Allocation, Distribution, and Policy: Notes, Problems and Solutions in Microeconomics

Microeconomics has been transformed in recent decades by the increasing use of game theory, behavioral economics, evolutionary modeling, network economics, mechanism design and attention to limited competition and asymmetric information. Bowles and Chen provide problem sets and exam questions (with carefully explained solutions) based on the new microeconomics, engaging learners with applications to income distribution, limited competition in goods and labor markets, climate change, and other public policy topics.

Background notes explain the underlying concepts, their origin in the thinking of the great economists of the past, applications to macroeconomics, and relevant empirical evidence.

This work provides a problem-based and policy oriented approach to teaching microeconomics, development, labor, environment, public economics and topics in business, management and public policy to upper level undergraduates, masters and doctoral students.

Samuel Bowles is at the Santa Fe Institute and is the author of Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions and Evolution (Princeton, 2006), coauthor of Microeconomics: Competition, Conflict, and Coordination (Oxford, 2022), and The Economy: Microeconomics (CORE Econ, 2024).

Weikai Chen is at the School of Economics, Renmin University of China in Beijing and pursues research on evolutionary modeling, technical change and income distribution.