Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2009
Summary
To understand the various strands of general equilibrium theory and why it has taken the forms that it has since the time of Léon Walras, and to achieve a view of the present state of general equilibrium theorizing and the directions it appears to be taking, it is essential to understand Walras's work and examine its influence. In Walras's Market Models (1996), I considered the technical details of his economic models in great detail, but something more must be done to achieve a fully rounded view of his economic contributions and a truly productive use of a knowledge of them. The first section of the present book accordingly examines the foundations of his work, which were the essence of his heritage. These were his philosophical and methodological approaches to economic modeling, his views on human nature, and the basic components of his general equilibium models, considered from the point of view of what is interesting about them in light of the subsequent influence of his work. The second section examines how Walras's influence has been manifested in the theorizing of his successors, surveying the models of economists such as H. L. Moore, Vilfredo Pareto, Knut Wicksell, Gustav Cassel, Abraham Wald, John von Neumann, J. R. Hicks, Kenneth Arrow, and Gérard Debreu. Thus this book and Walras's Market Models are complementary.
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- Information
- Walrasian Economics , pp. ix - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006