The book presents theories of individual choice and competitive markets in a clear and engaging manner, addressing common questions of interpretation and motivation that often go unexplored in other texts. Its accessible style makes it a valuable resource for both students and scholars, offering a comprehensive understanding of economic principles.
David M. Kreps Books






Microeconomic Foundations II
Imperfect Competition, Information, and Strategic Interaction
- 800 pages
- 28 hours of reading
Focusing on foundational material, this textbook offers a deep dive into modern microeconomic theory, particularly for first-year graduate students. It highlights the significance of noncooperative game theory as a key tool for modeling economic phenomena, covering diverse topics such as agency theory, market signaling, and mechanism design. Emphasizing the importance of aligning theory with economic intuition, it also includes extensive appendices on game theory concepts and provides free online resources, enhancing the learning experience.
Microeconomics for Managers, 2nd Edition
- 520 pages
- 19 hours of reading
A thoroughly revised new edition of a leading textbook that equips MBA students with the powerful tools of economics This is a thoroughly revised and substantially streamlined new edition of a leading textbook that shows MBA students how understanding economics can help them make smarter and better-informed real-world management decisions. David Kreps, one of the world’s most influential economists, has developed and refined Microeconomics for Managers over decades of teaching at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Stressing game theory and strategic thinking and driven by in-depth, integrated case studies, the book shows future managers how economics can provide practical answers to critical business problems. Focuses on case studies and real companies, such as Amazon, Microsoft, General Motors, United Airlines, and Xerox Covers essential topics for future managers—including price discrimination, Porter’s five forces, risk sharing and spreading, signaling and screening, credibility and reputation, and economics and organizational behavior Features an online supplement (available at micro4managers.stanford.edu) for students that provides solutions to the problems in the book, longer caselike exercises, review problems, a calculus review, and more
David M. Kreps has developed a text in microeconomics that is both challenging and "user-friendly." The work is designed for the first-year graduate microeconomic theory course and is accessible to advanced undergraduates as well. Placing unusual emphasis on modern noncooperative game theory, it provides the student and instructor with a unified treatment of modern microeconomic theory--one that stresses the behavior of the individual actor (consumer or firm) in various institutional settings. The author has taken special pains to explore the fundamental assumptions of the theories and techniques studied, pointing out both strengths and weaknesses.The book begins with an exposition of the standard models of choice and the market, with extra attention paid to choice under uncertainty and dynamic choice. General and partial equilibrium approaches are blended, so that the student sees these approaches as points along a continuum. The work then turns to more modern developments. Readers are introduced to noncooperative game theory and shown how to model games and determine solution concepts. Models with incomplete information, the folk theorem and reputation, and bilateral bargaining are covered in depth. Information economics is explored next. A closing discussion concerns firms as organizations and gives readers a taste of transaction-cost economics.
Bergson, Complexity and Creative Emergence
- 238 pages
- 9 hours of reading
Focusing on evolution from a post-Darwinian standpoint, the book delves into the philosophies of Henri Bergson and his impact on poststructuralist thought in the 1960s. It examines how Bergson's ideas intersect with complexity theory in environmental biology, highlighting the relevance of his concepts in contemporary discussions about evolution and ecological systems. The exploration of these philosophical connections offers a fresh perspective on the ongoing dialogue between science and philosophy.
Strategic Human Resources
- 624 pages
- 22 hours of reading
Human Resources are the most important resource that a firm commands and should be regarded as capital, a factor of production in which managers invest today in order to realize future profits.
The Motivation toolkit
- 277 pages
- 10 hours of reading
"In The Motivation Toolkit, economist and management expert David Kreps offers a variety of tools, drawn from the disciplines of economics and social psychology, that you can adapt to your specific situation to achieve better motivation. This starts with understanding both the economic and social relationship your employees have with their work, their jobs, and your organization, then using that understanding to find economic or psychological motivators that will work."--Amazon.
This book examines why game theory has become such a popular tool of analysis. It investigates the deficiencies in this methodology and goes on to consider whether its popularity will fade or remain an important tool for economists. The book provides the reader with some basic concepts from noncooperative theory, and then goes on to explore the strengths, weaknesses, and future of the theory as a tool of economic modelling and analysis. All those interested in the applications of game theory to economics, from undergraduates to academics will find this study of particular value.
The book critiques the pervasive business and social information systems by examining their foundations in positivism, individualism, and market-fundamentalist economics. It argues that these philosophies are fundamentally at odds with nature, challenging their validity. Additionally, it explores alternative philosophical perspectives that oppose this dominant trio, offering a thought-provoking analysis of how these systems shape contemporary life and their implications for society and the environment.

