From Arrow's Theorem to Incentives and Price Dynamics

✍ Scribed by Donald G. Saari

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 32 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1571-0653
• DOI: 10.1016/s1571-0653(04)00024-1

✦ Synopsis

Arrow's impossibility theorem has served as a dominant result within the social sciences for the last half-century. But, does it mean what we thought it did? Does it really require a dictator, or are there alternative, more benign interpretations? By developing an alternative interpretation, we discover that Arrow's result has interesting implications in a variety of topics ranging from the free rider problem of economics, incentives, and even an explanation for the chaotic behavior of price dynamics.