The Classical Theorem on Existence of Competitive Equilibrium
回顾了1950年代证明的竞争均衡存在性经典定理及其后续改进，包括去除生存假设和传递性偏好要求，并讨论了企业和外部经济的作用。适合对一般均衡理论历史和方法感兴趣的学者。
This paper presents the classical theorem on the existence of equilibrium as it was proved in the 1950's with the various improvements that have been made since then.In particular, the elimination of the survival assumption and of the requirement of transitive preferences are carried through with a proof that uses a mapping of social demand.This approach favors intuitive understanding and generalization of the results.Finally, the role of the firm and the introduction of external economies are critically viewed. MYPURPOSE IS TO DISCUSS the present status of the classical theorem on existence of competitive equilibrium that was proved in various guises in the 1950's by Arrow and Debreu [1], Debreu [5, 6], Gale [8], Kuhn [14], McKenzie [17, 18, 19], and Nikaido [22].The earliest papers were those of Arrow and Debreu, and McKenzie, both of which were presented to the Econometric Society at its Chicago meeting in December, 1952.They were written independently.The paper of Nikaido was also written independently of the other papers but delayed in publication.The major predecessors of the papers of the fifties were the papers of Abraham Wald [31, 32] and John von Neumann [30], all of which were delivered to Karl Menger's Colloquium in Vienna during the 1930's.The paper of von Neumann was not concerned with competitive equilibrium in the classical sense but with a program of maximal balanced growth in a closed production model.However, he first used a fixed point theorem for an existence argument in economics and provided the generalization of the Brouwer theorem that was the major mathematical tool in the classical proofs.Wald achieved the first success with the general problem of the existence of a meaningful solution to the Walrasian system of equations.The proofs which were published used an assumption that later became known as the Weak Axiom of Revealed Preference.This axiom virtually reduces the set of consumers to one person, since it is equivalent to consistent choices under budget constraints.In a one consumer economy the existence of the equilibrium becomes a simple maximum problem and advanced methods are not needed.When many consumers with independent preference orders are present, it has been shown (Uzawa [29]) that fixed point methods are necessary.Wald also wrote a third paper whose main theorem was announced in a summary article [33], but which never reached