Showing papers by "Kenneth J. Arrow published in 1995"

Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment.

Abstract: National and international economic policy has usually ignored the environment. In areas where the environment is beginning to impinge on policy, as in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), it remains a tangential concern, and the presumption is often made that economic growth and economic liberalization (including the liberalization of international trade) are, in some sense, good for the environment. This notion has meant that economy-wide policy reforms designed to promote growth and liberalization have been encouraged with little regard to their environmental consequences, presumably on the assumption that these consequences would either take care of themselves or could be dealt with separately. In this article, we discuss the relation between economic growth and environmental quality, and the link between economic activity and the carrying capacity and resilience of the environment.

Returns to Scale, Information and Economic Growth

Abstract: Where the theorist can be helpful is in sorting out the logical coherence of different kinds of assumptions. Typically, economic theory states the resource and technological limitations constraining the economy as a whole and individual agents within the economy, and postulates that the agents act rationally within these constraints. The constraints on individual agents derive in part from the constraints of the economy as a whole but in even greater measure from the very actions of other agents. The prices which an individual agent faces in his or her decisions are determined in one way or another by the aggregate choices of all the other agents.

The competitive effects of line-of-business restrictions in telecommunications

Abstract: We review the original rationale for the line-of-business restrictions faced by the RBOCs and discuss changes in the conditions that motivated them. These changes include: (1) reduced incentives for local exchange carriers (LECs) to shift costs from unregulated to regulated businesses; (2) improved deterrence and monitoring of discrimination in providing network access; and (3) recognition that antitrust laws apply to abuse of market power in local exchange. We also analyze trends in prices charged by RBOCs and other LECs which suggest that the opportunity to engage in cost shuting is of little or no significance today. We conclude that eliminating the remaining line-of-business restrictions is not likely to raise significant new competitive concerns but consumers are likely to benefit from entry by RBOCs into now-prohibited businesses, many of which are highly concentrated.

Social choice re-examined : proceedings of the IEA Conference held at Schloss Hernstein, Berndorf, near Vienna, Austria

Abstract: VOLUME 1 Acknowledgements - Abbreviations and Acronyms - Notes on the Contributors - Introduction K.J.Arrow - PART 1: THE NATURE AND ROLE OF SOCIAL CHOICE THEORY - The Functions of Social Choice Theory K.J.Arrow - Discussion W.Gaertner - Individual Preference as the Basis of Social Choice A.Sen - Discussion L.Gevers - PART 2: THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL CHOICE AND IMPOSSIBILITY THEOREMS - Voting Models in the Arrovian Framework F.Aleskerov - Discussion N.Schofield - Arrovian Social Choice on Economic Domains M.Le Breton - Axiomatic Analysis of Resource Allocation H.Moulin & W.Thomson - A Unified Perspective on Resource Allocation: Limited Arbitrage is Necessary and Sufficient for the Existence of a Competitive Equilibrium, the Core and Social Choice G.Chichilnisky - Discussion N.Baigent - The Possibility-Impossibility Boundary in Social Choice D.Campbell & J.Kelly - Index. VOLUME 2 MANIPULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION - Reasonable Mechanisms and Nash Implementation B.Dutta - Discussion B.Peleg - Notes on Strategy: Proof Social Choice Functions S.Barbera - Discussion H.Moulin - PART 2: FOUNDATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF RIGHTS - Foundations and Implications of Rights C.Seidl - Discussion G.Orosel - Game Forms versus Social Choice Rules as Models of Rights P.Hammond - Discussion R.Deb - On Modelling Individual Rights: Some Conceptual Issues P.Pattanaik - Discussion M.Salles - PART 3: SOCIAL CHOICE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE - Intertemporally Consistent Population Ethics: Classical Utilitarian Principles C.Blackorby, W.Bossert & D.Donaldson - Discussion W.Thomson - Rational just Social Change S-C.Kolm - Discussion J.Weymark - Interpersonal Comparisons of the Extended Sympathy Type and the Possibility of Social Choice K.Suzumura - Discussion K.Roberts - Index