MIT OpenCourseWare
  • OCW home
  • Course List
  • about OCW
  • Help
  • Feedback
  • Support MIT OCW

Calendar

Readings marked * are highly recommended and cover core topics examined. Other readings are supplementary. When readings are assigned in more than one of the Kreps, Mas-Colell/Whinston/Green and Varian texts, students may choose one from among them depending on student preferences.

TOPIC # TOPICS READINGS
1 Existence and Optimality of General Equilibrium
  • * D. Kreps. A Course in Microeconomic Theory. Chaps. 6 and 8.
  • * H. Varian. Microeconomic Analysis. Chaps. 17, 18, 21.2, and 21.3
  • * A. Mas-Colell, M. Whinston, and J. Green. Microeconomic Theory. Chaps. 10, 15, 16, and 17.
  • G. Debreu. Theory of Value.
  • K. Arrow and F. Hahn. General Competitive Analysis.
  • A. Mas-Colell. The Theory of General Economic Equilibrium: A Differentiable Approach.
  • * P. Diamond and D. McFadden. "Some Uses of the Expenditure Function in Public Finance."
  • * W. Moss. "Some Uses of the Expenditure Function in Public Finance: A Comment."
  • C. Blackorby. "Economic policy in a second-best environment."
  • F. Gul and E. Stacchetti. Walrasian Equilibrium with Gross Substitutes.
2 The Core and Convergence Theorem
  • * Mas-Colell, Whinston, and Green, Chap. 18B.
  • W. Hildenbrand and A. Kirman. Equilibrium Analysis. Chap. 1.
  • G. Debreu and H. Scarf. "A Limit Theorem on the Core of an Economy."
3 Arrow's Impossibility Theorem
  • * Kreps. Chap. 5.
  • * Mas-Colell, Whinston, and Green. Chap. 21A-C.
  •  K. Arrow. Social Choice and Individual Values.
  •  A. Sen. "Social Choice." 
  •  J. Geanakoplos. Three Brief Proofs of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem.
  •  L. Ubeda. "Condorcet Paradox and Arrow's Impossibility Theorem." 
4 Externalities and Public Goods
  • * Kreps. Chaps. 6 and 8.
  • * Varian. Chaps. 23 and 24.
  • * Mas-Colell, Whinston, and Green. Chap. 11.
  • * P. Dasgupta and G. Heal. Economic Theory and Exhaustible Resources. Chap. 3.
  • * J. Farrell. "Information and the Coase Theorem." 
  • * P. Diamond. "Consumption Externalities and Imperfect Corrective Pricing." 
  • * A. Dixit and M. Olson. "Does Voluntary Participation Undermine the Coase Theorem?" 
  • * L. Kaplow and S. Shavell. "On the Superiority of Corrective Taxes to Quantity Regulation."
  • J. Green and E. Sheshinski. "Direct vs. Indirect Remedies for Externalities."
  • E. Sheshinski. "Note on Atmosphere Externality and Corrective Taxes."
  • R. G. Lipsey and K. Lancaster. "The general theory of the second-best." 
  • M. Weitzman. "Free Access vs. Private Ownership as Alternative Systems for Managing Common Property."
  • M. Weitzman. "Prices vs. Quantities."
  • R. Coase. "The Problem of Social Cost."
  • J. J. Laffont. Fundamentals of Public Economics. Chap. 1.
5 Intertemporal Competitive Equilibrium
  • * Kreps. Chap. 6, Section 5.
  • * Varian. Chap. 19.
  • * Mas-Colell, Whinston, and Green. Chap. 20.
6 Uncertainty with Complete Markets
  • * Varian. Chap. 6, Section 5.
  • * Varian. Chap. 20.
  • * Mas-Colell, Whinston, and Green. Chap. 19, Parts A-E.
  • K. Arrow. "The Role of Securities in the Optimal Allocation of Risk-Bearing."
  • G. Debreu. "Theory of Value." In Uncertainty in Economics: Readings and Exercises. Edited by Peter A. Diamond and Michael Rothschild.
  • P. Dasgupta and G. Heal. Chaps. 4 and 6.
  • J. Hirshleifer and J. G. Riley. The Analytics of Uncertainty and Information.
  • E. Malinvaud. "The Allocation of Small Risks in Large Markets."
  • J. J. Laffont. The Economics of Uncertainty and Information.
7 Incomplete Markets
  • * P. Diamond. "The Role of a Stock Market in a General Equilibrium Model with Technological Uncertainty."
  • * Mas-Colell, Whinston, and Green. Chap. 19, Parts F and G.
  • * P. Diamond. "Efficiency with Uncertain Supply."
  • * J. Hirshleifer. "The Private and Social Value of Information and the Reward to Inventive Activity."
  • Michael Magill and Martine Quinzii. Theory of Incomplete Markets.
  • O. Hart. "On the Optimality of Equilibrium When the Market Structure Is Incomplete."
  • L. H. Loong and R. Zeckhauser. "Pecuniary Externalities do Matter When Contingent Claims Markets are Incomplete." 
  • J. Stiglitz. "The Inefficiency of Stock Market Equilibrium."
  • J. Geanakoplos. "An Introduction to General Equilibrium with Incomplete Asset Markets."
  • L. Makowski. "Perfect Competition, The Profit Criterion, and the Organization of Economic Activity."
  • D. Acemoglu and F. Zilibotti. "Was Prometheus Unbound by Chance? Risk, Diversification and Growth." 
  • A. Bisin. "General Equilibrium and Endogenously Incomplete Financial Markets."