Walter E. Williams bio photo

Walter E. Williams

Bradley Prize Winner 2017

Professor of Economics.
wwilliam@gmu.edu
(703) 993-1148
D158 Buchanan Hall
Department of Economics
George Mason University

Related Sites:
The homepage of George Mason University.
Homepage of the Department of Economics at GMU.

Economics 811 Study References

The following references, many of which are classics, are suggested as background reading for graduate study of economic theory. The student is advised to read and possess a working understanding of a portion of this material prior to taking the microeconomics preliminary examinations.

  • Alchian, Armen A., and Reuben A. Kessel, "Competition, Monopoly and the Pursuit of Pecuniary Gain," Aspects of Labor Economics (Princeton, N.J., National Bureau of Economic Research, 1962), pp. 156-183.
  • Alchian, Armen A., "Costs and Outputs," The Allocation of Economic Resources, ed. M. Abramovitz (Stanford, 1959). HB601 A 454
  • Alchian, Armen and Allen, William, Exchange and Production
  • Alchian, Armen A., "Private Property and the Relative Cost of Tenure," The Public Stake in Union Power, ed., Philip Bradley (University of Virginia, 1959), pp. 350-371.
  • Alchian, Armen, and Demsetz, Harold, "Production, Information Costs and the Theory of Organization," American Economic Review, Dec. 1972, and "Economic Organization," American Economic Review, Dec. 1972, pp. 777-795.
  • Alchian, Armen, and Demsetz, Harold, "The Property Right Paradigm," Journal of Economic History, Dec., 1972.
  • Alchian, Armen A., and Kessel, Reuben A., "Redistribution of Wealth Through Inflation," Science, Vol. 130, 3375 (September 4, 1959), pp. 535-539.
  • Alchian, Armen A., "Effects of Inflation," JLE, 70 (12, 1962).
  • Alchian, Armen A., "Reliability of Progress Curves in Airframe Production," Econometrica, 31 (1963), pp. 679-693.
  • Allen, Roy G. D., Mathematical Analysis for Economists.
  • Allen, R. G. D., Mathematical Economics.
  • Averch, Harvey, and Leland L. Johnson, "Behavior of the Firm Under Regulatory Constraint," American Economic Review, 52 (1962), pp. 1052-1059.
  • Bain, Joe S., "Economies of Scale, Concentration, and the Condition of Entry in Twenty Manufacturing Industries," American Economic Review, 44 (1954), pp. 15-39, reprinted in American Economic Association Readings in Industrial Organization and Public Policy, eds. R. B. Heflebower and G. W. Stocking (Homewood, Ill.: Irwin, 1958), pp. 46-68.
  • Bator, F. M., "The Simple Analytics of Welfare Maximization," American Economic Review, Vol. 47 (March 1957).
  • Baumol, William, Economic Theory and Operations Research, Prentice Hall, 2nd ed., 1965. Understand the principles of linear programming.
  • Becker, Gary S., "Investment in Human Capital," Journal of Political Economy, Supplement, Vol. 70, No. 5, Part 2 (October 1962), pp. 4-49.
  • Becker, Gary S. "A Theory of the Allocation of Time," EJ (Sept. 1969).
  • Bottomley, Anthony, "The Structure of Interest Rates in Underdeveloped Rural Areas," Journal of Farm Economics, 46 (May 1964), pp. 313-322.
  • Buchanan, James, and Tullock, Gordon, The Calculus of Consent: The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy.
  • Buchanan, James M., The Demand and Supply of Public Goods.
  • Cassel, Gustav, The Nature and Necessity of Interest, 1903, Kelley and Millman, 1957.
  • Clemens, Eli, "Price Discrimination and the Multiple-Product Firm," Review of Economic Studies, 19 (1950), pp. 1-11. Reprinted in American Economic Association Readings in Industrial Organization and Public Policy, eds. R. B. Heflebower and G. W. Stocking (Homewood, Ill.: Irwin, 1958), pp. 262-277.
  • Coase, Ronald H., "The British Post Office and the Messenger Companies," Journal of Law and Economics, 4 (1961), pp. 12-63.
  • Coase, Ronald H., "The Federal Communications Commission," Journal of Law and Economics, 2 (1959), pp. 1-40.
