General Equilibrium Analysis

This book focuses on microeconomic theory and introduces the general equilibrium approach to microeconomics through a two-sector model. It covers a variety of subjects in different fields of economic analysis, including welfare economics, international trade, public finance, and income distribution. The book takes a different approach to teaching microeconomic theory, emphasizing a logically integrated set of tools rather than the traditional topics of increasing complexity. It also discusses the circular flow of income and how changes in factor endowment, demand preferences, and technical progress can be evaluated using the model. Additionally, the book covers the theory of government, including government expenditure and tax/subsidy programs. Overall, this book is considered a valuable resource for both students and professional economists.

Focusing on microeconomic theory, this book seeks to introduce the student from the start to the general equilibrium approach to microeconomics, in the form of the two-sector model. This model is then applied to a variety of subjects in different special fields of economic analysis. This is a new kind of textbook in microeconomic theory. In place of the usual concentration on partial equilibrium analysis and discussion of a standard series of topics, the authors seek to introduce the student from the start to the general equilibrium approach to microeconomics, in the form of the two-sector model. This model is then applied to a variety of subjects in different special fields of economic analysis: welfare economics, international trade, public finance and income distribution. This book represents a different approach to the teaching of micro-economic theory than normally followed, and one that will be of greater long-run value to the serious student of economics. In place of the usual textbook development of the subject as traditionally conceived through topics of increasing complexity and analytical difficulty, using partial equilibrium techniques of analysis, the book concentrates on the exposition and application of a more logically integrated set of tools that have been found of greater use in the analysis of problems arising in a number of fields of economics that have customarily been hived into separate specialized advanced courses. General Equilibrium Analysis starts with the description of the two-sector model and how these are built based on the individual micro-units in which they made up of and how they fit into the concept of the circular flow of income. Subsequent chapters deal with the evaluation of changes in factor endowment, demand preferences and technical progress by means of the model; and the theory of government, which includes both the theory of government expenditure, or public goods, and the theory of government tax and/or subsidy programmes-changes in budgetary scale, tax substitution and expenditure substitution. Review: [T]his is a very interesting book as a new type of a microeconomic text, and not only the student but also the professional economist would benefit from reading it. --Nobuo Minabe, Economica This book provides a thorough, nontechnical analysis of distribution and trade theory, together with their policy extensions, with a general equilibrium flavor; as such it is a valuable book. --M. G. Allingham, Journal of Economic Literature