Microeconomics : a journey through life's decisions / John Cullis, Philip Jones.

"Companion website at www.pearsoned.co.uk/cullisjones"--Prelims.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I The essentials of microeconomics 1 Is microeconomics 'boring' and 'difficult'? 2 The 'clever' and 'dumb' consumer 3 The 'black box' competitor 4 Efficiency, partial equilibrium and prices 5 Efficiency, general equilibrium and equity 6 The 'benefits' of market intervention 7 Risk, information, insurance and uncertainty 8 Time, fundamental commodities, discounting and the economic analysis of knowledge creation Part II The household economy 9 The economic family 10 Growing up and down: investment in human capital and labour supply incentives Part III The firm economy 11 The imperfect 'black box' market forms for outputs and inputs 12 Firms with an institutional content Part IV The public economy 13 Taxing economics 14 Public choice and political markets Part V The voluntary economy 15 Self-interest or altruism: a broader framework 16 Do individuals really make 'charitable' decisions? Part VI The international economy 17 Neoclassical microeconomics and international trade 18 Trade policy: market structure and politics Part VII Towards 'the big sleep' 19 Microeconomics, life and death ('or more serious than that'?)

Microeconomics; a journey through life's decisions starts with the important building blocks of microeconomic theory studied on all intermediate microeconomics courses, this text goes further than any other. It presents microeconomic theory as a debate, questions theoretical exposition, considers future developments and emphasises the social dimension of microeconomics as a framework in which economists attempt to interpret the world.