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Measure Theory

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The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
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Abstract

Measure theory is that part of mathematics which is concerned with the attribution of weights of ‘measure’ to the subsets of some given set. Such a measure is required to satisfy a natural condition of additivity, that is that the measure of the union of disjoint sets should be equal to the sum of the measure of those sets. The fundamental problems of measure arise when one has to treat infinite sets or infinite unions of sets. It is perhaps not clear why such a tool should be of use in economics.

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Bibliography

Any standard text in measure theory such as Halmos (1971) will give the essential mathematical notions, and more specialized references are given in the bibliographies of the articles cited here.

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Kirman, A.P. (2018). Measure Theory. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1172

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