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Title: Microeconomic Analysis by Hal R. Varian ISBN: 0-393-95735-7 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: March, 1992 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $80.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (14 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Great book, boring wording
Comment: Varian did a great job in explaining microeconomics. I just think that he could do a better job in word picking.
Rating: 2
Summary: Mathematized ideology trying to pass as science
Comment: Maybe the clearest, most readable description of neo-classical economic belief. I used it to to read about utility (after reading Samuelson's papers), also to learn about the (utility-free) capital asset pricing model, which is presented via a simple derivation. A description of Scarf's counterexample in 'equilibrium dynamics' is also presented, if too sketchy. One would have liked to see Radner's '67 paper discussed here as well, and the proof that even if textbook demand-price, supply-price curves existed individually, the aggregate curves could be anything, including no curve at all, just a scatter of points. Osborne showed earlier that the textbook supply-demand curves do not exist empirically and explained quanlitatively why they do not exist in the individual case. I explained quantitatively in a paper 'The Futility of Utility' (Physica A, 2000) why such curves do not due to nonintegrability of the underlying dynamics of production, thereby resolving Mirowski's thesis in an unexpected way.
So what's the problem? The theory is presented as if it would qualify as an internal logic system, not as science, it's presented as if data did not exist (theory without data, whereas econometrics is data without theory). There is essentially no comparison with empirical data in this text, and there is a good reason for that: all comparisons with real markets show that the utility-based theory is totally wrong. Not only is the standard assumption of 'equilibrium'(and the implicit assumption of stability) not a good zeroth order approximation to markets, these ideas do not even provide a BAD zeroth order approximation to market dynamics, which markets are totally unstable and far from equilibrium in every known case. The retort of the academic economists (the empiricist Greenspan does not belong to that school) that 'we are only trying to understand the ideal case' is so far off the mark as to be ridiculous. One might compare neo-classical economic theory with Aristotelian 'physics', except that the latter has one advantage: it does take into account a (wrong) qualitative description of air resistance, whereas utility maximization describes nothing that happens in real markets. To the claim that, 'but we need utility maximization to derive the CAPM' (which also does not describe real markets!), I reply, nonsense! ... . For the story of how this state of affairs came to be, see Mirowski's 'Machine Dreams'.
Rating: 4
Summary: One grad student's opinion
Comment: Varian is a very helpful book for first year grad students in economics. It's not as detailed as other texts, like Mas-Collel, Winston and Green, but it's simple and concise and as long as you can follow along with the mathematics, you'll be fine. I recommend this book as a very thorough micro text.
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Title: Exercises and Applications for Microeconomic Analysis by Gary W. Yohe, Hal R. Varian ISBN: 0393957373 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 1993 List Price(USD): $30.55 |
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Title: Econometric Analysis by William H. Greene, William H Greene ISBN: 0130661899 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 22 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $130.00 |
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Title: Mathematics for Economists by Carl P. Simon, Lawrence Blume ISBN: 0393957330 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 1994 List Price(USD): $122.15 |
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Title: Advanced Macroeconomics by David Romer ISBN: 0072318554 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Irwin Pub. Date: 20 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $70.30 |
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Title: Microeconomic Theory by Andreu Mas-Colell, Michael D. Whinston, Jerry R. Green ISBN: 0195073401 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: June, 1995 List Price(USD): $102.00 |
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