This book presents a comprehensive treatment of the theory of regular economies, which is one of the most advanced topics in modern general equilibrium theory, emphasizing the basic ideas, the tools and the important applications. Although many notions and tools of differential topology are required to understand the theory, the author chooses a minimum of them and heuristically arranges them; that is, instead of lumping together all the necessary mathematics, the author puts at the beginning of each chapter the minimum mathematics required for the economic analysis of the chapter, so that the reader will not only save much effort on the mathematics but also directly understand how successfully the mathematics is used for the economic issues.
This book presents a comprehensive treatment of the theory of regular economies, which is one of the most advanced topics in modern general equilibrium theory, emphasizing the basic ideas, the tools and the important applications. Although many notions and tools of differential topology are required to understand the theory, the author chooses a minimum of them and heuristically arranges them; that is, instead of lumping together all the necessary mathematics, the author puts at the beginning of each chapter the minimum mathematics required for the economic analysis of the chapter, so that the reader will not only save much effort on the mathematics but also directly understand how successfully the mathematics is used for the economic issues.
This book brings together the author's pioneering work, written over the last twenty years, on the use of differential methods in general equilibrium theory.
This book develops a unified treatment of the income distribution–capital–value problems with respect to actual economies, and then gradually turns to the issues of effective demand and capitalist accumulation fluctuations from both political economy and economic policy perspectives. That treatment, on the one hand, places produced means of production, positive profits, and capital accumulation at the centre of the analysis and, on the other hand, is analytically based on the modern control theory. Hence, the authors’ investigation is concerned with input–output representations of actual single and joint production, heterogeneous labour, and open economies; zeroes in on the characteristic value distributions of the system matrices; and, finally, derives meaningful theoretical results consistent with the empirical evidence, and vice versa. The main topics addressed are the uncontrollable/unobservable aspects of the real-world economies, the powerful low-order spectral approximations and reconstructions of the inter-industry structure of production–value–distributive variables relationships, the critical-constructive appraisal of both “mainstream” and “radical” theories of value, the matrix demand multipliers and demand-switching policies in heterogeneous capital worlds, and the circular inter-actions amongst income distribution, effective demand, accumulation, and technical conditions of production. Written on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the publication of both Piero Sraffa’s Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities and Rudolf E. Kalman’s paper “On the general theory of control systems”, this book provides a consistent and comprehensive framework for theoretical, empirical, and economic policy research.
This book is devoted to the mathematical analysis of models of economic dynamics and equilibria. These models form an important part of mathemati cal economics. Models of economic dynamics describe the motion of an economy through time. The basic concept in the study of these models is that of a trajectory, i.e., a sequence of elements of the phase space that describe admissible (possible) development of the economy. From all trajectories, we select those that are" desirable," i.e., optimal in terms of a certain criterion. The apparatus of point-set maps is the appropriate tool for the analysis of these models. The topological aspects of these maps (particularly, the Kakutani fixed-point theorem) are used to study equilibrium models as well as n-person games. To study dynamic models we use a special class of maps which, in this book, are called superlinear maps. The theory of superlinear point-set maps is, obviously, of interest in its own right. This theory is described in the first chapter. Chapters 2-4 are devoted to models of economic dynamics and present a detailed study of the properties of optimal trajectories. These properties are described in terms of theorems on characteristics (on the existence of dual prices) and turnpike theorems (theorems on asymptotic trajectories). In Chapter 5, we state and study a model of economic equilibrium. The basic idea is to establish a theorem about the existence of an equilibrium state for the Arrow-Debreu model and a certain generalization of it.
Economics as a Social Science is a highly readable critique of economic theory, based on a wide range of research, that endeavors to restore economics to its proper role as a social science. Contrary to conventional economic theory, which assumes that people have no free will, this book instead bases economics on the realistic assumption that human beings can choose; that we are complex beings affected by emotion, custom, habit, and reason; and that our behavior varies with circumstances and times. It embraces the findings of history, psychology, and other social sciences and the insights from great literature on human behavior as opposed to the rigidity set by mathematical axioms that define how economics is understood and practiced today. Andrew M. Kamarck demonstrates that only rough accuracy is attainable in economic measurement, and that understanding an economy requires knowledge from other disciplines. The canonical hypotheses of economics (perfect rationality, self-interest, equilibrium) are shown to be inadequate (and in the case of "equilibrium" to be counterproductive to understanding the forces that dominate the economy), and more satisfactory assumptions provided. The market is shown to work imperfectly and to require appropriate institutions to perform its function reasonably well. Further, Kamarck argues that self-interest does not always lead to helping the general interest. Economics as a Social Science examines and revises the fundamental assumptions of economics. Because it avoids jargon and explains terms carefully, it will be of interest to economics majors as well as to graduate students of economics and other social sciences, and social scientists working in government and the private sector. Andrew M. Kamarck is former Director, Economic Development Institute, the World Bank.
John Maynard Keynes is the great British economist of the twentieth century whose hugely influential work The General Theory of Employment, Interest and * is undoubtedly the century's most important book on economics--strongly influencing economic theory and practice, particularly with regard to the role of government in stimulating and regulating a nation's economic life. Keynes's work has undergone significant revaluation in recent years, and "Keynesian" views which have been widely defended for so long are now perceived as at odds with Keynes's own thinking. Recent scholarship and research has demonstrated considerable rivalry and controversy concerning the proper interpretation of Keynes's works, such that recourse to the original text is all the more important. Although considered by a few critics that the sentence structures of the book are quite incomprehensible and almost unbearable to read, the book is an essential reading for all those who desire a basic education in economics. The key to understanding Keynes is the notion that at particular times in the business cycle, an economy can become over-productive (or under-consumptive) and thus, a vicious spiral is begun that results in massive layoffs and cuts in production as businesses attempt to equilibrate aggregate supply and demand. Thus, full employment is only one of many or multiple macro equilibria. If an economy reaches an underemployment equilibrium, something is necessary to boost or stimulate demand to produce full employment. This something could be business investment but because of the logic and individualist nature of investment decisions, it is unlikely to rapidly restore full employment. Keynes logically seizes upon the public budget and government expenditures as the quickest way to restore full employment. Borrowing the * to finance the deficit from private households and businesses is a quick, direct way to restore full employment while at the same time, redirecting or siphoning
This book contains the most sustained and serious attack on mainstream, neoclassical economics in more than forty years. Nelson and Winter focus their critique on the basic question of how firms and industries change overtime. They marshal significant objections to the fundamental neoclassical assumptions of profit maximization and market equilibrium, which they find ineffective in the analysis of technological innovation and the dynamics of competition among firms. To replace these assumptions, they borrow from biology the concept of natural selection to construct a precise and detailed evolutionary theory of business behavior. They grant that films are motivated by profit and engage in search for ways of improving profits, but they do not consider them to be profit maximizing. Likewise, they emphasize the tendency for the more profitable firms to drive the less profitable ones out of business, but they do not focus their analysis on hypothetical states of industry equilibrium. The results of their new paradigm and analytical framework are impressive. Not only have they been able to develop more coherent and powerful models of competitive firm dynamics under conditions of growth and technological change, but their approach is compatible with findings in psychology and other social sciences. Finally, their work has important implications for welfare economics and for government policy toward industry.
