Take a fun book and add calculus to it. You might expect that to ruin it. Well, no. It 'supplements'. This is the supplementary book to back up the CaTake a fun book and add calculus to it. You might expect that to ruin it. Well, no. It 'supplements'. This is the supplementary book to back up the Cartoon Intro to Economics by the same author. Here we get a summary of the cartoon stuff in plain english, just in case we were not able to follow illustrated examples and adds algebra and plenty of problems and detailed solutions. Together these two books, do make a pretty good text book. But the structural issues pointed out in the review to the original book still stands.
Bauman is fun as always and has the knack for picking the right pirate analogy for the right skirmish. Bauman, however, skips most of the traditional Bauman is fun as always and has the knack for picking the right pirate analogy for the right skirmish. Bauman, however, skips most of the traditional basics from most microeconomics textbooks, and instead gives a lot of space to game theory and strategic interactions, things normally reserved for the later chapters of an introductory textbook, or for an intermediate text.
The structure of the book overall is interesting, for an introductory work: Economics is about interactions, Bauman establishes first and then takes us through the progression: first one to one, then one to some and finally one to many, with Part two being taken up with detailed discussion of Game Theory, Pareto Efficiency, Auctions, etc., laying the ground work for larger scale interactions like Tragedy of the Commons in the final section, but surprisingly not much discussions about Nash Equilibriums and stuff. But there is one area where the book stays conventional: just like most introductory books these days, this one also teaches skepticism of the species Homo Economicus, and, of course, ends with Kahneman. [image] Overall, it is an unconventional book and I am not sure students turning to this to seek an introduction would be helped much, instead it might be the seasoned student seeking to get some fresh energy late into a final semester who might find this sort of a treatment invigorating.
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