Microeconomics

Robert S. Pindyck is the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd. Professor of Economics and Finance in the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. Daniel L. Rubinfeld is the Robert L. Bridges Professor of Law and Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and Professor of Law at NYU. Both received their PhDs from M.I.T., Pindyck in 1971 and Rubinfeld in 1972. Professor Pindyck’s research and writing have covered a variety of topics in microeconomics, including the effects of uncertainty on firm behavior and market structure; the behavior of natural resource, commodity, and financial markets; environmental economics; and criteria for investment decisions. Professor Rubinfeld, who served as chief economist at the Department of Justice in 1997 and 1998, is the author of a variety of articles relating to antitrust, competition policy, law and economics, law and statistics, and public economics. Pindyck and Rubinfeld are also co-authors of Econometric Models and Economic Forecasts, another best-selling textbook that makes a perfect gift (birthdays, weddings, bar mitzvahs, you name it) for the man or woman who has everything. These two authors are always looking for ways to earn some extra spending money, so they enrolled as human subjects in a double-blind test of a new hair restoration medication. Rubinfeld strongly suspects that he is being given the placebo. This is probably more than you want to know about these authors, but for further information, see their websites: http://web.mit.edu/rpindyck/www and http://www.law.berkeley.edu/faculty/rubinfeldd.      

Brief Table of Contents Part 1: Introduction: Markets and Prices

Preliminaries
The Basics of Supply and Demand

Part 2: Producers, Consumers, and Competitive Markets

Consumer Behavior
Individual and Market Demand
Uncertainty and Consumer Behavior
Production
The Cost of Production
Profit Maximization and Competitive Supply
The Analysis of Competitive Markets

Part 3: Market Structure and Competitive Strategy

Market Power: Monopoly and Monopsony
Pricing with Market Power
Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly
Game Theory and Competitive Strategy
Markets for Factor Inputs
Investment, Time, and Capital Markets

Part 4: Information, Market Failure, and the Role of Government

General Equilibrium and Economic Efficiency
Markets with Asymmetric Information
Externalities and Public Goods
Behavioral Economics

Appendix: The Basics of Regression Answers to Selected Exercises