Books/Resources that I used as a non economic student to prepare for an Economic Phd/Masters

I am regularly asked to recommend books for economics in advanced level.I really did not wanted to write this post(due to disclaimer number 4) but due to repeated requests ,have finally decided to write it

Okay, First a few disclaimers:

1. This list is for those students who come from maths, physics or cs who had never studied economics that is if you don't know that marginal rate of substitution is equal to marginal rate of transformation ,then heck yes! In fact ,if you don't know what marginal rate of substitution is (I did not know this at beginning of my masters at LSE),then double yes!
2. Skip this list if you know about some economics at least!
3. Maybe Not……..Atleast check it out if you find anything interesting!
4. Take this with pinch of salt as I am not a very intelligent person .Yes, I may be pursuing a PhD but the fact attributes more to my laborious nature than my academic strength!
5. All the books/resources are found for free in Internet! I don't want anybody suing me for illegal distribution of propriety textbooks! But if you are a millennial or Gen-Z(gosh ,I feel old ) ,you know how to find illegal copies of textbooks on internet ….(But of course you shouldn't do it, its not morally right and I don't endorse it).

Econometrics

This is my favourite subject which can be linked to my background in mathematics .The resources that I used

1. Bruce Hansen’s textbook which is simply titled “Econometrics”

This is is single stop book for all graduates

Brice Hansen is a renowned econometrician who teaches at Wisconsin Madison .My Professor at LSE was his PhD student. It is a very comprehensive econometrics textbook covering the core material typically taught in a Ph.D. course in econometrics. .The good thing is that if you have taken some advanced classes in mathematics, then no matter if you have not even heard of econometrics ,you can read and understand the material.

The best part is it is free. Here is the link.

2.Mastering `Metrics — The Path from Cause to Effect

I suggest everyone who is remotely interested in economics to read this book.

There is a particular language that all economist speak. For examples: In economics there is a term known as causal effects. For two months ,I thought that *causal* was some estimator to determine effects (Yeah dumb right!)

This is an excellent book to introduce people to the causality problem and to the newest methodologies. Then I read many other articles and improved, but this book opened me a world. It helped me speak the language. Best part is this book does not cover any maths(Its is pushed at the appendix and you can skip it )to actually apply these methods but that is not the point. It is the best introduction to methods like experiments and natural experiments out there.

You can read this book lying at your bed too. It is an easy read book!

3.Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach BY Jeffrey M. Wooldridge,

This is an undergraduate advanced textbook. If you have read Hansen this book is comparatively easier but yes this contains much better examples than Hansen.

4.Asymtotic theory Part of Econometrics-This stuff is too technical and you can skip it if your are not going to do a PhD in econometrics.

Macroeconomics

Okay, disclaimer 6: I am extremely weak in Macroeconomics. So all the books that I used were more to bridge the gap .I used lecture notes from class to study for exam.

Disclaimer 7:I read these books after MSc EME to build my knowledge and prepare for grad school.

Intermediate Macroeconomics by Eric Sims- macro professor from University of Notre Dam

The book is available freely here .

I finally understood what is macroeconomics after reading this book .(Yeah,I passed a whole year piggy banking on my more smarter friends and did not know what do we study in depth in macroeconomics .I am judging myself right now!). As a mathematics graduate, I loved this book as each and every detail is explained mathematically and then the economical intuition is provided. I loved this book, as it helped me relate to macroeconomics with the skills that I already had

A better description of what the book is about is provided by the authors which I quote:

Given the large number of high quality texts already on the market, why the need for a new one? We view our book as fulfilling a couple of important and largely unmet needs in the existing market. First, our text makes much more use of mathematics than most intermediate books. Second, whereas most textbooks divide the study of the macroeconomy into two “runs” (the long run and the short run), we focus on three runs — the long run, the medium run, and the short run. Third, we have attempted to emphasize the microeconomic underpinnings of modern macroeconomics, all the while maintaining tractability and a focus on policy. Fourth, we include a section on banking, bank runs, bond pricing, and the stock market. While this material is generally left to money, credit, and banking texts, the recent Great Recession has taught us the importance of thinking seriously about the implications of the financial system for the macroeconomy. Finally, we feel that a defining feature of this text is that it is, if nothing else, thorough — we have tried hard to be very clear about mathematical derivations and to not skip steps when doing them. Modern economics is increasingly quantitative and makes use of math. While it is important to emphasize that math is only a tool deployed to understand real-world phenomena, it is a highly useful tool. Math clearly communicates ideas which are often obfuscated when only words are used. Math also lends itself nicely to quantitative comparisons of models with real-world data. Our textbook freely makes use of mathematics, more so than most of the texts we cited above.

Advanced Macroeconomics by David Romer:

I don't think I need to tell who David Romer is and the significance of this book(If you don't know ,it is the standard graduate book in economics and Romer is kind of a superstar in New Keynesian economics)

The book starts with growth and the Solow model and then explains the original Keynesian models before giving an account of the new Keynesian approach. Not for those who are less able mathematically. This is an extremely good textbook for final year undergraduates and beginning graduate students.

Microeconomics

Microeconomics involves lot of common sense and if you have a grasp of that( as the say Common sense, alas , is something not so common) along with a grasp in real analysis ,going directly to graduate microeconomics while skipping intermediate and basic level is quite easy.

The textbook that I used was Microeconomic Theory by Andreu Mas Colell,Michael Whinston, Jerry Green also popularly known as MWG textbook in economics circle(after all three authors initials).The authors’ treatment is both very modern and intuitive , covering all aspects of modern microeconomic theory at a level accessible to graduate students, and which goes beyond simple statement of results to underscore the underlying intuition.

I found the textbook pretty standard and self contained .If I came across any term that I did not understand ,I just googled it.

Also there is a complete solution PDF in circulation somewhere in the underbelly of internet(if you find it, you are an expert in googling) -If you practice the textbook questions ,you can check your answer there! Also the answers reveal some additional theory not available in text.

Also for Real Analysis(which is very much necessary knowledge to understand graduate microeconomics), for those people who want to study the subject or want to refresh it(like me who had forgotten quite a bit and was unable to understand my notes as my handwriting resembled the Mumbai slums of hand written world), I referred to MIT’s real analysis course provided by mathematics department .The link to the open course is here.

Thats my two cents advice. Take it or leave it offer! (Sorry had to make an economics pun at the end. Read MWG to understand it)