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38480 results in Cambridge Textbooks

Page 1142 of 1924

  • 1. - Introduction

  • Roberto Serrano, Brown University, Rhode Island, Allan M. Feldman, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book:
    A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus
    Published online:
    12 December 2018
    Print publication:
    13 September 2018, pp 1-4

  • Summary

    Economists study the economic problem. The nature of the economic problem, however, has changed over time. For the classical school of economists (including Adam Smith (1723-1790), David Ricardo (1772-1823), Karl Marx (1818-1883), and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)), the economic problem was to discover the laws which governed the production of goods and the distribution of goods among the different social classes: land owners, capitalists, workers. These laws were thought to be like natural laws or physical laws, similar to Newton’s law of gravitational attraction. Forces of history, and phenomena like the industrial revolution, produce “universal constants” which govern the production of goods and the distribution of wealth.

  • 6. - Welfare Economics 1: The One-Person Case

  • from Part I. - Theory of the Consumer
  • Roberto Serrano, Brown University, Rhode Island, Allan M. Feldman, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book:
    A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus
    Published online:
    12 December 2018
    Print publication:
    13 September 2018, pp 94-111

  • Summary

    This chapter is part of welfare economics. Welfare economics is about the well-being of society: which institutions, which policies, which market structures, which distributions of goods or wealth, make society better or worse off. This type of question has interested economists since the time of Adam Smith (1723-1790), whose The Wealth of Nations was published in the same year (1776) as the American Declaration of Independence. Welfare economics is easy if society can be modeled as just one person, plus a government deciding on something like a tax policy, and if the only question is whether that one person would be better off with policy A or policy B. This is the kind of analysis we will do in Sections 2 and 3 of this chapter. The appendix to this chapter covers the theory of revealed preference, and relates it to some of the Section 2 material. Welfare economics is somewhat more difficult if we want to know how much that one individual prefers policy A to policy B. We look at this issue in Section 4.

  • 3. - The Budget Constraint and the Consumer’s Optimal Choice

  • from Part I. - Theory of the Consumer
  • Roberto Serrano, Brown University, Rhode Island, Allan M. Feldman, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book:
    A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus
    Published online:
    12 December 2018
    Print publication:
    13 September 2018, pp 26-46

  • Summary

    In this chapter we will describe the consumer’s standard budget constraint. We will give some examples of special budget constraints created by non-market rationing devices, like coupon rationing. We will also analyze budget constraints involving consumption over time. After describing various budget constraints, we will turn to the consumer’s basic economic problem: how to find the best consumption bundle, or how to maximize his utility, subject to the budget constraint. We will do this graphically using indifference curves, and we will do it analytically with utility functions. In the appendix to this chapter we will describe the Lagrange function method for maximizing a function subject to a constraint.

  • 2. - Preferences and Utility

  • from Part I. - Theory of the Consumer
  • Roberto Serrano, Brown University, Rhode Island, Allan M. Feldman, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book:
    A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus
    Published online:
    12 December 2018
    Print publication:
    13 September 2018, pp 7-25

  • Summary

    In this chapter we will discuss the economic theory of preferences in some detail. We will make various assumptions about a consumer’s feelings about alternative consumption bundles. We will assume that when given a choice between two alternative bundles, the consumer can make a comparison. (This assumption is called completeness.) We will assume that when looking at three alternatives, the consumer is rational in the sense that, if she says she likes the first better than the second and the second better than the third, she will also say that she likes the first better than the third. (This is part of what is called transitivity.) We will examine other basic assumptions that economists usually make about a consumer’s preferences: one says that the consumer prefers more of each good to less (called monotonicity), and another says that a consumer’s indifference curves (or sets of equally-desirable consumption bundles) have a certain plausible curvature (called convexity). We will describe and discuss the consumer’s rate of tradeoff of one good against another (called her marginal rate of substitution).

