This blog is a modest contribution to New Economic Thinking. We hope through it to contribute in a small way to changing graduate education in economics and the subject itself. The blog presents critical commentary on the standard textbook, “Microeconomic Theory” (by Andreu Mas-Colell, Michael Whinston and Jerry Green) or MWG, which is used in Ph.D. programs in economics around the world and widely viewed as an academic standard. Our goal is to selectively comment on the material presented in MWG, which forms the core of what is often thought to be the most technical and difficult material in the standard first year Ph.D. curriculum, in an attempt to better contextualize the subject, and to introduce critical and alternative perspectives on the concepts and techniques presented in the text (and more generally on standard microeconomic theory).
The blog is intended for any student taking an advanced microeconomics course, any faculty member teaching such material, or indeed anyone interested in microeconomics and its role in the discipline. [The blog is loosely connected to the Ph.D. level class on advanced microeconomics being taught by Sanjay G. Reddy at The New School for Social Research in the Fall of 2012, during which period it will initially run, but this connection is incidental]. We hope that the blog will help you form your own judgments and deepen your understanding of debates in economics and in social enquiry. We welcome and encourage your comments and active participation.
Please watch our introductory video:
