Filip Lubinski

You can already download my book review of Gregory Besharov’s “Microeconomics in Words” (2024) from the SSRN. Must microeconomics be written with numbers?

Check here:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5098225

Journal of Economics:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00712-025-00906-0

Azerbaijan-born philosopher Max Black once wrote: “Perhaps every science must start with metaphor and end with algebra, and perhaps without the metaphor, there would be no algebra.” In his latest book, Gregory Besharov builds on this observation to illustrate the metaphors, hyperboles, and tautologies that underlie mathematical economics as we understand it. These figures of speech, which often contain simplifying assumptions and ethical judgments, translate into interaction models between consumers and firms, narrowing our vision of the markets. This situation creates the need for Microeconomics in Words, an alternative introduction to the field that takes a step back to explain how our chosen language shapes our perspective on exchange. The book creates another chance to solve a conflict resulting from the increasingly unpopular recommendations of technocratic economists and the society paying their costs. It might be a step to dialogue, a meeting point where economists learn to speak on their discipline using language that society understands and other members of society study economics with the language they know.