General Equilibrium Theory

Ross M. Starr is Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught since 1980. He has also served on the faculties of Yale University, Connecticut, the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of California, Davis, and he held a Guggenheim Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Starr's research focuses on general equilibrium theory, mathematical economics and monetary theory. He is the editor of General Equilibrium Models of Monetary Economies (1989) and coeditor of the three-volume Essays in Honor of Kenneth Arrow (Cambridge, 1986). His articles have appeared in journals such as Econometrica, Economic Theory, the Journal of Economic Theory, the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Review of Economic Studies. Cambridge University Press released the first edition of General Equilibrium Theory: An Introduction in 1997.

• Part I. General Equilibrium Theory: Getting Acquainted: 1. Concept and history of general equilibrium theory; 2. An elementary general equilibrium model - the Robinson Crusoe economy; 3. The Edgeworth box; 4. Integrating production and multiple consumption decisions: a 2 x 2 x 2 model; 5. Existence of general equilibrium in an economy with an excess demand function; Part II. Mathematics: 6. Logic and set theory; 7. RN: real N-dimensional Euclidean space; 8. Convex sets, separation theorems, and non-convex sets in RN; 9. The Brouwer fixed point theorem; Part III. An Economy with Bounded Production Technology, Supply and Demand Functions: 10. Markets, prices, commodities, and mathematical economic theory; 11. Production with bounded firm technology; 12. Households; 13. A market economy; 14. General equilibrium of the market economy with an excess demand function; Part IV. An Economy with Unbounded Production Technology, Supply and Demand Functions: 15. Theory of production: the unbounded technology case; 16. Households: the unbounded technology case; 17. A market economy: the unbounded technology case; 18. General equilibrium of the market economy: the unbounded technology case; Part V. Welfare Economics and the Scope of Markets: 19. Pareto efficiency and competitive equilibrium; 20. Time and uncertainty: futures markets; Part VI. Bargaining and Equilibrium: The Core: 21. The core of a market economy; 22. Convergence of the core of a large economy; Part VII. An Economy with Supply and Demand Correspondences: 23. Mathematics: analysis of point to set mappings; 24. General equilibrium of the market economy with an excess demand correspondence; 25. U-shaped cost curves and concentrated preferences; Part VIII. Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: 26. Next steps; 27. Summary and conclusion.

'Most books on the theory of general equilibrium have adopted the terribly arid axiomatic style illustrated in pure mathematics by Nicolas Bourbaki's treatise. That style makes no compromise with rigor. But it often defies intuition. Ross Starr's book is the best attempt so far at combining economic intuition with rigor in dealing with those staples of general equilibrium theory that are the existence and the two welfare theorems. Part A … deals with special cases of the general equilibrium model up to the two-good, two-factor, two-agent model, something that is never done in more 'advanced' presentations. Part B is a remarkably lucid introduction to the mathematics of point-set topology needed in any serious study of the general equilibrium model. Both parts will be welcomed by undergraduate students.' Yves Balasko, University of York