  • Coase, Ronald H., "The Nature of the Firm," Economics 4 (1937), p. 386, reprinted in Readings in Price Theory, American Economic Association, 1952.
  • Coase, Ronald H., "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, III (1960), pp. 1-44.
  • Dam, Kenneth W., "Oil and Gas Licensing and the North Sea," Journal of Law and Economics, October 1965, pp. 51-76.
  • Dam, Kenneth W., "Trademarks, Price Discrimination and the Bureau of Customs," Journal of Law and Economics, October 1964, pp. 45-60.
  • Demsetz, Harold, "The Exchange and Enforcement of Property Rights," Journal of Law and Economics, October 1964, pp. 11-26.
  • Director, Aaron, "The Parity of the Economic Market Place," Journal of Law and Economics, October 1964, pp. 1-10.
  • Downs, Anthony, "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, 65 (April 1957), pp. 135-150.
  • Farmer, Richard N., and Harold H. Kassarjian, "The Right to Compete," California Management Review, 6 (1936), pp. 61-68.
  • Fisher, Irving, Purchasing Power of Money.
  • Fisher, Irving, The Theory of Interest.
  • Friedman, Milton, "The Monetary Studies of the National Bureau," Forty-fifth Annual Report of the National Bureau of Economic Research, June 1964, pp. 7-24. This contains a statement of the evidence for the proposition that money supply changes affect employment and output.
  • Friedman, Milton, and Anna J. Schwartz, "Money and Business Cycles," Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 45, Supplement (February 1963), pp. 32-64, especially pp. 59-64.
  • Hayek, F., "The Use of Knowledge in Society," American Economic Review, September, 1945. Important.
  • Hazard, Geoffrey C., "Rationing Justice," Journal of Law and Economics, October 1965, pp. 1-10.
  • Henderson, James, and Quandt, Microeconomic Theory, McGraw Hill, 1980.
  • Hicks, John R., The Theory of Wages, 1932, Macmillan, 1957, (except Chs. 7, 8.)
  • Hicks, John R., Value and Capital, Clarendon Press, 1939. 1st half.
  • Hildebrand, George H., "Collective Bargaining and the Antitrust Laws," Public Policy and Collective Bargaining, ed. Aaron, Summers, and Shister (Industrial Relations Research Association, 1961).
  • Hilton, George W., "The British Truck System in the Nineteenth Century," The Journal of Political Economy, 65 (1957), pp. 237-256.
  • Hilton, George, "Tying Sales and Full Line Forcing," Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, 82 (1958), p. 265.
  • Hirshleifer, Jack, The Theory of Capital and Interest.
  • Homans, G. O., Social Behavior, (Harcourt, 1961). Chs. 1-4.
  • Jung, A., "Price Variations Among Automobile Dealers in Chicago, Illinois," The Journal of Business, October 1959, pp. 315-325.
  • Kessel, Reuben A., and Alchian, Armen A., "Effects of Inflation," Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 70 (December 1962), pp. 521-537.
  • Kessel, Reuben, and Alchian, Armen A., "The Meaning and Validity of the Inflation-Induced Lag of Wages Behind Prices," American Economic Review, Vol. 50 (March 1960), pp. 43-66.
  • Kessel, R. A., "Price Discrimination in Medicine," Journal of Law and Economics, I (1958), pp. 20-53, especially pp. 29-32.
  • Knight, Frank, The Economic Organisation, New York, Kelley, 1951.
  • Knight, Frank H., "Realism and Relevance in the Theory of Demand," Journal of Political Economy, 52 (1944), pp. 289-318.
  • Knight, Frank, Risk Uncertainty and Profit, 1921, Kelley, 1964, Harpers Torchbooks.
  • Lazar, W., F. Bean, and K. Hunter, "Labor Department Examines Consumers' Prices of Steel Products," Iron Age, April 25, 1946.
  • Lee, T. H., Mathematics of Finance, Irwin, 1957.
  • Leijonhufvud, Axel, "Keynes and the Keynesians -- A Suggested Reinterpretation," Proceedings of American Economic Review, May 1967.
  • Lerner, Abba, Economics of Control, Macmillan, 1946. Careful reading.
