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SCIENCE STUDIES EVENTS
FORMAL LIMITATIONS IN ECONOMIC THEORY AND ALTERNATIVE
SET THEORIES: A PRELIMINARY SURVEY
Fernando Tohmé
Department of Economics
Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca Argentina,
and University of California Berkeley
April 9, 2003
Wednesday, 3:30pm
Preston Seminar Room
In this paper, we analyze some formal (computational and set-theoretic)
limitations of the accepted economic theory. We show that the
computation of choice functions as well as the existence of economic
equilibria and states of the world is not guaranteed in general. A
switch to an alternative set theory may help to get rid of some of these
negative results. While this procedure seems an easy form to solve
analytical problems, we claim that it may have a legitimate importance
for economic theory. In fact, alternative set-theoretic frameworks
convey alternative intuitions about how agents behave when solving
problems. We end this paper speculating about the advantages of assuming
that the set-theoretic universe for economic theory is AFA + DC + AD
(Anti Foundation set theory + Axiom of Dependent Choices + Axiom of
Determinacy).
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