E-Book Overview
Intermediate microeconomics is both fun and intellectually challenging in this new edition, written by the author of The Armchair Economist, the popular trade book that explains basic economics to the general public. The text provides an exceptionally friendly and application-rich presentation, combined with a rigorous and careful development of microeconomic theory. All of the standard topics of intermediate price theory are included, as well as innovative topics such as alternative normative criteria, efficient asset markets, contestable markets, antitrust law, human capital, and the demand for public goods. A unique unifying theme of social welfare is used with little higher-level mathematics.
E-Book Content
Price Theory and Applications, Seventh Edition Steven E. Landsburg Printer: Transcontinental Louiseville, QC
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A B O U T
T H E
A U T H O R
Steven E. Landsburg is a Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Economic Theory, and many other journals of economics, mathematics, and philosophy. He is the author of six books, including More Sex is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics (Free Press/Simon and Schuster 2006). He writes regularly for Slate magazine and has written for Forbes, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and dozens of other publications.
Dedication: To the Red-Headed Snippet
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P R E F A C E
To the Student Price theory is a challenging and rewarding subject. The student who masters price theory acquires a powerful tool for understanding a remarkable range of social phenomena. How does a sales tax affect the price of coffee? Why do people trade? What happens to ticket prices when a baseball player gets a raise? How does free agency affect the allocation of baseball players to teams? Why might the revenue of orange growers increase when there is an unexpected frost—and what may we infer about the existence of monopoly power if it does? Price theory teac