Advanced Microeconomic Theory

Firstable, this is a Graduate Micro book, nobody could properly say that it is not good if she is trying to get some stuff of this topic for the first time, this is not the goal of this book, it was created to make first year econ-grad students lives better. I used MWG (Mas Colell) for the first semester Micro of the Phd program and most of my partners and I hated it, it is so complicated and has some excessive and wording detail for even simple things, however I should recognize that it is more complete than the rest of books, now in the second Micro we're using Jehle and Reny and we love it, to be honest this is the best book in Micro now (according to my knowledge and point of view), we also use Silberberg sometimes (very good) and Varian (has a lot of gaps even though it is easy to understand too) but this is the best, it is not probably as complete as MWG but it is more neat, precise and far more understandable, general equilibrium part has one third of the pages of MWG but it is better, it doesn't have Offer curves neither other minor things but the proofs of existence of Walrasian equilibrium and the welfare theorems are incredibly powerful and far shorter than those of MWG. For Game Theory it is also very very good, clear and precise without excessive wording. I almost forgot....the Math appendix is the best I've ever found in any other Micro book, it gives you precisely what you need to get into the business. This book is like "pure gold" no regrets of any kind. Aldo.

While the book is certainly aimed more at grad students, I've found it to be invaluable in my undergraduate studies. It delves deep into the analytical mathematics behind microeconomics, where Varian and Nicholson brush lightly across the surface. Good for both undergraduates and graduates. Familiarity with the structure of analytic mathematical arguments required. Not for the economically or mathematically faint-of-heart.

The assigned text in my graduate micro theory class was Mas-Collel/Whinston/Green (MWG), a book that I couldn't wait to get rid of. However, I have a much better appreciation of MWG after having read Jehle and Reny (JR). JR is strong where MWG is weak and vice versa. JR provides a clear, self-contained introduction to key concepts in advanced micromicroeconomic theory but is not comprehensive in its coverage. MWG on the other hand is more terse and requires a greater level of math preparation, but is truly the encyclopedia of micro. Regarding the comments of the disappointed reader from Cambridge MA, it's true that there are not many applications in J & R, but that's not really the point of this book. As the title indicates, this is a theory book. Nicolson's or even Varian's intermediate texts are good places to look for applications. But for grad micro theory, I would recommend reading both JR and MWG, in that order.

From now on this design should become a standard. For the first time the fundamental theorems and assumptions of todays micro are not only presented but also discussed with complete(!) proofs. Congratulations especially for your step-by-step exposition of the development of preferences along with their respective axioms.

This is an excellent book, which I used in my micro class. The calculus review in the first two chapters really helped me a lot in understanding the materials later on.The authors did a great job in going straight to the points without omiting vital information. This is the book for those who find "Microeconomic analysis" isn't self-contained and find "Microeconomic theory" too complex.