Abstract
Together with Kenneth Arrow, Frank Hahn produced the leading 20th century treatise on the theory of general equilibrium under competition. Hahn was acutely conscious of the wide gap between the standard assumptions and economic reality: an inadequate theory of money, an inability to cope with unemployment, the absence of a theory of out-of-equilibrium behavior. Much of the rest of his research was aimed at correcting these deficiencies, at least partially. Some of this work is identified and sketched here. There is finally a discussion of Hahn’s vital role in preserving economics at Cambridge from parochialism and possibly self-destruction in the 1960s and 1970s.
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References
Works by Frank Hahn Referred to in the Text
Arrow, K.J. and F.H. Hahn (1971). General Competitive Analysis. San Francisco: Holden-Day.
Arrow, K.J. and F.H. Hahn (1999). ‘Notes on Sequence Economies, Transaction Costs and Uncertainty’. Journal of Economic Theory, 86(2): 203–218.
Friedman, B.M. and F.H. Hahn (eds) (1990). Handbook of Monetary Economics. Two volumes. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Hahn, F.H. (1947). ‘A Note on Profit and Uncertainty’. Economica, New Series, 14(55): 211–225.
Hahn, F.H. (1951). ‘The Share of Wages in the National Income’. Oxford Economic Papers, New Series, 3(2): 147–157.
Hahn, F.H. (1952–1953). ‘The General Equilibrium Theory of Money: A Comment’. Review of Economic Studies, 19(3): 179–185.
Hahn, F.H. (1955). ‘Uncertainty and the Cobweb’. Review of Economic Studies, 23(1): 65–75.
Hahn, F.H. (1960). ‘The Stability of Growth Equilibrium’. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 74(2): 206–226.
Hahn, F.H. (1961). ‘A Stable Adjustment Process for a Competitive Economy’. Review of Economic Studies, 29(1): 62–65.
Hahn, F.H. (1962). ‘On the Stability of a Pure Exchange Equilibrium’. International Economic Review, 3(2): 206–213.
Hahn, F.H. (1966). ‘Equilibrium Dynamics with Heterogeneous Capital Goods’. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 80(4): 633–646.
Hahn, F.H. (1971). ‘Equilibrium with Transaction Costs’. Econometrica, 39(3): 417–439.
Hahn, F.H. (1972a). The Share of Wages in the National Income: An Enquiry into the Theory of Distribution. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Hahn, F.H. (1972b). ‘Review of Economic Heresies: Some Old-Fashioned Questions in Economic Theory, by Joan Robinson’. Economica, New Series, 39(154): 205–206.
Hahn, F.H. (1973a). ‘On Transaction Costs, Inessential Sequence Economies and Money’. Review of Economic Studies, 40(4): 449–461.
Hahn, F.H. (1973b). ‘On Some Equilibrium Paths’. Chapter 9 in J.A. Mirrlees and N.H. Stern (eds) Models of Economic Growth. London: Macmillan: 193–206.
Hahn, F.H. (1978). ‘On Non-Walrasian Equilibria’. Review of Economic Studies, 45(1): 1–17.
Hahn, F.H. (1982a). ‘Stability’. Chapter 16 in K.J. Arrow and M.D. Intriligator (eds) (1982) Handbook of Mathematical Economics. Volume II. Amsterdam: North-Holland: 745–793.
Hahn, F.H. (1982b). Money and Inflation. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Hahn, F.H. (ed.) (1989). The Economics of Missing Markets, Information, and Games. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hahn, F.H. (1990). ‘Liquidity’. Chapter 2 in B.M. Friedman and F.H. Hahn (eds) (1990) Handbook of Monetary Economics. Volume I. Amsterdam: North-Holland: 63–80.
Hahn, F.H. (1993). ‘Sequence Economies and Incomplete Markets’. Chapter 2 in A. de Zeeuw (ed.) Advanced Lectures in Quantitative Economics II. London: Academic Press: 51–79.
Hahn, F.H. and R.C.O. Matthews (1964). ‘The Theory of Economic Growth: A Survey’. Economic Journal, 74(296): 779–902.
Hahn, F.H. and T. Negishi (1962). ‘A Theorem on Non-Tâtonnement Stability’. Econometrica, 30(3): 463–469.
Hahn, F.H. and R.M. Solow (1995). A Critical Essay on Modern Macroeconomic Theory. Cambridge and London: MIT Press.
Other Works Referred To
Debreu, G. (1959). Theory of Value: An Axiomatic Analysis of Economic Equilibrium. Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Monograph 17. New York: Wiley.
Hicks, J.R. (1939). Value and Capital. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Keynes, J.M. (1936) [1973]. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Volume VII of The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. London: Macmillan.
Negishi, T. (1960). ‘Monopolistic Competition and General Equilibrium’. Review of Economic Studies, 28(3): 196–201.
Negishi, T. (1961). ‘On the Formation of Prices’. International Economic Review, 2(1): 122–126.
Scarf, H. (1960). ‘Some Examples of Global Instability of the Competitive Equilibrium’. International Economic Review, 1(3): 157–172.
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Solow, R.M. (2017). Frank Hahn (1925–2013). In: Cord, R. (eds) The Palgrave Companion to Cambridge Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41233-1_41
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41233-1_41
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