In this essay I explore, counterfactually, alternative ways of mathematizing economics on the basis of these new visions. By choosing examples from consumer and production theory, games and existence proofs, I ask whether a recursion theoretic formalism of their analytic content could have led to alternative, more interesting histories. My conclusions are unambiguously positive The Genetic-Causal Tradition and Modern Economic Theory Robin Cowan and Mario J. Rizzo pp. Genetic-causal explanations place emphasis , inter alia on processes in time, emanating from changes in agent s desires and beliefs. Abstract Consider the project of building a smoke-emitting factory in a resedential district.
Private profits exceed investment outlays, which are sunk.
As the factory owner has the right to pollute, the project is privately profitable, but external damages render it socially inefficient. Coase bargaining would enable any entrepreneur to earn a profit by proposing such a project without any intention to carry it out. Similar bargains and outcomes could occur for each available residential plot. The total side-payments may exceed the aggregate value of the site, and resedential use may be blocked right away. The allocation of pollution rights thus matters.