Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach

I'm an economics graduate student at the Uni of Chicago and have worked as an economist for several years. Believe me, this book is going to be invaluable in being able to apply microeconomic thinking to real world issues. Read it and then read it again. It is a rigorous and accessible exposition of all the major tools in microeconomics and the mathematics content is perfect, illuminating and no more. A firm grasp of all the concepts in this book are a must if you want to be able to think like an economist, and a prerequisite for anyone considering graduate studies.

Hal Varian's approach to economics is straightforward, and yet is written in a conversational tone unparalleled by most technical textbooks. Graceful. My professor used the book to complement a very mathematically rigorous course using multivariable calculus. I didn't like the fact that Varian failed to use the calculus in the main body of the text, instead moving it to the appendix. Varian's straightforward style made it a very pleasurable reading experience and a very captivating introduction to the discipline of microeconomics.

Varian has done a great job. He got the balance between the math necessary for serious microeconomics, and the examples and jokes necessary to keep the students reading. Using the dual approach (household and producer behaviour), he introduces the reader into microeconomics at a level which makes it possible to move on to more esoteric books like his own 'Microeconomic Analysis', or 'Microeconomic Theory' by Mas-Colell, Whinston, Green. He manages to cover much more than Mankiw can, which is good and necessary to build a solid basis. Yet the book is accessible to anyone familiar with high school math (differentiation and optimization), and requires no economic prerequisites. He also covers several more advanced topics on a stand-alone basis (like economics of information, or game theory) which on the one hand is very useful, as it gives the reader an idea as to where one can head to, but on the other hand is not satisfying as these chapters are necessarily rather superficial. Apart from that, the book is great to built a rigorous basis for household and producer behaviour, and makes it rather easy to go on to much more advanced literature. The math is hidden in the appendices, so it is necessary for a serious understanding to cover these as well, but I don't see any problem with that. This book is as excellent as an introductory micro book can ever be.

The presentation of the theory is superb - straightforward simple english and to the point, and occassionally laced with humor!!. Many many examples to articulate concepts. The depth of coverage for an intermediate course is clearly sufficient. The book makes very interesting reading. My suggestion to students: read the book with just some basic knowledge of calculus, and a bit of scalar algebra, you will fully agree with all what I said above.

Easy to read and to understand, this book allows the student in microeconomics learn some complex tricks of economic theory in an easy way. This is the reason why it is adopted in the top 5 brazilian universities as the student's main book on the subject.