^#smrgSAHAF Microeconomic Theory of the Market Mechanism: A General Equilibrium Approach - 1968

To fulfill these objectives it is the overriding purpose of this work to introduce a general equilibrium outlook into the structure and teaching of the intermediate microeconomic theory course. The book's appeal to the instructor, therefore, will reside in the importance he attaches to this revision of method and outlook. The ultimate justification of the book must be sought in its success in effecting this methodological and substantive revision necessary to highlight and feature the wholeness of the market economy. Both student and instructor require an explanation of the importance the author attaches to these purposes.

First, in teaching the microeconomic theory course to undergraduates using existing textbooks -- many of them very fine technically -- I have been struck by the great amount of time spent in teaching fine points of technique of little real significance to the student's needs. Over the years we have accumulated a huge clutter of partial analytical tools and specific analyses to which we have become habituated, and which serve to scatter the focus of the course. I have attempted as an integrated decisionmaker relying upon intricate interrelatedness of variation to eliminate most of the furbelows of partial analysis by following as closely as possible a clear line of development of the market economy. That (alas!) I have not had the complete courage of my convictions will be found in my brief presentation of the nearly worthless concepts of elasticity, but these have sunk so deeply into the teaching of economics that I felt I could not eliminate them completely. However, because I have spent much time in evaluating the displacement of . . .