Applied Microeconomics for Public Policy Makers

This book is a guided tour through an economist's workshop, introducing readers to various microeconomic concepts and their utility in analyzing economic problems. However, unlike many textbooks, this book does not present microeconomics as just one thing after another. The choice of topics was guided by one over-riding criterion: Whether the concept included in the book is useful for understanding or analyzing economic policies, in general, and public policies in particular.

For every concept included, this book answers the following questions:

Why do we need the concept?

What is it all about?

How can it be used?

What are its limitations?

This book differs from other microeconomics texts in another more fundamental way. Each policy is analyzed primarily from the 'public' perspective rather than 'private' perspective. That is, it focuses on 'costs' and 'benefits' from the society's point of view rather than an individual's point of view. It does not, however supplant the private perspective, rather, it supplements it.

This book has emerged out of the author's lecture notes which have been used for more than two decades at Several Workshops (e.g., Public Enterprise Workshop and Budget Workshop) organized by the Harvard Institute for International Development and the J.F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. It has been used in training programs at the World Bank and in regular courses taught at leading universities in the United States, India and Singapore.