  • 20. - Uncertainty and Asymmetric Information

  • from Part V. - Market Failure
  • Roberto Serrano, Brown University, Rhode Island, Allan M. Feldman, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book:
    A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus
    Published online:
    12 December 2018
    Print publication:
    13 September 2018, pp 386-404

  • Summary

    In the last chapter, we discussed von Neumann-Morgenstern utility functions, which are used to represent people’s preferences in situations where there is uncertainty—where information is imperfect or missing. We will continue the analysis of decision making under uncertainty in this chapter. But now we will focus on the problems that arise when information is unequally distributed, in the sense that some people in the market know more than other people. More precisely, we are now considering markets for goods or services where there is uncertainty, and the uncertainty is more on one side of the market (e.g., the buyers’ side) than on the the other side of the market (e.g., the sellers’ side). These are called markets with asymmetric information; the information is “asymmetric” because people on one side know more than people on the other side. In a world of perfect certainty there would be no asymmetric information, but in this chapter we will allow uncertainty. It turns out that asymmetric information may create serious market failures—failures that may need remedies.

  • 9. - Theory of the Firm 2: The Long-Run, Multiple-Input Model

  • from Part II. - Theory of the Producer
  • Roberto Serrano, Brown University, Rhode Island, Allan M. Feldman, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book:
    A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus
    Published online:
    12 December 2018
    Print publication:
    13 September 2018, pp 150-173

  • Summary

    In most of the last chapter we modeled a firm with one input and one output. However, assuming one input is unrealistic; most goods and services are produced by firms with a variety of different inputs. The production of something as simple as corn really requires land, labor, trucks, tractors, combines, fertilizer, pesticides, possibly irrigation, and so on. Moreover, the single-input model fails to capture a basic economic problem. In this chapter we will assume the inputs are both (or all) freely variable. In the next chapter we will assume one or more of the inputs is fixed over the underlying time horizon, while one or more of the inputs is variable. Economists call a period of time that is so long that all of the firm’s inputs are freely variable the long run, and they call a period of time that is so short that one or more inputs is fixed the short run. Therefore this chapter is about the theory of the firm in the long run. The next chapter is about the theory of the firm in the short run. We are doing the long run theory first because it is simpler and more elegant than the short run theory.

  • 16 - A Production Economy

  • from Part IV. - General Equilibrium
  • Roberto Serrano, Brown University, Rhode Island, Allan M. Feldman, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book:
    A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus
    Published online:
    12 December 2018
    Print publication:
    13 September 2018, pp 306-326

  • Summary

    We now turn to another general equilibrium model, where everything is taken into account simultaneously. But in this model we will analyze production. To keep this model easy we will assume there is only one person in the economy, who functions both as a producer and as a consumer. We call that one person Robinson Crusoe. (The reader interested in literature may remember that in Defoe’s novel, Robinson is alone on the island for many years before Friday arrives. Our production model can be viewed as an economic analysis of work and consumption on the island, before Friday’s arrival.) In this chapter, we will describe the production economy, and identify the Pareto optimal production outcomes in that economy. We will discuss market equilibria in the production economy. We will end the chapter with production versions of the first and second fundamental theorems of welfare economics, which will provide the connections between the market mechanism and efficiency in production.

  • 11. - Perfectly Competitive Markets

  • from Part III. - Partial Equilibrium: Market Structure
  • Roberto Serrano, Brown University, Rhode Island, Allan M. Feldman, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book:
    A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus
    Published online:
    12 December 2018
    Print publication:
    13 September 2018, pp 189-211

  • Summary

    In this chapter, we put together consumers interested in buying a good and firms interested in selling the good. We will start out by describing what we mean by perfect competition; this requires price-taking behavior by all parties, homogeneous goods, perfect information, and free entry and exit in the long run. We will derive industry supply curves in the short run and in the long run. With consumers’ actions aggregated into an industry demand curve, and firms’ actions aggregated into an industry supply curve, we will discuss excess demand and excess supply. Then we will describe the competitive market equilibrium. Next we will turn to the welfare properties of the market equilibrium. We will define producer’s surplus for a single firm and producers’ surplus for all the firms in the market. We will show how the competitive market equilibrium maximizes social surplus, that is, the sum of consumers’ surplus and producers’ surplus. Finally we will analyze the deadweight loss, or loss in social surplus, created by a per-unit tax on the good being sold in the market.

