Author Description

"General equilibrium theorists including Frank Hahn, Alan Kirman, Franklin Fisher, Michael Magill, Mordecai Kurz and Michio Morishima debate strengths, weaknesses, recent advances and possible futures with leading 'dissenting' thinkers including Duncan Foley, Pierangelo Garegnani, Herbert Gintis and Bertram Schefold who seek to explain their rejection of the general equilibrium approach and the alternative directions they consider more promising. The book contains critical surveys of the state of the arts and new results in many central sub-fields of general equilibrium theory and of value theory more generally. Also, the confrontation between advocates of different research programmes produces important clarifications on the basic disagreements and open issues, eliminating misunderstandings and creating the opportunity for more fruitful debate among economists of different persuasions. The topics discussed include existence of equilibrium in infinite-horizon economies; incomplete markets; indeterminacy; stability; the relevance of the 'Cambridge controversies' for general equilibrium theory; expectation formation and learning; the microfoundations of macroeconomics; the long-period method; game-theoretic and evolutionary approaches to behaviour modelling; statistical equilibria; the differences between the classical and the general equilibrium approaches to value and distribution, and the roles of general equilibrium theory."--Jacket.