March 11, 2013

The calculating auctioneer, enlightened wage setters, and the fingers of the Invisible Hand {40}

Working paper at SSRN

Abstract  The formal foundations of theoretical economics must be nonbehavioral and epitomize the interdependence of real and nominal variables that constitutes the monetary economy. This is a cogent conclusion from the persistent collapse of behavioral and real models. Conceptual rigor demands, first, to take objective-structural axioms as a formal point of departure and, secondly, to clarify the interrelations of the fundamental concepts of income and profit. The present paper reconstructs the characteristic properties of a Walrasian economy in structural axiomatic terms, generalizes them, and explores the consequences for our understanding of the working of the economy we happen to live in.