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The current non-status of general equilibrium theory

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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.

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Correspondence to Donald W. Katzner.

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The author would like to thank Peter Skott for his help in preparing this paper. Many of the ideas and arguments contained in it may be found, often in expanded form, in the Preface and Chap. 10 of my Introduction to the Economic Theory of Market Behavior: Microeconomics from a Walrasian Perspective (Cheltenham: Elgar, 2006).

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Katzner, D.W. The current non-status of general equilibrium theory. Rev Econ Design 14, 203–219 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10058-008-0069-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10058-008-0069-0

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