Walrasian Economics

✍ Scribed by Donald A. Walker

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 369
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In order to understand the various strands of general equilibrium theory, why it has taken the forms that it has since the time of Leon Walras, and to appreciate fully a view of the present state of general equilibrium theorizing, it is essential to understand Walras’s work and examine its influence. The first section of the book accordingly examines the foundations of Walras’s work. These include his philosophical and methodological approach to economic modeling, his views on human nature, and the basic components of his general equilibrium models. The second section examines how the influence of his ideas has been manifested in the theorizing of his successors, surveying the models of theorists such as H. L. Moore, Vilfredo Pareto, Knut Wicksell, Gustav Cassel, Abraham Wald, John von Neumann, J. R. Hicks, Kenneth Arrow, and Gerard Debreu. The treatment also examines recent models of many types in which Walras’s influence is explicitly acknowledged.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Preface......Page 11
Introduction......Page 13
PART I: Walras's ideas......Page 33
SECTION I: The foundations of Walras's mature comprehensive model......Page 35
I Introduction......Page 37
Methodological tradition......Page 38
Walras and Descartes......Page 39
The archrationalism thesis......Page 40
Walras and J. S. Mill......Page 41
III Concrete particular facts versus essences......Page 44
IV General facts......Page 47
Subject matter......Page 49
Methods......Page 50
The process of empirical investigation and discovery......Page 52
Use of individual facts as the basis of assumptions and to evaluate conclusions......Page 54
VI Applied sciences......Page 57
Real and ideal types......Page 59
Imagination......Page 63
Idealism and realism......Page 64
Syntheses of doctrines and methods......Page 65
VIII Conclusion......Page 68
CHAPTER 2 Economic philosophy and methodology......Page 70
Objective economic reality......Page 71
The corresponding positive character of economic theory......Page 72
The aspects of objective reality treated by economic theory......Page 75
Definition of the market and of competition; effective demand curves......Page 77
Observation, experience, and experiments in economic theorization......Page 79
III The third step: Recognition of the near-ubiquity of freely competitive markets in the real economy......Page 84
The assumption that the markets in the model are freely competitive......Page 85
Real referents of the components of the model......Page 87
Induction and deduction......Page 88
Real referents of the components of the model in practice......Page 90
Fictional versus real types......Page 92
V The fifth step: Introduction of more empirically derived detail......Page 94
Theorizing and reality......Page 97
Logical experiments and historical evidence......Page 99
Walras’s evaluations of his own model......Page 101
Walras’s evaluations of the theories of other economists......Page 105
Rationale of applications......Page 109
Applied economics......Page 110
Justification......Page 114
Theoretical uses of mathematics......Page 116
Equations based on economic reality......Page 117
Mathematics and applications......Page 119
IV Confirmation of hypotheses and conclusions by experience......Page 120
V Conclusion......Page 122
I Introduction......Page 125
Distinction between animal and human nature......Page 126
Malleability......Page 127
Essential unity in behavior......Page 129
III Free will......Page 130
Critique of individualism......Page 136
Human nature as the basis of social phenomena......Page 137
V Deductions about society from an understanding of the general features of human nature......Page 138
Human nature in Walras’s economic models......Page 140
The first step......Page 143
The second step......Page 144
The third step......Page 145
The fifth step......Page 147
IX Conclusion......Page 149
I Walras's approach......Page 152
Economics of the firm......Page 154
The entrepreneur’s role......Page 155
The entrepreneur and losses......Page 158
Equilibrium and stability of the real economy......Page 159
General equilibration and equilibrium of the model......Page 161
Walras’s verbal reasoning about the equilibrium and stability of the model......Page 162
Entrepreneurs, capitalists, and capital formation......Page 166
Conditions of a reprise......Page 167
A reprise takes place under these conditions:......Page 168
Contradictions in the model......Page 170
Mathematical treatment of existence......Page 174
A contradiction between the model and the equations......Page 175
Stability and the equation system......Page 176
Comparative statics......Page 178
Monetary processes......Page 179
Consumer sovereignty and the allocation of resources......Page 181
VI The legacy of the mature comprehensive model......Page 182
SECTION II: The written pledges sketch......Page 185
The written pledges sketch......Page 187
A surprise discovery......Page 191
The last comprehensive model......Page 193
II Accounting for the poor quality of the revisions in the fourth edition......Page 195
III Walras's productivity......Page 199
APPENDIX......Page 204
SECTION III: Walras's writings......Page 209
I Description of the definitive bibliography......Page 211
II Jaff's plans......Page 215
III Comparison with the first edition......Page 217
1859......Page 219
1860......Page 220
1861......Page 221
1862......Page 222
1864......Page 223
1866......Page 224
1867......Page 226
1868......Page 228
1870......Page 229
1872......Page 230
1874......Page 231
1875......Page 233
1876......Page 234
1877......Page 236
1878......Page 238
1879......Page 240
1880......Page 241
1881......Page 242
1883......Page 243
1884......Page 244
1885......Page 245
1887......Page 246
1889......Page 247
1892......Page 248
1895......Page 249
1896......Page 250
1897......Page 252
1898......Page 253
1899......Page 254
1900......Page 255
1907......Page 256
1918......Page 257
1933......Page 258
1938......Page 259
1952......Page 260
1954......Page 261
1965......Page 262
1980......Page 263
1987......Page 264
PART II: Walras's influence......Page 269
Background......Page 271
Walras’s influence......Page 274
Empiricism......Page 277
Theory of demand......Page 279
Stability......Page 281
The entrepreneur......Page 283
Economics of the firm......Page 285
Welfare economics......Page 286
Pareto’s law......Page 287
General socioeconomic equilibrium......Page 288
Pareto’s conservativism......Page 289
Some economists of the school of Lausanne......Page 290
Contributions......Page 293
C. Joseph A. Schumpeter......Page 296
D. Henry Moore and Henry Schultz......Page 297
I Introduction......Page 300
Background......Page 302
Approach and theoretical foundations......Page 304
Cassel’s three models......Page 305
Character and limitations of the models......Page 307
Modeling in the 1930s......Page 308
J. R. Hicks’s model......Page 314
Post-Hicksian virtual Walrasian modeling......Page 318
The present state of virtual Walrasian modeling......Page 321
CHAPTER 11 Concluding comments: Walras’s ideas in modern economics......Page 325
References......Page 329
A. Exchange models......Page 346
C. Non-virtual models in which there is production......Page 347
A. Walras’s law......Page 348
B. Walras allocations......Page 349
A. Oligopoly, Cournot-Walras, and monopolistic models......Page 350
B. Nash-Walras, games and bargaining models......Page 351
IV. Micro- and macro-economics: blending the ideas of Walras and J. M. Keynes......Page 353
V. Applied and computational general equilibrium models......Page 354
Index......Page 357