Thursday, July 9, 2009

A Nightmare, Condensed

Reliving the traumas of the first year of graduate school, I stumbled upon this: A "Cram101 Textbook Outline" of Mas-Colell, Whinston and Green?!? Veterans of economics PhD programs will realize that is a strange idea - who would ever conceive such a thing?

While Mas-Colell could stand to be shorter (and lighter!), I can't imagine how it could be "condensed" - if it were any more dense, light might not escape from it.

Hmmm... I am curious to see what might be inside, but for now I'll stick by my recommendation of Varian's book (and, surreptitiously, its baby brother) for anyone seeking to start out on graduate microeconomics.

2 comments:

esen said...

no wonder highlights of Mas-Colell is 164 pages long :)

Bill C said...

Indeed, as you recall, "this textbook greatly exceeds any undergraduate textbook in its rigor and generality."