These twenty papers were selected by the author, who received the Nobel Prize in 1983. The book includes a major introduction by Werner Hildenbrand, who assesses Professor Debreu's contribution to economic theory and explains the part played by these papers in the development of the subject.

At the Fourth World Congress of the Econometric Society, a number of Symposia were held at which invited papers were given. The purpose of these Symposia was to survey as completely as possible those areas in Economic Theory and Econometrics where important research had come to light during the last few years. This volume includes papers delivered at the Congress.

This volume includes papers delivered at the Fourth World Congress of the Econometric Society. It will interest economic theorists and econometricians working in universities, government, and business and financial institutions.

In a major work that is the culmination of over a decade of intensive research, Werner Hildenbrand presents a new theory of market demand, the principal aim of which is to identify the conditions under which the Law of Demand holds true. Hildenbrand argues that the Law of Demand is due mainly to the "heterogeneity" of the population of households. In his view, "rationality" of individual behavior plays only a minor role. While the traditional approach to the theory of market demand is to analyze the question, To what extent are the postulated properties of individual behavior preserved by going from individual to market demand?, this book asks the question, Which properties of the market demand function are created by the aggregation process?. Two hypotheses on the population of households play a key role in Hilden-brand's thinking. The first is the "increasing dispersion" and the second the "increasing spread" of households' demand. These hypotheses can easily be interpreted and are a priori plausible. For a positive theory of market demand, according to Hildenbrand, it is more important that the hypotheses are well supported by empirical evidence. His claims in this important new book are based on a nonparametric statistical data analysis of the U.K. Family Expenditure Survey and the French Enquete Budget de Famille. Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Can every allocation in the core of an economy be decentralized by a suitably chosen price system? Werner Hildenbrand shows that the answer is yes if the economy has "many" participating agents and if the influence of every individual agent on collective actions is "negligible." To give a general and precise definition of economics with this property he considers both economies with a continuum of agents, and a sequence of economies with an increasing number of participants. In both cases this leads to a measure theoretic formulation of economic equilibrium analysis. In the first part of the book the relevant mathematics is developed. In the second part the continuity and convexity properties of the total demand of a consumption sector are investigated. An important result is the equivalence between the core and the set of Walras equilibria for an exchange economy with a continuum of agents. The author then deals with limit theorems on the core for purely competitive sequences of exchange economies. In the last chapter the core and the set of Walras equilibria for a coalition production economy and the relation between these two equilibrium concepts are studied. Originally published in 1974. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Can every allocation in the core of an economy be decentralized by a suitably chosen price system? Werner Hildenbrand shows that the answer is yes if the economy has "many" participating agents and if the influence of every individual agent on collective actions is "negligible." To give a general and precise definition of economics with this property he considers both economies with a continuum of agents, and a sequence of economies with an increasing number of participants. In both cases this leads to a measure theoretic formulation of economic equilibrium analysis. In the first part of the book the relevant mathematics is developed. In the second part the continuity and convexity properties of the total demand of a consumption sector are investigated. An important result is the equivalence between the core and the set of Walras equilibria for an exchange economy with a continuum of agents. The author then deals with limit theorems on the core for purely competitive sequences of exchange economies. In the last chapter the core and the set of Walras equilibria for a coalition production economy and the relation between these two equilibrium concepts are studied. Originally published in 1974. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In a major work that is the culmination of over a decade of intensive research, Werner Hildenbrand presents a new theory of market demand, the principal aim of which is to identify the conditions under which the Law of Demand holds true. Hildenbrand argues that the Law of Demand is due mainly to the "heterogeneity" of the population of households. In his view, "rationality" of individual behavior plays only a minor role. While the traditional approach to the theory of market demand is to analyze the question, To what extent are the postulated properties of individual behavior "preserved" by going from individual to market demand?, this book asks the question, Which properties of the market demand function are created by the aggregation process?.

Two hypotheses on the population of households play a key role in Hilden-brand's thinking. The first is the "increasing dispersion" and the second the "increasing spread" of households' demand. These hypotheses can easily be interpreted and are a priori plausible. For a positive theory of market demand, according to Hildenbrand, it is more important that the hypotheses are well supported by empirical evidence. His claims in this important new book are based on a nonparametric statistical data analysis of the U.K. Family Expenditure Survey and the French EnquA te Budget de Famille.

Originally published in 1994.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905."

Das vorliegende Buch entstand als Vorlesungsmanuskript zu der Kursvorlesung "Lineare 6konomische Modelle", die in Bonn regelmaBig angeboten wird. Das Buch ist gedacht fur Studenten der Volkswirtschaftslehre im Hauptstudium, die gewisse Grund- kenntnisse der linearen Algebra haben und sich fur die 6konomischen Aspekte der li- nearen programmierung interessieren. Obwohl es uber line are Programmierung und lineare Modelle zahlreiche Bucher gibt, deckt sich keines dieser Bucher genau mit dem Inhalt der Vorlesung. Der Vor- lesung am nachsten kommen wohl die Bucher von D.Gale "Linear Economic Models" und R.Dorfman, P.Samuelson, R.Solow "Linear Programming & Economic Analysis" . Da sich das Buch in erster Linie an Studenten der Volkswirtschaftslehre wendet und weniger an Studenten, die sich auf das Gebiet Operations Research spezialisieren wollen, haben wir versucht, die Theorie so einfach wie m6glich zu halten, was natur- lich auf Kosten der Allgemeinheit ging. Auf viele interessante Spezialfalle und Ver- feinerungen der Theorie haben wir bewuBt verzichtet. Der rein mathematisch orientierte Leser wird in diesem Buch nichts neues finden. Auch betriebswirtschaftliche Anwendungen werden nicht behandelt -- dafur gibt es spezielle Vorlesungen und ausgezeichnete Literatur. Uns interessierten lediglich diejenigen Aspekte der Theorie der linearen Optimierung, die fur die 6konomische Theorie von Bedeutung sind.