General Equilibrium And Welfare Economics

The setting: individual economic agents; The setting: supply and demand, competitive equilibrium; Existence and uniqueness; Welare economics.

This book offers the basic grasp of general equilibrium theory that is a fundamental background for advanced work in virtually any sub-field of economics, and the thorough understanding of the methods of welfare economics, particularly in a general equilibrium context, that is indispensable for undertaking applied policy analysis. The book uses extensive examples, both simple ones intended to bolster basic concepts, and those illustrating application of the material to economics in practice.

Creedy (economics, U. of Melbourne) provides an accessible introduction to general equilibrium analysis and associated welfare economics using a simple two-sector model and only diagrams and simple mathematics. He describes the utility, non- utility, and welfare analysis of exchange with price-taking; trading at disequilibrium prices, the role of the number of traders, and bargaining solutions of exchange without price- taking; and the construction and solution of the two-sector model. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

General Equilibrium Theory: An Introduction treats the classic Arrow-Debreu general equilibrium model in a form accessible to graduate students and advanced undergraduates in economics and mathematics. Topics covered include mathematical preliminaries, households and firms, existence of general equilibrium, Pareto efficiency of general equilibrium, the First and Second Fundamental Theorems of Welfare Economics, the core and core convergences, future markets over time and contingent commodity markets under uncertainty. Demand, supply, and excess demand appear first as (point-valued) functions, then optionally as (set-valued) correspondences. The mathematics presented (with elementary proofs of the theorems) includes a real analysis, the Brouwer fixed point theorem, and separating and supporting hyperplane theorems. Optional chapters introduce the existence of equilibrium with set-valued supply and demand, the mathematics of upper and lower hemicontinuous correspondences, and the Kakutani fixed point theorem. The treatment emphasizes clarity and accessibility to the student through use of examples and intuition.

In this book the reader is provided with an overview of the most interesting ideas in Competitive General Equilibrium Theory as well as Welfare Economy. In doing so, the author adopts a methodological approach of a closed and inter-related system where all variables are simultaneously determined. By using theorems of fixed point, revealed preference and local and global stability, the author proves the existence of unicity and stability. Furthermore, he analyses those situations where the competitive system does not allocate resources efficiently. In this sense, he examines allocation problems in regard to property rights, information problems and choice and negotiation problems. Finally, the text includes a chapter that presents a topical guide of questions related to Social Choice.

This book covers the main topics of welfare economics — general equilibrium models of exchange and production, Pareto optimality, un certainty, externalities and public goods — and some of the major topics of social choice theory — compensation criteria, fairness, voting. Arrow's Theorem, and the theory of implementation. The underlying question is this: "Is a particular economic or voting mechanism good or bad for society?" Welfare economics is mainly about whether the market mechanism is good or bad; social choice is largely about whether voting mechanisms, or other more abstract mechanisms, can improve upon the results of the market. This second edition updates the material of the first, written by Allan Feldman. It incorporates new sections to existing first-edition chapters, and it includes several new ones. Chapters 4, 6, 11, 15 and 16 are new, added in this edition. The first edition of the book grew out of an undergraduate welfare economics course at Brown University. The book is intended for the undergraduate student who has some prior familiarity with microeconomics. However, the book is also useful for graduate students and professionals, economists and non-economists, who want an overview of welfare and social choice results unburdened by detail and mathematical complexity. Welfare economics and social choice both probably suffer from ex cessively technical treatments in professional journals and monographs.

2010 marks the hundredth anniversary of the death of Léon Walras, the brilliant originator and first formaliser of general equilibrium theory – one of the pillars of modern economic theory. In advancing much derided practical solutions Walras also displayed more concern for the problems of living in a second best world than is common in modern pure theories of the invisible hand, efficient market hypothesis, DSGE macroeconomics or the thinking of some contemporary free market admirers all based on general equilibrium theory. This book brings contributions from the likes of Kenneth Arrow, Alan Kirman, Richard Posner, Amartya Sen and Robert Solow to share their thoughts and reflections on the theoretical heritage of Léon Walras. Some authors reminisce on the part they played in the development of modern general economics theory; others reflect on the crucial part played by general equilibrium in the development of macroeconomics, microeconomics, growth theory, welfare economics and the theory of justice; others still complain about the wrong path economic theory took under the influence of post 1945 developments in general equilibrium theory.

General Equilibrium Theory studies the properties and operation of free market economies. The field is a response to a series of questions originally outlined by Leon Walras about the operation of markets and posed by Frank Hahn in the following way: OCyDoes the pursuit of private interest, through a system of interconnected deregulated markets, lead not to chaos but to coherence OCo and if so, how is that achieved?OCO This is always an apt question, but particularly so given the OCyGlobal Financial CrisisOCO that emerged from the operation of market economies in the Americas and Europe in mid to late 2008. The answer that General Equilibrium Theory provides to the Walras-Hahn question is that, under certain conditions coherence is possible, while under certain other conditions chaos, in various forms, is likely to prevail. The conditionality of either outcome is not always well understood OCo neither by proponents of, or antagonists to, the OCyfree market positionOCO. Consequently, this book attempts to show something of what General Equilibrium Theory has to say about the wisdom or otherwise of always relying on OCymarket forcesOCO to manage complex socio-economic systems. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: General Equilibrium Theory: An Overview (138 KB). Contents: General Equilibrium Theory: An Overview; Existence of Equilibrium: Sufficient Conditions; Existence of Equilibrium: Necessary Conditions; Equilibrium and Irreducibility: Some Empirical Evidence; Existence of Equilibrium Under Alternative Income Conditions; Existence of Walrasian Equilibrium in Some NonOCoArrow-Debreu Environments; Uniqueness of Equilibrium; Stability of Equilibrium; Optimality of Equilibrium; Comparative Statics of Equilibrium States; Empirical Evidence on General Equilibrium; General Equilibrium Theory in Retrospect. Readership: Advanced undergraduates and graduate students in economics; economists interested in economic theory."