Abstract
The core of an economy consists of those states of the economy which no group of agents can ‘improve upon’. A group of agents can improve upon a state of the economy if, by using the means available to that group, each member can be made better off. Nothing is said in this definition of how a state in the core actually is reached. The actual process of economic transactions is not considered explicitly.
This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, 1st edition, 1987. Edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman
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Bibliography
There is an extensive literature on limit theorems on the core which contains important generalizations of the results given here. For a general reference we refer to Hildenbrand (1974) or (1982), Mas-Colell (1985), Anderson (1985) and the references given there.
Anderson, R.M. 1978. An elementary core equivalence theorem. Econometrica 46: 1483–1487.
Anderson, R.M. 1981. Core theory with strongly convex preferences. Econometrica 49: 1457–1468.
Aumann, R.J. 1964. Markets with a continuum of traders. Econometrica 32: 39–50.
Bewley, T.F. 1973. Edgeworth’s conjecture. Econometrica 41: 425–454.
Debreu, G. 1975. The rate of convergence of the core of an economy. Journal of Mathematical Economics 2: 1–8.
Debreu, G., and H. Scarf. 1963. A limit theorem on the core of an economy. International Economic Review 4: 235–246.
Edgeworth, F.Y. 1881. Mathematical psychics. London: Kegan Paul.
Grodal, B. 1975. The rate of convergence of the core for a purely competitive sequence of economies. Journal of Mathematical Economics 2: 171–186.
Hildenbrand, W. 1974. Core and equilibria of a large economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hildenbrand, W. 1982. Core of an economy. In Handbook of mathematical economics, vol. II, ed. K.J. Arrow and M.D. Intriligator. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Hildenbrand, W., and A.P. Kirman. 1976. Introduction to equilibrium analysis. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Mas-Colell, A. 1985. The theory of general economic equilibrium, a differentiable approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vind, K. 1965. A theorem on the core of an economy. Review of Economic Studies 32: 47–48.
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Hildenbrand, W. (1987). Cores. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_189-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_189-1
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