Microeconomics as a Social Science

Figure List
Table List
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Introduction: Why Economics?
The Queen of the Social Sciences?
Methodological Individualism and Social Science
Models, Parameters, and Economic Science
The Politics of Economic Theory
Treating Efficiency and Equity
Why Do We Work? Incentives, Compulsion, and Respect
Economic Theory and Power
Price Theory and Economic Analysis
Economic Theory and Individualism
The Best of All Possible Worlds? Leibniz, Candide, and the Presuppositions of Economic Theory
Liberalism, Individualism, and Rise of the Bourgeoisie?
Value Theory
Classical Political Economy and Karl Marx
From Political Economy to Neoclassical Economics
Keynes and Economic Methodology
Social Life and the Economy: The Division of Labor, Social and Detailed
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Chapter 2 Economics, Well-Being, and the Limits of Markets
Paradoxes of Wealth
The Social Creation of Need
Positional Goods
Community
Caring Labor
Care Labor and the Efficiency of the Market
Care Work Enriches Our Society’s Future
Does Caring Undermine Economic Growth?
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Chapter 3 Marginal Utility and Neoclassical Consumer Demand Theory
Why Do We Care Where Preferences Come From?
Coffee, Diminishing Marginal Utility, and Neoclassical Demand Theory
Demand Curves Slope down for Individuals
Constructing Aggregate Community Demand Curves from Individual Demand
Do Aggregate Demand Curves Really Slope Down?
Shifting Demand
Elasticity of Demand: Measuring Responsiveness of Quantity Demanded to Prices
Consumer Surplus Makes Life Worth Living
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Chapter 4 Supply: By Monopolies and Others
Marginal Productivity: Robinson Crusoe as an Entrepreneur
Marginal This and Marginal That: Marginal Cost
Supply Curves and Perfect Competition
Marginal Revenue and Real Markets
Monopoly: The Market Norm
Monopolistic Competition and Business Strategy
Rents, Profits, and Producer Surplus under Monopoly and under Perfect Competition
Producer Surplus, Fixed Costs, and Profits
What Do Businesses Really Maximize Anyway?
Shifting Supply Curves?
Do Long-Run Marginal Costs Slope Up?
Appendix: Comparison of Monopoly and Perfect Competition
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Chapter 5 Markets and Equilibrium
Finding Peace?
The Case against Government and the Wonders of Perfect Competition in Atomistic Markets
Perfect Competition in Atomistic Markets Is Irrelevant. In Real Markets, Price Setting May Be Good
What Might Move the Equilibrium Point?
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Chapter 6 Why Economists Don’t Study Institutions, but Should
Social Institutions and Transactions Costs: The Norms and Values of a Productive Society
The Economic Value of Trust
Is Love Efficient?
Is There a Politics behind Methodological Individualism?
Efficient Markets for Social Institutions: Or Why Neoclassicists Ignore History and Why This Is a Mistake
The Independence of Institutions
Explaining the Evolution of Institutions?
Production Possibility Frontiers and Efficiency
Bargaining Power and the Distribution of Power
Moving the PPF
Public and Private Goods
Taxing and Subsidizing Goods with Externalities
Markets and Externalities: Can They Be Made Compatible?
Collective Action and Game Theory
Tit for Tat
Externalities and Property Rights
Appendix: Drawing PPFs
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Chapter 7 Capitalism, Slavery, and the Economy
Economic Institutions and the Duality of Human Nature
Building a Market Economy: Slavery
Slavery Abroad and Proletarianization at Home
The Politics of Proletarianization
Slavery, Family Labor, and Challenges to Capitalism
Circuits of Capital: Capitalism and Profit
Social Structures of Accumulation
Capitalism and Monopoly
The Expansion of Capital
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Chapter 8 Citizenship, Rights, and Dollars
Housing the Rich and Others
The Unequal Distribution of Income
Why Have the Rich Gained?
How Do You Become a Rich American?
Inequality, Inheritance, and Policy
If Life Was a Thing That Money Could Buy, the Rich Would Live, and the Poor Would Die
Earnings Disparities and Education
The Politics of Inequality: CEO Pay
Declining Unionization
Minimum Wages and Income Support
Free Trade
Citizenship and the Market
Leaky Buckets and Other Fables
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Chapter 9 Which Is Fixed Exogenously: Technology or Wages?
Philosophers Have Hitherto Only Interpreted the World in Various Ways; The Point Is to Change It
The Demand for Labor: Labor’s Marginal Product?
The Supply of Wage Labor
Income and Substitution Effects
Backward Bending Labor Supply Curves
Compensating Differentials
Trends in the Labor Force Participation Rate: Women and Men
Husbands and Fathers, Wives and Mothers
Trends in Labor Supply: Hours Worked
Market Supply and Demand for Labor Where MRP and Supply Curves Intersect: A Happy Tale, If It Were True
Immigration and the Labor Supply to the United States
Social Institutions and Politics in Wage Determination
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Chapter 10 The Social Determination of Productivity and Employment
Wages Cause Productivity and Social Rules Determine Who Gets Jobs
Efficiency Wages and Productivity
Henry Ford’s Five Dollar Day
How Efficiency Wages Raise Productivity
Wage Contours, Internal Job Markets, and High- and Low-Road Companies
Efficiency Wages in Public Policy
Efficiency Wages: Unions, Efficiency, Democracy
Unions and Democracy: Bosses and a Democratic Workplace?
Economic Democracy: Capitalism, Unions, and Worker Self-Management
The Social Determinants of Labor Supply: Differentials by Gender and Race
Why Neoclassical Economists Do Not Believe in Discrimination: The Jackie Robinson Story
Explaining Discrimination: Preferences or Norms?
Crowding, Wealth, and Norms
Wealth, Norms, and Crowding
Crowding and Endogenous Labor Supply
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Chapter 11 Time, Risk, and Uncertainty
What Do Financial Markets Do?
Jam Tomorrow, or Jam Today?
Liquidity, Time Preference, and the Interest Rate on Future Cash
Risk, Uncertainty, and the Risk-Return Frontier
Efficient Capital Markets
Inefficient Financial Markets?
Sources of Imperfect Financial Markets: Monopolies, Asymmetric Information, and Herds
I Will Be Gone, You Will Be Gone
Financial Market Success: Manipulation, Brilliance, and Emotional Intelligence
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Chapter 12 Social Welfare States
Government Keeps Growing
The Public Sector: What It Is and What It Does
Correcting Market Failures by Providing Public Goods
Correcting Market Failures with Social Insurance
Lemons, Moral Hazard, Adverse Selection, and the Failure of Private Insurance
How Social Insurance Overcomes Problems of Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection
American Exceptionalism
Debating States and Politics
The Division of Labor, Justice, and a Good Society
Keywords
Discussion Questions

Glossary
The Evolution of Economic Ideas
Bibliography
Credits