Intermediate microeconomics
Subtitle: a perspective on price theory
By: Frederick G. Hay, Christine Oughton, and Andrew S. Skinner.
Contributors: Oughton, Christine.; Skinner, Andrew S.
Publisher: Manchester University Press; Distributed exclusively in the USA by St. Martin's Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Manchester [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 305
Subjects: Microeconomics.
Description: As well as providing a thorough treatment of the key elements of price theory for second-year students of microeconomics, this textbook also presents a distinctive perspective on the material, embedding these elements in a sustained analytical argument linking price theory to the study of industry. This perspective is valuable for economics and business students in both second and third years of study.

Starting from a Paretian stand-point, the argument develops the logic of individual choice and its implications for interdependent consumers and producers, and reviews the efficiency conditions appropriate to a general equilibrium framework. This is then used to derive the corresponding Marshallian functions, allowing the conditions for a competitive equilibrium to be established.

The argument proceeds to consider different market structures, establishing the relevance for the study oligopoly of game theoretic approaches: a chapter is devoted entirely to game theory, including repeated games and theories of rational choice.

The book has several distinctive features: a stress on the interdependence between output and employment decisions; an explicit focus on E. H. Chamberlin's analysis of monopolistic competition; an unobstrusive historical dimension; parallel diagrammatic and mathematical treatments of optimisation; linkages with classical macroeconomics; and an emphasis on the implications of time and uncertainty.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.