ECO2020 - MICROECONOMICS - Textbooks
Fall 2011
Professor Matthew Turner
Department of Economics
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Lectures will be based primarily on:

Microeconomic Theory, Mas Collel, Whinston and Green, Oxford University Press, 1995.

In addition to MWG you should also buy:

How to Solve It. G. Polya, Princeton Science Library. There are lots of editions of this book and it doesn't matter which one you get.
Theory of Value: An axiomatic analysis of economic equilibrium, Debreu, Cowles foundation monograph, Yale University press, 1954.

These books should be at the bookstore. Try to spend a few days on `How to solve it' befire the term starts. Unless you are a very talented mathematician it will be time well spent. Similarly, `Theory of Value' is classic and is worth all the time you can spend on it.

You should also have a second Microeconomics reference. I've asked the bookstore to stock both of;

A Course in Microeconomic Theory, Kreps, Princeton University Press, 1990.
Microeconomic Analysis, Varian, Norton, 1984.

You should buy at least one of them. You might also download and look at,

Lecture Notes in Microeconomic theory, Rubinstein, Princeton University press, 2006. Online and free at: http://press.princeton.edu/rubinstein/

Of these five, Kreps is probably my favorite. Varian is a very good book and covers much of the material in this course but is slightly less technical, shorter, and manages to pick up interesting topics not covered in the others. `Theory of Value' is a classic and you should wrestle with it. I also really like Rubinstein, but it is a little short on `nuts and bolts' applications.

In addition to these texts, you ought to have some math books. In particular, you ought to have a `math for economists' book like

Fundamental Methods of Mathematical economics, Chiang, McGraw Hill, 1984.
Mathematical economics, Takayama, Cambridge University Press, 1985.

You should also have some math books. In particular, in addition to an introductory calculus book, you ought to have a book on real analysis. Two classics are:

Real analysis, Royden, MacMillan, New York 1968.
Principals of Mathematical Analysis, Rudin, McGraw Hill, 1976.

You need a book like this so that you can look up `countably infinite', `Wierstrauss Theoren', `Topology', etc. Both are very tough. Royden is harder and has more stuff in it. If you are very good at math you can probably get away with just Royden. Rudin is a nice back-up to check when you get stuck with Royden, but it doesn't cover as much

Finally, the classsic reference on decision making under uncertainty is

Foundations of Statistics, Savage Dover 1972

We won't spend much time on uncertainty, but this is, nevertheless, a book you should have on your shelf to look at if you ever want to think about foundational issues. It's also a great book.

This is a daunting and expensive list. However, a good professional (micro)economist usually has these books and knows what's in them.

I have asked the bookstore to stock all of these books except the last four. Citation information refers to the copies that I have. Feel free to buy newer editions.