Social Choice and Individual Values

Kenneth J. Arrow, Eric S. Maskin

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9780300186987
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Consumer Behaviour
• Index: Economics

Originally published in 1951, Social Choice and Individual Values introduced "Arrow's Impossibility Theorem" and founded the field of social choice theory in economics and political science. This new edition, including a new foreword by Nobel laureate Eric Maskin, reintroduces Arrow's seminal book to a new generation of students and researchers.

"Far beyond a classic, this small book unleashed the ongoing explosion of interest in social choice and voting theory. A half-century later, the book remains full of profound insight: its central message, 'Arrow's Theorem,' has changed the way we think."- Donald G. Saari, author of Decisions and Elections: Explaining the Unexpected.

Table of contents

• FOREWORD TO THE THIRD EDITION
• PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• CONTENTS
• I. INTRODUCTION
• II. THE NATURE OF PREFERENCE AND CHOICE
• III. THE SOCIAL WELFARE FUNCTION
• IV. THE COMPENSATION PRINCIPLE
• V. THE GENERAL POSSIBILITY THEOREM FOR SOCIAL WELFARE FUNCTIONS
• VI. THE INDIVIDUALISTIC ASSUMPTIONS
• VII. SIMILARITY AS THE BASIS OF SOCIAL WELFARE JUDGMENTS
• VIII. NOTES ON THE THEORY OF SOCIAL CHOICE, 92 1963
• INDEX