Microeconomics: Theory, applications

This is a revised edition of this work which exposes students to welfare economics, focusing on the maximization of total surplus. This book covers public policy applications, including rent control in New York City, price ceilings for gasoline, agricultural price supports, tariffs and quotas, and excise taxes. A new chapter offers a look at asymmetric information, introducing students to topics such as adverse selection, market signalling, moral hazard, principal-agent problems and efficiency wages. In common with previous editions, this edition concentrates on real-world applications of theoretical problems. A blend of empirical examples is used to enhance the main presentation of theory, and each chapter features boxed applications which pose economic problems, and presents their solutions. Each of the book's five main parts concludes with a cross-chapter case, and this edition features a new case on the Federal Communication Commission's recent auction of spectrum rights. The author explores this case as it relates to issues of competition and strategic behaviour. An ancillary package supporting the text is available free-of-charge when the book is purchased.