Microeconomics

Rating:
Summary: misunderstanding
Review: 1. I did not read the book so I can not talk about the book, althoug I should have rate it otherwise I could not have submit this review! I rate it based on the info given by my professor of macroeconomics!
2. I want to make comments on the review of Mr. adoumri; I would say that he was disappointed with the book because, as can be seen from his review, hi actually wanted to learn things from macroeconomics, but unfortunatelly he took a book for microeconomics, so he is actually talking about apples having in mind pears!! :-)
One should be cautious when writing, as well as when reading other people's reviews!
Thank you!

Rating:
Summary: Lacks Links to Real World Economic Problems
Review: I am currently enrolled in a Microeconomics course at Columbia University, and I do not find this book easy to read at all, the reason being that the author makes no effort to link microeconomic concepts to real world problems. I have found my Macroeconomics textbook to be immensely more interesting because the concepts relate immediately to social issues and real world economic problems. For students who choose to study economics because of its insights into real world problems, this text may become frustrating. I suggest that the authors more examples of microeconomics in the real world, such as the explanation of "President Carter's Gasoline Tax" on page 106. When economic theory is taught with no reference to the real world, it makes some students less interested in the subject. I intended to study economics with the goal of gaining insight into social welfare problems and understanding government policies. Learning ratios and equations that simply determine how much tacos or hamburgers Sarah wants to eat was demotivating. As a result, I am trudging through my textbook (and class) and starting to wonder if this subject is worth studying.

Rating:
Summary: Does the job it was written for
Review: Is it: a)wordy, b)understandable, c)good in explaining concepts? All three, interestingly.

I've seen better (Mankiw) AND worse (the name slips my mind, but it was from a professor in Iowa) microeconomics texts. The main problem is that in striving to explain the concept (which the author does very well), he really beats it in. But if you miss lectures (or have a new prof who teaches from the book, as was my case), then you should do no wrong with this book.

Rating:
Summary: Stop referring to graphs & fig. that are on the next page!
Review: It's so annoying to read about graphs and figures that appear on the next page. If the authors are going to cite these visual tools have them on the same page whenever possible. Of course it is unrealistic to expect that everytime but in the K&R book this occurred 90% of the times. It's annoying when you have to flip the pages. This annoyance knocked 3 stars from what would have been a 5-star rating.

What's right about the text?

The economics is sound and the teaching is concise. Bravo in that regard.

Rating:
Summary: A good tool for good teachers.
Review: The books is too wordy for the simple economics it is trying to teach and it lacks direction in some subjects. It also missed essential concepts like kinked demand theory, and the Chamberlain Model.

Rating:
Summary: Straightforward intermediate microeconomics
Review: this is by no means an introductory economics text.. It's an intermediate level textbook.. It assumes that the student is capable of certain mathematical techniques (you can't expect a beginner to calculate the optimal consumer choice using the Lagranges method in chapter 3! - and it gets worse)

It is true that most of the time you have to flip the page to find the graph that is being explained. However it didn't annoy me too much. It is actually good thing if you want to practice and draw the graph yourself.

The 2nd edition had some errors but in this edition (3rd) they are corrected as far as I could see.

About the authors:

Michael Katz - University of California at Berkeley. Received the Earl F. Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award in 1989 and 1993. Served as chief economist of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Harvey Rosen - Princeton University, Fellow of the Econometric Society and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research