Intermediate Microeconomics with
Calculus: A Modern Approach
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Media Update 1st Edition
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SOLUTIONS
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MANUAL
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Hal R. Varian
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Comprehensive Solutions Manual for Instructors
and Students
© Hal R. Varian. All rights reserved. Reproduction
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or distribution without permission is prohibited.
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9780393689983
© Medgeek
, Edrftgyihu Manual
Solutions jiuh — Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus: A
Modern Approach (Media Update), 1st Edition — Hal R. Varian
Chapter 1: The Market
Chapter 2: Budget Constraint
Chapter 3: Preferences
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Chapter 4: Utility
Chapter 5: Choice
Chapter 6: Demand
Chapter 7: Revealed Preference
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Chapter 8: Slutsky Equation
Chapter 9: Buying and Selling
Chapter 10: Intertemporal Choice
Chapter 11: Asset Markets
Chapter 12: Uncertainty
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Chapter 13: Risky Assets
Chapter 14: Consumer’s Surplus
Chapter 15: Market Demand
Chapter 16: Equilibrium
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Chapter 17: Measurement
Chapter 18: Auctions
Chapter 19: Technology
Chapter 20: Profit Maximization
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Chapter 21: Cost Minimization
Chapter 22: Cost Curves
Chapter 23: Firm Supply
Chapter 24: Industry Supply
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Chapter 25: Monopoly
Chapter 26: Monopoly Behavior
Chapter 27: Factor Markets
Chapter 28: Oligopoly
Chapter 29: Game Theory
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Chapter 30: Game Applications
Chapter 31: Behavioral Economics
Chapter 32: Exchange
Chapter 33: Production
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Chapter 34: Welfare
Chapter 35: Externalities
Chapter 36: Information Technology
Chapter 37: Public Goods
Chapter 38: Asymmetric Information
© Medgeek
, Chapter 1 1
Chapter 1
The Market
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This chapter was written so I would have something to talk about on the first
day of class. I wanted to give students an idea of what economics was all about,
and what my lectures would be like, and yet not have anything that was really
critical for the course. (At Michigan, students are still shopping around on the
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first day, and a good number of them won’t necessarily be at the lecture.)
I chose to discuss a housing market since it gives a way to describe a number
of economic ideas in very simple language and gives a good guide to what lies
ahead. In this chapter I was deliberately looking for surprising results—analytic
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insights that wouldn’t arise from “just thinking” about a problem. The two
most surprising results that I presented are the condominium example and the
tax example in Section 1.6. It is worth emphasizing in class just why these results
are true, and how they illustrate the power of economic modeling.
It also makes sense to describe their limitations. Suppose that every con-
dominium conversion involved knocking out the walls and creating two apart-
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ments. Then what would happen to the price of apartments? Suppose that the
condominiums attracted suburbanites who wouldn’t otherwise consider renting
an apartment. In each of these cases, the price of remaining apartments would
rise when condominium conversion took place.
The point of a simple economic model of the sort considered here is to focus
our thoughts on what the relevant effects are, not to come to a once-and-for-all
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conclusion about the urban housing market. The real insight that is offered by
these examples is that you have to consider both the supply and the demand
side of the apartment market when you analyze the impact of this particular
policy.
The only concept that the students seem to have trouble with in this chapter
is the idea of Pareto efficiency. I usually talk about the idea a little more than
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is in the book and rephrase it a few times. But then I tell them not to worry
about it too much, since we’ll look at it in great detail later in the course.
The workbook problems here are pretty straightforward. The biggest problem
is getting the students to draw the true (discontinuous) demand curve, as in
Figure 1.1, rather than just to sketch in a downward-sloping curve as in Figure
1.2. This is a good time to emphasize to the students that when they are given
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numbers describing a curve, they have to use the numbers—they can’t just sketch
in any old shape.
, 2 Chapter Highlights
The Market
A. Example of an economic model — the market for apartments
1. models are simplifications of reality
2. for example, assume all apartments are identical
3. some are close to the university, others are far away
4. price of outer-ring apartments is exogenous — determined outside the
model
5. price of inner-ring apartments is endogenous — determined within the
model
B. Two principles of economics
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1. optimization principle — people choose actions that are in their interest
2. equilibrium principle — people’s actions must eventually be consistent
with each other
C. Constructing the demand curve
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1. line up the people by willingness-to-pay. See Figure 1.1.
2. for large numbers of people, this is essentially a smooth curve as in Figure
1.2.
D. Supply curve
1. depends on time frame
2. but we’ll look at the short run — when supply of apartments is fixed.
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E. Equilibrium
1. when demand equals supply
2. price that clears the market
F. Comparative statics
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1. how does equilibrium adjust when economic conditions change?
2. “comparative” — compare two equilibria
3. “statics” — only look at equilibria, not at adjustment
4. example — increase in supply lowers price; see Figure 1.5.
5. example — create condos which are purchased by renters; no effect on
price; see Figure 1.6.
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G. Other ways to allocate apartments
1. discriminating monopolist
2. ordinary monopolist
3. rent control
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H. Comparing different institutions
1. need a criterion to compare how efficient these different allocation methods
are.
2. an allocation is Pareto efficient if there is no way to make some group
of people better off without making someone else worse off.
3. if something is not Pareto efficient, then there is some way to make some
people better off without making someone else worse off.
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4. if something is not Pareto efficient, then there is some kind of “waste” in
the system.
I. Checking efficiency of different methods
1. free market — efficient
2. discriminating monopolist — efficient
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3. ordinary monopolist — not efficient
4. rent control — not efficient