Collected Papers Of Kenneth J Arrow

Arrow takes up the basic question of whether collective choices can reflect individual preferences. The seminal 1950 paper that opens the volume shows that given reasonable conditions that social choices must satisfy to reflect individual preferences, it is impossible to make a choice among alternatives without violating some of the conditions.

The third volume of Arrow's Collected Papers concerns the basic concept of rationality as it applies to an economic decision maker. In particular, it addresses the problem of choice faced by consumers in a multicommodity world and presents specific models of choice useful in economic analysis. It also discusses choice models under uncertainty.

The publication of Arrow's collected papers will be welcomed by economists and other social scientists and in particular by graduate students, who can draw from them the knowledge and the discernment in selection of scientific problems that only a master can offer. The author has added headnotes to certain well-known papers, describing his process.