specified models from educated speculation. Readers will learn how to pose questions rigorously and work toward answers, appreciating that even ambitious questions require a model. The book is not intended for indoctrination but rather to show readers how to reason towards their own conclusions.

The first chapter on the Walrasian model of general equilibrium serves as a prerequisite for the rest of the book. Later chapters cover less conventional topics, including Marxism, socialism, and market resilience, formalization of Kant’s categorical imperative, unintended consequences of policy design, and theories of justice. The book can be used as a textbook for advanced undergraduate or graduate students or as a resource for researchers in disciplines that draw on normative economics.