Exploring General Equilibrium

Fischer S. Black

ISBN 10: 0262514095 / ISBN 13: 9780262514095

Published by MIT Press Ltd, 2010

About this Item

2010. Paperback. An incisive, unconventional assessment of general equilibrium theory; with a previously unpublished paper. Num Pages: 360 pages. BIC Classification: KCB; KFF. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 230 x 154 x 18. Weight in Grams: 496. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780262514095

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Exploring General Equilibrium
• Publisher: MIT Press Ltd
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262514095
• ISBN 13: 9780262514095
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

An incisive, unconventional assessment of general equilibrium theory; with a previously unpublished paper.

Fischer Black is known for his brilliance as well as his sometimes controversial opinions. Highly respected for his scholarly writings in finance, he now moves into different territory with this incisive, unconventional assessment of general equilibrium theory and what that theory reveals about business cycles, growth, and labor economics. The general equilibrium approach, Black asserts, can be used to explain most of the economy's behavior. It can explain business cycles and growth without using sticky prices, irrationality, economies of scale, or imperfect competition. It can explain the volatility of consumption, output, sales, investment, and inventories with axiomatic utility and constant-returns-to-scale production. It can explain temporary layoffs, job changes with and without intervening unemployment, and the behavior of vacancies. It can explain lower wages in part-time jobs, wages that increase rapidly with time on the job, and the forces that cause migration from poor to rich countries. Although the general equilibrium approach can't be tested in conventional ways, it can be used to generate examples that explain stylized facts—generalized observations from the real world—that have preoccupied macroeconomists for the last decade. Black contrasts his interpretation of these facts with conventional interpretations. Finally, he reviews a substantial body of literature on these topics.

About the Author

Fischer Black (1938–1995), coauthor with Myron Scholes ofthe Black-Scholes equation on option pricing, held positionsat the University of Chicago, MIT's Sloan School of Management,and Goldman Sachs. In 1997, Scholes received the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work with Black on option pricing.