The best microeconomics books to teach you how markets are interconnected

Why am I passionate about this?

Microeconomics is a turnoff to most readers. Not without reason. Many books in this field are dull rewrites of other books and opaque.  In particular, it is not clear how the behavior of individual consumers and producers adds to the performance—good or bad—of an economy. The books listed here helped me to sharpen my own mind and to make my writing lucid.


I wrote...

Microeconomics: Equilibrium and Efficiency

By Thijs ten Raa,

Book cover of Microeconomics: Equilibrium and Efficiency

What is my book about?

Microeconomics: Equilibrium and Efficiency teaches how to apply microeconomic theory in an innovative, intuitive, and concise way. Using real-world, empirical examples, this book not only covers the building blocks of the subject, but helps gain a broad understanding of microeconomic theory and models.
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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Theory of Value: An Axiomatic Analysis of Economic Equilibrium

Thijs ten Raa Why did I love this book?

As a math student I found economics a slippery subject and, therefore, was hesitant to read any book on the subject. 

Theory of Value is a short, formal manuscript, that includes the definition of an economy. It was the first book I read in economics and I loved it. It induced me to move to New York and to study the field.


By Gerard Debreu,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Theory of Value as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"[This] beautiful and austere book . . . [is] an important landmark of economic theory."-F.H. Hahn, Journal of Political Economy
"An immortal classic of twentieth century economics. Every economist should own a copy."-Robert Lucas, University of Chicago
Theory of Value offers a rigorous, axiomatic, and formal analysis of producer behavior, consumer behavior, general equilibrium, and the optimality of the market mechanism for resource allocation.


Book cover of Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

Thijs ten Raa Why did I love this book?

As a moderate leftist I was attracted by this propagandist of rightist policies. 

Ayn Rand makes a strong case to keep out the state and leave the economy to free markets. It helped me to sharpen my mind. 

What is missing in her analysis? How does that modify a rightist political outlook? She challenged me and thus influenced my own writing.

By Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan , Robert Hessen

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Capitalism as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this series of essays, Ayn Rand presents her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.

The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This is the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constitutes a major philosophic revolution. Here is a challenging new look at modern society by one of the most provocative intellectuals on the American scene.
 
This edition includes two articles by Ayn Rand…


Book cover of The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

Thijs ten Raa Why did I love this book?

This fascinating and very detailed history of early Manhattan shows how the Dutch with their policy based on individual liberty and free trade impacted not only New York City but even the shaping of America. 

I sensed this when I was an inhabitant of New York, but now I understand why.

By Russell Shorto,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Island at the Center of the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In a riveting, groundbreaking narrative, Russell Shorto tells the story of New Netherland, the Dutch colony which pre-dated the Pilgrims and established ideals of tolerance and individual rights that shaped American history. 

"Astonishing . . . A book that will permanently alter the way we regard our collective past." --The New York Times

When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappear into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a cartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was merely…


Book cover of Wassily Leontief and Input-Output Economics

Thijs ten Raa Why did I love this book?

Like Ayn Rand, Wassily Leontief is a Jew who left the Soviet Union and settled in the United States. 

However, he does not believe in free markets and even is a specialist in economic planning. The precision with which he analyzes the economic system, considering it as machine that transforms inputs into outputs is mind-boggling and answers difficult questions.

By Erik Dietzenbacher (editor), Michael L. Lahr (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Wassily Leontief and Input-Output Economics as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Wassily Leontief (1905-1999) was the founding father of input-output economics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1973. This book offers a collection of papers in memory of Leontief by his students and close colleagues. The first part, 'Reflections on Input-Output Economics', focuses upon Leontief as a person and scholar as well as his personal contributions to economics. It includes contributions by Nobel Laureate Paul A. Samuelson who shares his memories of a young Professor Leontief at Harvard and ends with the last joint interview with Wassily and his wife, to date previously unpublished. The second part, 'Perspectives of…


Book cover of Economic Theory in Retrospect

Thijs ten Raa Why did I love this book?

Mark Blaug escaped the Netherlands, just in time before the Nazis marched in, went to New York University, and eventually wrote this colossal overview of the entire body of the economics literature. 

He is capable of ordering different formal approaches to the subject matter in plain English, what an achievement.

By Mark Blaug,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Economic Theory in Retrospect as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is a history of economic thought from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes - but it is a history with a difference. Firstly, it is a history of economic theory, not of economic doctrines, that is, it is consistently focused on theoretical analysis, undiluted by entertaining historical digressions or biological colouring. Secondly, it includes detailed Reader's Guides to nine of the major texts of economics, namely the works of Smith, Ricardo, Mill, Marx, Marshall, Wickstead, Wicksell, Walras and Keynes, in the effort to encourage students to become acquainted at first hand with the writings of all the great economists.…


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Api's Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather's Nazi Past

By Gabrielle Robinson,

Book cover of Api's Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather's Nazi Past

Gabrielle Robinson Author Of Api's Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather's Nazi Past

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Retired english professor

Gabrielle's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Gabrielle found her grandfather’s diaries after her mother’s death, only to discover that he had been a Nazi. Born in Berlin in 1942, she and her mother fled the city in 1945, but Api, the one surviving male member of her family, stayed behind to work as a doctor in a city 90% destroyed.

Gabrielle retraces Api’s steps in the Berlin of the 21st century, torn between her love for the man who gave her the happiest years of her childhood and trying to come to terms with his Nazi membership, German guilt, and political responsibility.

Api's Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather's Nazi Past

By Gabrielle Robinson,

What is this book about?

"This is not a book I will forget any time soon."
Story Circle Book Reviews

Moving and provocative, Api's Berlin Diaries offers a personal perspective on the fall of Berlin 1945 and the far-reaching aftershocks of the Third Reich.

After her mother's death, Robinson was thrilled to find her beloved grandfather's war diaries-only to discover that he had been a Nazi.

The award-winning memoir shows Api, a doctor in Berlin, desperately trying to help the wounded in cellars without water or light. He himself was reduced to anxiety and despair, the daily diary his main refuge. As Robinson retraces Api's…


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