Overview
- Authors:
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Yoshihiko Otani
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Department of Economics, University of Kansas and Tsukuba University, Ibaraki, Japan
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Mohamed El-Hodiri
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Department of Economics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, USA
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About this book
Contrary to widely held beliefs, microeconomic theory bears no relaยญ tion to the size of the product under consideration; indeed a micro theorist can just as easily discuss the sale of a whale as he would discuss a whale of a sale in amoebae. In fact, it possibly is true that a theorist, and a microeconomic theorist in particular, does not have any specific products in mind when he bandies his propositions about. Nor does he have to. For these in the final analysis are just that; propositions. They are propositions that are motivated by economic reality as observable, not to mention controllable, as that may be, but they are no more and no less than comments about that economic reality and they emphatically are not descriptive assays of it. They are more or less, caricatures of economic reality or metaphors where bold distortions are pressed to the task of describing preconceived visions of that reality. These visions, given their fundamentally qualitative nature, are hardly fit to be put to the test of statistical verification. Perhaps only the judgement and "intuitive feel" of practicing economists over the years are the only true tests of the viability and robustness of these propositional comments on economic reality which make up the body of economic theory. It is not the abstractions that make the difference, all science is that way; metaphoric.
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Front Matter
Pages I-XIII
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Consumers Demand
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 3-17
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 18-52
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 53-64
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Costs, Production and Price Taking Firms
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 67-86
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 87-106
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 107-120
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Back Matter
Pages 120-125
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Market Structure
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Front Matter
Pages 127-127
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 129-142
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 143-175
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 176-195
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 196-202
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Back Matter
Pages 203-208
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The Economy
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Front Matter
Pages 209-209
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 211-227
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- Yoshihiko Otani, Mohamed El-Hodiri
Pages 228-240
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Back Matter
Pages 241-274
Authors and Affiliations
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Department of Economics, University of Kansas and Tsukuba University, Ibaraki, Japan
Yoshihiko Otani
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Department of Economics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, USA
Mohamed El-Hodiri