IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ums/papers/2004-10.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Current Non-Status of General Equilibrium Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Donald W. Katzner

    (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Abstract

This paper argues that the abandonment of general equilibrium theory by microeconomists was a mistake. It provides counter arguments to two of the reasons for that abandonment — lack of both generality and consistency with methodological individualism in uniqueness and stability analysis of equilibria — and urges microeconomists to refocus some of their attention on it.

Suggested Citation

  • Donald W. Katzner, 2004. "The Current Non-Status of General Equilibrium Theory," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2004-10, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2005.
    • Handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2004-10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.umass.edu/economics/publications/2004-10.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mantel, Rolf R., 1974. "On the characterization of aggregate excess demand," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 348-353, March.
    2. Smale, Stephen, 1976. "Exchange processes with price adjustment," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 211-226, December.
    3. Debreu, Gerard, 1974. "Excess demand functions," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 15-21, March.
    4. Sonnenschein, Hugo, 1972. "Market Excess Demand Functions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 40(3), pages 549-563, May.
    5. Kirman, Alan, 1989. "The Intrinsic Limits of Modern Economic Theory: The Emperor Has No Clothes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(395), pages 126-139, Supplemen.
    6. Franklin M. Fisher, 1972. "On Price Adjustment without an Auctioneer," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 39(1), pages 1-15.
    7. Benassy, Jean-Pascal, 1993. "Nonclearing Markets: Microeconomic Concepts and Macroeconomic Applications," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 732-761, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Donald Katzner, 2010. "The current non-status of general equilibrium theory," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 14(1), pages 203-219, March.
    2. Frank Ackerman, 2001. "Still dead after all these years: interpreting the failure of general equilibrium theory," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 119-139.
    3. Marchionatti, Roberto & Sella, Lisa, 2015. "Is Neo-Walrasian Macroeconomics a Dead End?," CESMEP Working Papers 201502, University of Turin.
    4. D. Wade Hands, 2012. "The Rise and Fall of Walrasian Microeconomics: The Keynesian Effect," Chapters, in: Microfoundations Reconsidered, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Giraud, Gaël & Grasselli, Matheus, 2021. "Household debt: The missing link between inequality and secular stagnation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 901-927.
    6. Gallegati, Mauro & Kirman, Alan, 2019. "20 years of WEHIA: A journey in search of a safer road," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 5-14.
    7. G. Fagiolo & A. Roventini, 2009. "On the Scientific Status of Economic Policy: A Tale of Alternative Paradigms," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, issue 6.
    8. Kemp-Benedict, Eric, 2013. "Material needs and aggregate demand," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 16-26.
    9. Barbara Dluhosch, 2011. "European Economics at a Crossroads, by J. Barkley Rosser, Jr., Richard P. F. Holt, and David Colander," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 629-631, August.
    10. Giovanni Dosi & Andrea Roventini, 2019. "More is different ... and complex! the case for agent-based macroeconomics," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 1-37, March.
    11. Simone Landini & Mauro Gallegati & J. Barkley Rosser, 2020. "Consistency and incompleteness in general equilibrium theory," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 205-230, January.
    12. Hodgson, Geoffrey M., 1997. "Economics and the return to Mecca: The recognition of novelty and emergence," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 399-412, October.
    13. Foley, Duncan K., 2010. "What's wrong with the fundamental existence and welfare theorems?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 115-131, August.
    14. J. Barkley Rosser Jr & Richard P.F. Holt & David Colander, 2010. "European Economics at a Crossroads," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13585.
    15. Charalambos Aliprantis & Kim Border & Owen Burkinshaw, 1996. "Market economies with many commodities," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 19(1), pages 113-185, March.
    16. David Colander, 2018. "How Economists Got It Wrong: A Nuanced Account," Chapters, in: How Economics Should Be Done, chapter 12, pages 163-189, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Torsten Trimborn & Philipp Otte & Simon Cramer & Maximilian Beikirch & Emma Pabich & Martin Frank, 2020. "SABCEMM: A Simulator for Agent-Based Computational Economic Market Models," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 55(2), pages 707-744, February.
    18. Bonnisseau, Jean-Marc, 2003. "Regular economies with non-ordered preferences," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3-4), pages 153-174, June.
    19. Gaffeo, E. & Catalano, M. & Clementi, F. & Delli Gatti, D. & Gallegati, M. & Russo, A., 2007. "Reflections on modern macroeconomics: Can we travel along a safer road?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 382(1), pages 89-97.
    20. Monteiro, Paulo Klinger, 2006. "The set of equilibria of first-price auctions," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 364-372, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    general equilibrium theory; price determination; methodological individualism.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D50 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2004-10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Daniele Girardi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deumaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.