Edward Elgar Publishing Information, Finance and General Equilibrium: Collected Papers on the Experimental Foundations of Economics and Political Science, Volume III: 3 (Economists of the Twentieth Century series)

Information, Finance and General Equilibrium brings together the seminal papers on which Charles R. Plott has founded our understanding of experimental economics and political science. These works reflect the broad and overlapping nature of economics, public economics, public choice and political science. They examine the fundamental problem encountered in of all these subject areas - understanding the nature of allocation under conditions of limited resources and how decision processes, institutions and procedures shape these allocations. In particular, this volume contains papers placed at the two extremes of economic phenomena: the largest system and the smallest system - multiple markets and the individual. It contains the first evidence that multiple market systems can equilibrate to the general competitive equilibrium while allocating risk bearing and information. It is here that the experimental foundations for rational expectations models are discovered and developed. A challenging paradox results, which leads Plott to question why the behaviour of a system so complex as a multiple market system can be modelled so well when individuals can exhibit behaviours that are so at odds with the theory. This fascinating work, from a writer at the forefront of experimental economics, will be warmly welcomed by academics, scholars and researchers involved in experimental economics, the methodology of economics, political theory, and political economy. Review 'Charles R. Plott has a formidable armoury of experience backed up with an inquiring and rigorous intellect: an economist interested in getting clear answers to important questions. Before effectively becoming a full-time experimental economist, he enjoyed a fine reputation as a theorist in the area between political science and economics. By 1986 Plott had acquired a reputation as an insightful experimentalist - inspired and encouraged by Vernon Smith with whom he worked for a period before establishing his own experimental laboratory. Plott's contributions to the field of experimental economics are impressive. From 1981, since the Social Science Citation Index records begin, he has a total of 44 publications listed in this and related fields, many with co-authors who themselves are now established experimentalists. He has clearly stimulated a whole generation of economists into doing high quality experimental research. Many of these 44 papers are classics of their kind. The skill, energy and efficiency with which he operates is impressive.' -- John Hey, University of York, UK and University of Bari, Italy About the Author Charles R. Plott, Edward S. Harkness Professor of Economics and Political Science and Director, Laboratory for Experimental Economics and Political Science, California Institute of Technology, US