Research Catalog

Title

Microeconomics : behavior, institutions, and evolution / Samuel Bowles.

Author

Bowles, Samuel.

Publication

New York : Russell Sage ; Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2004.

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Details

Description

xi, 584 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

"In this introduction to modern microeconomic theory, Samuel Bowles returns to the classical economists' interest in the wealth and poverty of nations and people, the workings of the institutions of capitalist economies, and the coevolution of individual preferences and the structures of markets, firms, and other institutions. Using recent advances in evolutionary game theory, contract theory, behavioral experiments, and the modeling of dynamic processes, he develops a theory of how economic institutions shape individual behavior, and how institutions evolve due to individual actions, technological change, and chance events. Topics addressed include institutional innovation, social preferences, nonmarket social interactions, social capital, equilibrium unemployment, credit constraints, economic power, generalized increasing returns, disequilibrium outcomes, and path dependency." "Must reading for students and scholars not only in economics but across the behavioral sciences, this exposition of the new microeconomics moves the field beyond the conventional models of prices and markets toward a more accurate and policy-relevant portrayal of human social behavior."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

The roundtable series in behavioral economics

Uniform Title

Roundtable series in behavioral economics.

Subject

• Evolutionary economics
• Institutional economics
• Microeconomics

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [537]-570) and index.

Contents

Prologue: Economics and the Wealth of Nations and People -- Pt. I. Coordination and Conflict: Generic Social Interactions -- Ch. 1. Social Interactions and Institutional Design -- Ch. 2. Spontaneous Order: The Self-organization of Economic Life -- Ch. 3. Preferences and Behavior -- Ch. 4. Coordination Failures and Institutional Responses -- Ch. 5. Dividing the Gains to Cooperation: Bargaining and Rent Seeking -- Pt. II. Competition and Cooperation: The Institutions of Capitalism -- Ch. 6. Utopian Capitalism: Decentralized Coordination -- Ch. 7. Exchange: Contracts, Norms, and Power -- Ch. 8. Employment, Unemployment, and Wages -- Ch. 9. Credit Markets, Wealth Constraints, and Allocative Inefficiency -- Ch. 10. The Institutions of a Capitalist Economy -- Pt. III. Change: The Coevolution of Institutions and Preferences -- Ch. 11. Institutional and Individual Evolution -- Ch. 12. Chance, Collective Action, and Institutional Innovation -- Ch. 13. The Coevolution of Institutions and Preferences -- Pt. IV. Conclusion -- Ch. 14. Economic Governance: Markets, States, and Communities.

ISBN

0691091633 (alk. paper)

LCCN

2003049841

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries