Economics and the antagonism of time
Subtitle: time, uncertainty, and choice in economic theory
By: Douglas Vickers.
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Ann Arbor
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
Subjects: Time and economic reactions.; Decision making.; Uncertainty.; Rational expectations (Economic theory)
Description: Presenting a rigorous examination of the place and significance of time in economic theory, Douglas Vickers takes up the interrelated issues of uncertainty, ignorance, and criteria of choice. In the discussion of these questions he explains that the conventional thought-forms of probability are not generally applicable to theory-building in economics. To remedy this he provides a completely new paradigm of choice.

The extent to which time has influenced, or been excluded from, economic theory is discussed on four levels: the banishment of time in general equilibrium theory; the incorporation of logical time, in pseudotemporal dynamic analysis in some widely adopted mathematically structured systems; the construction of ceteris paribus dynamics based on conventionally determined behavior; and the analysis of in-time economics, or the results of incorporating into economic theorizing historic time, ignorance, and uncertainty in a nonprobabilistic sense.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-264) and index.