S. N. Afriat
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198284611
- eISBN:
- 9780191595844
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198284616.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Microeconomics
This book approaches various aspects of economics that have to do with choice, and the opportunity for it, such as individual and social choice, production, optimal programming, and the market. The ...
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This book approaches various aspects of economics that have to do with choice, and the opportunity for it, such as individual and social choice, production, optimal programming, and the market. The topics belong mostly to microeconomics, but they also have other connections. The object is to state a view about choice and value and to give an account of the logical apparatus. With this there is a wish to present limited matters fairly completely and unproblematically, and where there is some issue about their nature to consider that also. The book consists of six parts, each containing several chapters.Parts I–IV deal with generalities about choice, individual or social, and representative economic topics. The remaining parts have more concern with straightforwardly mathematical subjects, which have an application or interpretation for economics but need not be exclusively connected there. Chapters often are fairly self‐contained or belong to sequences that can be taken more or less on their own. The topics are in the main fabric of economic theory, and most students encounter them. A preamble at the start of every chapter tells what it is about; from this and possibly some further scanning, the main ideas should be easily gathered by those who might not be concerned with all details. Expository materials and reworkings of published fragments have been joined with unpublished work from past and recent years. In all there is a view about choice and ‘the optimum’ in economics surely acceptable to some and perhaps what they have always thought but undoubtedly not to everyone.Less
This book approaches various aspects of economics that have to do with choice, and the opportunity for it, such as individual and social choice, production, optimal programming, and the market. The topics belong mostly to microeconomics, but they also have other connections. The object is to state a view about choice and value and to give an account of the logical apparatus. With this there is a wish to present limited matters fairly completely and unproblematically, and where there is some issue about their nature to consider that also. The book consists of six parts, each containing several chapters.
Parts I–IV deal with generalities about choice, individual or social, and representative economic topics. The remaining parts have more concern with straightforwardly mathematical subjects, which have an application or interpretation for economics but need not be exclusively connected there. Chapters often are fairly self‐contained or belong to sequences that can be taken more or less on their own. The topics are in the main fabric of economic theory, and most students encounter them. A preamble at the start of every chapter tells what it is about; from this and possibly some further scanning, the main ideas should be easily gathered by those who might not be concerned with all details. Expository materials and reworkings of published fragments have been joined with unpublished work from past and recent years. In all there is a view about choice and ‘the optimum’ in economics surely acceptable to some and perhaps what they have always thought but undoubtedly not to everyone.
Paul Stoneman, Eleonora Bartoloni, and Maurizio Baussola
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198816676
- eISBN:
- 9780191858321
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198816676.003.0012
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Microeconomics
This chapter addresses the impact of product innovation on economic welfare, initially defined as the sum of consumer and producer surpluses. In a static framework, it is shown how product innovation ...
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This chapter addresses the impact of product innovation on economic welfare, initially defined as the sum of consumer and producer surpluses. In a static framework, it is shown how product innovation can increase welfare via additions to consumer surplus and increased firm profits; and an estimate that the value of the increase for a typical product innovation might equal 2.5 per cent of the innovator’s revenue is reported from the literature. Problems with measuring welfare by the sum of consumer and producer surplus are raised, especially because of changes in the producers’ incentives to innovate. In an intertemporal framework, it is further shown that the optimal diffusion path could arise under either monopoly supply or competitive supply, depending on buyers’ price expectations formation processes. It is also argued that variety itself may generate welfare, and whether free markets would generate optimal variety is discussed. The literature suggests not.Less
This chapter addresses the impact of product innovation on economic welfare, initially defined as the sum of consumer and producer surpluses. In a static framework, it is shown how product innovation can increase welfare via additions to consumer surplus and increased firm profits; and an estimate that the value of the increase for a typical product innovation might equal 2.5 per cent of the innovator’s revenue is reported from the literature. Problems with measuring welfare by the sum of consumer and producer surplus are raised, especially because of changes in the producers’ incentives to innovate. In an intertemporal framework, it is further shown that the optimal diffusion path could arise under either monopoly supply or competitive supply, depending on buyers’ price expectations formation processes. It is also argued that variety itself may generate welfare, and whether free markets would generate optimal variety is discussed. The literature suggests not.
