"The standard neoclassical competitive model of economic behavior has been significantly extended in the last fifty years by emphasis on interaction among small groups (game theory), on extended models of human motivation based in part on human evolution, and on divergent information bases of participants. A rich but scattered literature has now received a brilliant synthesis and development in Samuel Bowles's new book. Microeconomics will be an indispensable part of future teaching in microeconomics at the graduate or advanced undergraduate levels, as well as an excellent source of information for the practicing economist."
— Kenneth J. Arrow, Nobel Laureate, Stanford University
"Homo economicus is dead, but whose homo behavioralis will replace him? For those who care, this sustained and honest attempt to explore the implications for economic theory of one of the leading candidates is essential reading."
— Ken Binmore, University College London
"This is one of the most engaging books of its kind that has been written, intellectually challenging and a pleasure to read. It presents an innovative and unconventional perspective on microeconomics and, as such, is a book that many will want to teach from—I will."
— Kaushik Basu, Cornell University
"Bowles does a masterful job of expanding the boundaries of received microeconomic theory by drawing upon cutting edge ideas from behavioral and experimental economics, evolutionary game theory, and the new institutional economics. I don't know of anyone who has woven such a wide range of literature into an equally coherent vision of post-Walrasian microeconomic theory."
— Gregory Dow, Simon Fraser University
"Not only does Bowles convey the elements of the conventional theory of capitalist economies [...] he offers a wealth of cutting edge material as well [...] [His] theory is neat, thought-provoking, and highly original—as is much else in this most unusual take on microeconomics."
— Eric Maskin, Nobel Laureate
"There's a new microeconomics on the block, and it's not the microeconomics you were taught in school. The new microeconomics takes seriously that many markets and contracts are incomplete, that agents are differentially informed, that much that is pertinent to their interactions is not verifiable or admissible in a court of law. [...] Although Bowles's work helps to set out a research agenda that will take decades to explore, the book offers many of the necessary tools, a number of interesting starts, and ample food for thought served up with rich perspective on the histories of both the ideas and the substantive questions at issue."
— Louis Putterman, Brown University
"This book may be a turning point in bringing economics back to its real political economic roots."
— Ariel Rubenstein, Tel Aviv University and New York University
"An important and highly original book that shows how an evolutionary version of microeconomics can be brought to bear on central questions of economic growth and organization."
— Peyton Young, Johns Hopkins University
