Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Micromotives and Macrobehavior by Thomas C. Schelling ISBN: 0-393-09009-4 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 1978 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.20 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.89 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Supplement to an Applied Econ Course
Comment: Schelling explains the world of externalities with fun examples, supported by economic logic and mathematical models. Economists describe externalities as non-optimal market solutions that arise from individuals making decisions in their own self-interest. These are interesting because most of economics deals with describing how Adam Smith's "invisible hand," individuals acting in their own self-interest, produces efficient market solutions. Notable examples of externalities are pollution, traffic congestion, and education. Education is a positive externality, while the former two are negative externalities.
Although you don't have to be a mathematician or economist to understand Schelling's writing, those who aren't may get bored with the litany of mathematical possibilities that he uses to explain why some models help explain much of the phenomena he discusses. Barring that criticism, many of his examples entice the reader to think about things in a new light. For example, why do audiences tend to sit in the middle or rear seats and not up front during performances or why do we suffer from traffic congestion? The author describes how the overall result of too much traffic or empty seats in the front rows occurs from the numerous individual decisions people make on where to sit or drive. Thus, if the front ten rows in an auditorium were empty, everyone would be better off moving forward ten rows. Nothing would change in their relative positions in the audience, but everyone could hear better. Why doesn't this occur? Read Micromotives and Macrobehavior to find out.
As an economics instructor, I would consider using this book as a supplement to a course in applied economics (or mathematics). Schelling's writing could help interest student's in the subject matter of externalities more than many of the textbooks on the market. Great read!
Rating: 5
Summary: Brain food! One of the best books for the analytical mind
Comment: Schelling's Micro Motives and Macro Behavior is food for the hungry brain. It's written for everyday folks who don't have a background in economics, but are willing to experiment. I'd recommend it for anyone who is studying the social sciences--especially if you're trying to understand where people come up with all these theories about politics, behavior, and the human world at large. Reading Schelling is like watching a favorite TV show. His prose is delightful, his selection of examples is easy for anyone to relate to (like buying lemons or adjusting a thermostat), and the way he writes, you forget that your brain is getting an intellectual workout. This book is positively sublime. You can read through it, cover to cover, in no time at all, and it's not until the end that you'll realize that you've been training your mind in positive economic theory --without the jargon, the mind-boggling graphs and charts, the formal models, the calculus, the supply and demand curves and all that googley-gunk that comes with most any primer on economics. Schelling's work is not just a classic, it's a masterpiece! And you don't need to be an economist or a doctoral candidate to appreciate it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Good for the right audience
Comment: I agree with Pierce Inverarity's remarks about this book not being too ground-breaking micro-economics. But the book is still splendid reading for the right audience. When I gave the book five stars, it was not as an economist (yes, I also heard it all in the first weeks on the introductory course in micro-economics). The book is splendid because it teaches a basic economic world-view in a way which can engage people who are utterly uninterested in this kind of thinking.
 |
Title: The Complexity of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod ISBN: 0691015678 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 18 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.12 |
 |
Title: Choice and Consequence by Thomas C. Schelling ISBN: 0674127714 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1985 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
 |
Title: Strategy of Conflict by Thomas C. Schelling ISBN: 0674840313 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: July, 1980 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
 |
Title: The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod ISBN: 0465021212 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: September, 1985 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
 |
Title: Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity by John H. Holland, Heather Mimnaugh ISBN: 0201442302 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
