Microeconomics : Theory and Practice
Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Theory of Demand. 3. Analysis of Demand Functions. 4. Theory of Supply. 5. Perfect Competition. 6. Perfect Competition, Government and the society. 7. Imperfect competition. 8. Pricing under monopoly. 9. Monopolistic Competition. 10.Oligopoly. 11. Pricing of factor services. 12. Theory of Rent. 13. Theory of Interest. 14. Theory of Equilibrium. 15. Welfare Economics. 16. Information Economics. 17. Externalities, Public Goods and Market Failure. Index.
The book has been written to serve the purpose of the students of undergraduate and post graduate economics. It will also be useful to the students of other areas like business and commerce, management, accountancy, engineering, etc. who can apply the theories of microeconomics to their own fields. The book covers basic theories of pricing of goods and services, distribution of factor returns and maximization of social welfare. The brief sketch of the contents is outlined below.
A. Fundamental Mathematical tools for quantitative analysis. B. Demand Analysis: Theory of consumer’s behaviour-Cardinal and Ordinal approaches-Marshallian theory- Indifference curve theory-Revealed preference theory- Price effect- Substitution effect-Income effect consumer’s surplus- Market demand – Elasticities of demands-Own Price, Cross price and income elasticity-Exceptions to the law of demand-Problems on consumer’s behaviour. C. Supply Analysis: Theory of production-Techniques of production-Short run and long run systems of productions-Producer’s equilibrium-Effects of technological progress-Expansion path-Cobb Douglas production function-CES production function-Homogeneous and Homothetic production-Cost of Production-Short run and long run cost functions-Modern theory of cost-Cobb Douglas cost Funciton-Theory of markets-Perfectly competitive market –Short run and long run equilibrium of firms and industry-Short run and long run supply functions-Imperfect competition-Monopoly-Pricing under market power-Monopolistic competition-Non-price competition-Excess capacity under market imperfections-Introduction of government into the perfect and imperfect markets-Tax, subsidy, price ceiling and price floor-Effects and incidences of tax-Burden of tax-Dead weight loss-Oligopoly-Non-collusive and collusive oligopoly-Cournot duopoly-Bertrand duopoly-Stackelberg duopoly-Sweezy model-Cartel-Leadership model-Dominant firm model-Problems on firms under perfect and imperfect markets. D. Factor of pricing: Pricing of labour under perfect and imperfect competitions-Exploitation of labour-pricing of land-pricing of capital. E. Theory of Equilibrium: Partial and general equilibrium-Existence and uniqueness of equilibrium-Stability of equilibrium-General Equilibrium model. F. Welfare Economics: Definition and criterion of welfare-Pareto criterion of social welfare-Maximization of social welfare. G. Economics of information, externality and public goods: Asymmetry of information-Moral hazard-Adverse selection-Incentives-Signaling-Market failure-Positive and negative externality-Internalization of externality-Optimal allocation of public goods.
