The Theory of Price

by George J. Stigler

0024174009. ***Theory of Price*** 4th Edition, by George J. Stigler.

Genres: Economics, Finance, Nonfiction

371 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1987

About the author

George Joseph Stigler was a U.S. economist. He won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1982, and was a key leader of the Chicago School of Economics, along with his close friend Milton Friedman.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who reads an economics textbook for pleasure? I did.

The publication date of the Third Edition was 1966 (earlier editions in 1942, 1946, and 1952). So the empirical content is a bit dated, and the prose does have a slightly quaint tone. But for the most part the economics is as rock-solid as ever (there have been many advances in many sub-specialties which might have changed the presentation a little).

If you have an interest in such things, read it to develop an appreciation for what it might have been like to take an introductory price theory class at Chicago in the early 1960's.

My copy is signed by the author in the year (1982) that he won the Nobel Prize in Economics!

[Hicham EK · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is succinct- no wasted words or loose explanation. The book comes with problems at the end of each chapter (which, to be honest, I haven't solved). Also, the book culminate each chapter by some reading suggestions, which is, at leat to me, the best feature of this book.
I was about to rated 5. One star is reduced for being old (this means a lot of new interesting stuff are missing) ... And another one because I'm Keynesian.
If you are really serious about economics, consider reading Milton Friedman's Price Theory. There you'll find a lot of interesting reading suggestions.
Hope this helps...

[Ging Cee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a deceivingly slim book packed with economics, wit, and simple applications. Stigler has a conversational style of writing, and he introduces concepts as if he were explaining them to a precocious student on the brink of asking the "but what if?" questions. After reading graduate texts that simply assume things like diminishing marginal returns without explanation, it was refreshing to have someone engage in a dialogue that included explaining what, exactly, this meant in terms of numbers we might see in the real world, and carefully ruling out the other cases with a combination of theory and anecdotal evidence or example.

After reading reviews on Amazon.com, I was expecting little to no mathematics in the text. I was surprised to find that if I worked through all the mathematical footnotes (conveniently stashed away in a mathematical appendix), the text covered a large amount of the requisite mathematics for many concepts that repetitively surface in price theory and macroeconomics.

Finally, the book is divided into short chapters which are easy to pick up and digest. This is a great supplementary text to any Price Theory course, especially for first-time graduate price theory students. Donald (Deirdre) M. McCloskey (available in PDF form for free on her website) and Milton Friedman's price theory books are also classic texts.

[bobby mccormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you want to study price theory, read this. Stigler is father to almost all of us, and here, he tells us why.