  • Macaulay, Steward, "Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study," American Sociological Review, Vol. 28, No. 1 (February 1963), pp. 55-69.
  • Manne, Henry, Insider Trading and the Stock Market, Free Press, 1967.
  • Marshal, Alfred, Principles of Economics, 8th ed., (1890-1920), Books III and V. Macmillan.
  • Marx, Karl, Capital, (Modern Library abridgment, 1959), edited by M. Eastman, pp. 15-141.
  • McKean, Roland, Efficiency in Government Through Systems Analysis, Wiley, 1958. 1st half.
  • Nevins, A. T., Rockefeller.
  • Newman, Peter, The Theory of Exchange.
  • Radford, R. A., "The Economic Organization of a Prisoner of War Camp," Economica, 12 (1945), pp. 189-201, reprinted in excerpts in Selected Readings in Economics, 2nd ed., ed. C. Lowell Harriss (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962), pp. 73-82.
  • Ralph, James and Estelle James, Hoffa and the Teamsters, Van Nostrand, 1965.
  • Ricardo, David, The Principles of Political Economy, 3rd ed. (1821), Chs. 17, 20.
  • Robinson, Joan, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Macmillan, 1934.
  • Rottenberg, Simon, "A Theory of Corruption in Trade Unions," Symposia Studies Series No. 3, Series Studies in Social Economic Sciences (Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Social and Behavioral Sciences, June 1960), pp. 1-7.
  • Samuelson, Paul A., Foundations of Economic Analysis, Harvard, 1945, Chs. 1-3.
  • Samuelson, Paul A., "Intertemporal Price Equilibrium: A Prologue to the Theory of Speculation," Collected Scientific Papers of P. A. Samuelson (M.I.T., 1966).
  • Samuelson, Paul A., "The Pure Theory of Public Expenditures," Review of Economics and Statistics (November 1954).
  • Schultz, Henry, The Theory and Measurement of Demand, Chicago, 1938 Chs. 1-8.
  • Scott, Anthony, "The Fishery: The Objectives of Sole Ownership," Journal of Political Economy, 63 (1955), pp. 110-124.
  • Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, (1776), Available in Modern Library edition, Book I (Chs. I-IX), Books IV, V.
  • Smith, Roy, "The Lemon Prorate in the Long Run," Journal of Political Economy, 59 (1961), pp. 573-586.
  • Solow, Robert, Capital Theory and the Rate of Return, Rand McNally, 1964, Chs. 1 and 2.
  • Stigler, George J., "Administered Prices and Oligopolistic Inflation," Journal of Business, 35 (1962), pp. 1-13.
  • Stigler, George J., "The Economics of Information," Journal of Political Economy, 69 (June 1961), pp. 213-225.
  • Stigler, George J., Theory of Price, 3rd ed., Macmillan, 1966.
  • Stockfish, J. A., "External Economies and Diseconomies," International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, Vol. 5, pp. 268-74.
  • Taft, Philip, "Judicial Procedure by Labor Unions," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 59 (1945), pp. 370-385.
  • Tesler, Lester, "Why Should Manufacturers Want Fair Trade?" Journal of Law and Economics, 3 (1960), pp. 86-106.
  • Turvey, Ralph, "On Divergences Between Social Cost and Private Cost," Economica, August 1963, pp. 594-613.
  • Turvey, Ralph, "Some Features of the London Cab Trade," Economics Journal 71 (1961), pp. 79-92.
  • Wasson, R. G., The Hall Carbine Affair, (Pandick Press, 1948).
  • Weston, J. Fred, Managerial Finance, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1962.
  • Williamson, Oliver E., "Managerial Discretion and Business Behavior," American Economic Review, 53 (1963), pp. 1033-1057.
  • Working, Holbrook, "Futures Markets Under Renewed Attack," Food Research Institute Studies, IV (Stanford University, 1963), excerpted in Barron's, February 4, 1963, pp. 11 ff.
  • Working, Holbrook, "Price Effects of Futures Trading," Food Research Institute Studies, I (Stanford University, February 1960), pp. 3-31.
  • Yamane, Taro, "The Federal Communications Commission," JLE, 2, (1959).