  • 18. - Public Goods

  • from Part V. - Market Failure
  • Roberto Serrano, Brown University, Rhode Island, Allan M. Feldman, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book:
    A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus
    Published online:
    12 December 2018
    Print publication:
    13 September 2018, pp 351-371

  • Summary

    In this chapter, we will look at market failures created by public goods. A public good is a good that is non-exclusive in use. That is, if it is there and available for use by one consumer, then it is there and available for use by all consumers. In a sense, these are goods that create super-externalities. For example, a judicial system is a public good. If the laws, courts, and police are in place to protect person i, they are there to protect person j as well. In this chapter, we will first provide some examples of public goods. Next we will describe a simple model of public goods. The model makes it clear why private market provision of a public good is inefficient. That is, it makes clear why public goods result in market failure. Then we will turn to the Samuelson optimality condition, the condition that must hold for the quantity of a public good to be Pareto optimal or efficient. After that we will discuss the free rider problem—the problem of consumer i’s taking advantage of consumer j’s decision to produce some of the public good, which, since it is available for i to use, causes i to take a free ride on j’s good citizenship.

Socio-Economic Development
  • 2nd edition
  • Adam Szirmai
  • Published online:
    12 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 June 2015
  • Why are poor countries poor and rich countries rich? How are wealth and poverty related to changes in health, life expectancy, education, population growth and politics? This non-technical introduction to development studies explores the dynamics of socio-economic development and stagnation in developing countries. Thoroughly updated and revised, this second edition includes new material on the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, the emergence of the BRICS economies, the role of institutions in development and the accelerated growth of economies in Africa and Asia. Taking a comparative approach, Szirmai places contemporary debates within their broader contexts and combines insights and theories from economics, economic history, political science, anthropology and sociology. Each chapter includes comparative statistics and time series for thirty-one developing countries. Assuming no prior knowledge of economics, this book is well-suited for students in interdisciplinary development studies and development economics, for policy-makers and for practitioners pursuing careers in developing countries. Visit www.dynamicsofdevelopment.com for additional resources.

Medieval Britain, c.1000–1500
  • David Crouch
  • Published online:
    12 September 2018
    Print publication:
    06 April 2017
  • Though England was the emerging super-state in the medieval British Isles, its story is not the only one Britain can offer; there is a wider context of Britain in Europe, and the story of this period is one of how European Latin and French culture and ideals colonised the minds of all the British peoples. This engaging and accessible introduction offers a truly integrated perspective of medieval British history, emphasising elements of medieval life over political narrative, and offering an up-to-date presentation and summary of medieval historiography. Featuring figures, maps, a glossary of key terms, a chronology of rulers, timelines and annotated suggestions for further reading and key texts, this textbook is an essential resource for undergraduate courses on medieval Britain. Supplementary online resources include additional further reading suggestions, useful links and primary sources.

Multimedia Computing
  • Gerald Friedland, Ramesh Jain
  • Published online:
    12 September 2018
    Print publication:
    28 July 2014
  • Humans are the best functioning example of multimedia communication and computing - that is, we understand information and experiences through the unified perspective offered by our five senses. This innovative textbook presents emerging techniques in multimedia computing from an experiential perspective in which each medium - audio, images, text, and so on - is a strong component of the complete, integrated exchange of information or experience. The authors' goal is to present current techniques in computing and communication that will lead to the development of a unified and holistic approach to computing using heterogeneous data sources. Gerald Friedland and Ramesh Jain introduce the fundamentals of multimedia computing, describing the properties of perceptually encoded information, presenting common algorithms and concepts for handling it, and outlining the typical requirements for emerging applications that use multifarious information sources. Designed for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses, the book will also serve as an introduction for engineers and researchers interested in understanding the elements of multimedia and their role in building specific applications.

