Synopses & Reviews
The Microeconomics of Risk and Information covers the principal areas in the field, including risk aversion, simple portfolio theory, precautionary savings, production under risk, risk sharing in the Edgeworth box, adverse selection and moral hazard. Keeping to a strict two-dimensional environment and using only some basic calculus, this textbook is written principally for students of advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses in economics, finance, and other fields, who have studied microeconomics at the intermediate level. Compact and clear, the book reflects the author's twenty-year experience teaching the course in the one-semester format to students around the world.
Review
"The material is presented at a very appropriate level, with both graphical and mathematical analyses that are not too complicated for a typical student in such a course. The chapters I have seen are also very well structured." --Doctor Murat Genc at the University of Otago, New Zealand
"Covers all relevant topics, well written, good exercises." --Professor Joop Hartog at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Review
"This is a long-awaited book on risk and uncertainty pitched at the intermediate level. Its approach is intuitive with full graphical treatments, while still rigorous. It would make an ideal textbook for undergraduate students who want to master the economics of risk and uncertainty." --Ichiro Obara, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles
"This book offers a good introduction to the microeconomics of behaviour under risk, treating consumers, producers and market interaction in a unified framework. It is ideal for an introductory course and as a reference source." --Joop Hartog, Professor of Economics, Amsterdam School of Economics
"The search for a final year undergraduate book in the area of risk and information is finally over. This book does an excellent job of extending the standard theory of choice in intermediate microeconomic theory courses to introduce students to the economics of risk and information. The text fully achieves its objective of providing understanding rather than just information. The level of presentation is most appropriate for a final year undergraduate course: a two-dimensional setting with both graphical and mathematical treatment." --Doctor Murat Genç, Department of Economics, University of Otago, New Zealand
Synopsis
This text covers the basic essentials of unilateral decision making under risk and then extends this analysis to two transacting individuals with an informational asymmetry. It contains graphical and mathematical analyses to help students understand the concepts. The book slots in between intermediate and postgraduate microeconomics.
About the Author
RICHARD WATT is Associate Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and Finance at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Table of Contents
PREFACE
Introduction to problems of choice under risk, and informational asymmetries
PART I: INDIVIDUAL DECISION MAKING UNDER RISK
Risk and preferences
Risk aversion
Applications
PART II: RISK SHARING ENVIRONMENTS
Perfect information
Adverse selection
Moral hazard
APPENDICES
Mathematical toolkit
A primer on consumer theory