UPL Readers Series is intended to contribute to the process of raising the competence and the vision of students of Bangladesh so as to enable them to come to grips with pioneering first hand research and expose them to advanced literature in their respective disciplines.] This book of Readings is intended to provide students in Bangladesh an introduction, from original sources, to the concepts and tools of modern microeconomics. Textbooks generally focus upon what is clearly known and agreed upon; they do not impact the thrill of meeting new problems, nor do they focus upon the fact that there is often a considerable distance between the problem one initially wished to solve and the final problem that one could solve. Learning about these issues is a necessary part of one's education. Starting from classic articles such as Radford's Economics of a P.O.W. Camp which elaborates in accessible style how markets arise and function even in the most unusual circumstances, the Reader goes on to articles which deal with the value theory, utility maximization, consumption-loan model, market mechanism and insurance markets, a foundational piece for recent economic theory, to articles on uncertainty and agency theory. Additionally the articles introduce to the students some of the minds that have treaded the subject. To make the Readings self-contained in coverage, Fahad Khalil has provided an Introduction of Game Theory. The book should be vital importance to students, especially those aspiring to go abroad for studies and practitioners of economics ho are interested in analyzing human activity in the market.
Salim Rashid is a Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He obtained a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1976. His present area of interest is Development Economics. He has consulted for the UNDP, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. His articles have appeared in various journals including The Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Theory, Econometrica, Journal of Mathematical Economics, Economica, History of Economic Ideas, and International Economic Review. Among his books are Economies with Many Agents, The Myth of Adam Smith, and Economic Policy for Growth. UPL has published two of his edited volumes on Rotting from the Head: Donors and LDC Corruption and The Clash of Civilizations?: Asian Responses.
Fahad Khalil is Associate Professor of Economics at University of Washing Seattle. He obtained his Ph.D from Virginia Tech in 1991. He specializes in the Economics of Information and the Theory of Incentives. His articles have appeared in various journals including American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Theory, RAND Journal of Economics, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Public Economics and International Economic Review. He was awarded the Young Economist Prize (1998-2000) by the Bangladesh Economic Association.