Digital Image Processing for Medical Applications
  • Geoff Dougherty
  • Published online:
    12 September 2018
    Print publication:
    09 April 2009
  • Image processing is a hands-on discipline, and the best way to learn is by doing. This text takes its motivation from medical applications and uses real medical images and situations to illustrate and clarify concepts and to build intuition, insight and understanding. Designed for advanced undergraduates and graduate students who will become end-users of digital image processing, it covers the basics of the major clinical imaging modalities, explaining how the images are produced and acquired. It then presents the standard image processing operations, focusing on practical issues and problem solving. Crucially, the book explains when and why particular operations are done, and practical computer-based activities show how these operations affect real images. All images, links to the public-domain software ImageJ and custom plug-ins, and selected solutions are available from www.cambridge.org/books/dougherty.

European Colonialism since 1700
  • James R. Lehning
  • Published online:
    12 September 2018
    Print publication:
    29 August 2013
  • This masterful synthesis provides a much-needed, complete survey of European colonialism from 1700 to decolonization in the twentieth century. Written by an award-winning author, this advanced undergraduate and graduate level textbook bridges, for the first time, the early modern Atlantic empires and the later Asian and African empires of 'high imperialism'. Viewing colonialism as a phenomenon of contact between Europe and the rest of the world, the author takes an 'entangled histories' approach, considering the surprising ways in which the imperial powers of Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands displayed their identities in colonial settings, as much as in their imperial capitals. The author illuminates for students the common themes of colonial government, economic development and cultural contact across empires, and reveals the ways in which these themes played out, through contrast of the differing development, structure and impact of each empire.

New Cambridge Statistical Tables
  • 2nd edition
  • D. V. Lindley, W. F. Scott
  • Published online:
    12 September 2018
    Print publication:
    03 August 1995
  • The second edition of this very successful and authoritative set of tables still benefits from clear typesetting, which makes the figures easy to read and use. It has, however, been improved by the addition of new tables that provide Bayesian confidence limits for the binomial and Poisson distributions, and for the square of the multiple correlation coefficient, which have not been previously available. The intervals are the shortest possible, consistent with the requirement on probability. Great care has been taken to ensure that it is clear just what is being tabulated and how the values may be used; the tables are generally capable of easy interpolation. The book contains all the tables likely to be required for elementary statistical methods in the social, business and natural sciences. It will be an essential aid for teachers, researchers and students in those subjects where statistical analysis is not wholly carried out by computers.

Methods of Mathematical Physics
  • 3rd edition
  • Harold Jeffreys, Bertha Jeffreys
  • Published online:
    12 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 November 1999
  • This well-known text and reference contains an account of those parts of mathematics that are most frequently needed in physics. As a working rule, it includes methods which have applications in at least two branches of physics. The authors have aimed at a high standard of rigour and have not accepted the often-quoted opinion that 'any argument is good enough if it is intended to be used by scientists'. At the same time, they have not attempted to achieve greater generality than is required for the physical applications: this often leads to considerable simplification of the mathematics. Particular attention is also paid to the conditions under which theorems hold. Examples of the practical use of the methods developed are given in the text: these are taken from a wide range of physics, including dynamics, hydrodynamics, elasticity, electromagnetism, heat conduction, wave motion and quantum theory. Exercises accompany each chapter.

Homer: Odyssey Books XIII and XIV
  • Homer
  • Edited by A. M. Bowie
  • Published online:
    12 September 2018
    Print publication:
    09 January 2014
  • The second part of the Odyssey takes epic in new directions, giving significant roles to people of 'lower status' and their way of life: epic notions of the primacy of the aristocrat and the achievements of the Trojan War are submitted to scrutiny. Books XIII and XIV contain some of the subtlest human exchanges in the poem, as Athena and Odysseus spar with each other and Odysseus tests the quiet patience of his swineherd Eumaeus. The principal themes and narrative structures, especially of disguise and recognition, which the second part uses with remarkable economy, are established here. The Introduction also includes a detailed historical account of the Homeric dialect, as well as sections on metre and the text itself. The Commentary on the Greek text pays particular attention to the exposition of unfamiliar linguistic forms and constructions. The literary parts of the Introduction and the Commentary are accessible to all.

Page 1142 of 1924