Scelte sociali e valori individuali

Arrow made his PhD thesis into this book in 1951. It remains one of the most remarkable works in the strange field of economics in the twentieth century. This is the book that launched a thousand puzzled explanations by troubled neo-classical economists in the years following its publication. The bo Leggi tutto

A fascinating work of relatively simple preference ordering that demonstrates that under generally accepted rules of welfare economics, no choice between 3+ alternatives can be made without being imposed or under dictatorial rule. Yet the consequences of such probably are profound, striking at the v Leggi tutto

This book launched the modern study of social choice theory with its famous proof of the General Possibility Theorem, better known as "Arrow's Impossibility Theorem." Arrow's theorem shows the impossibility of a class of social welfare functions (roughly, rules that generates a social ranking of soc Leggi tutto

Very thought provoking. I think I disagree with Arrow on some fundamental points. Going from "utility functions are incommensurable" to "ordinal rankings with independence of irrelevant alternatives" seems like a bonkers move to me. Decent chunks of the book got into the minutiae of semantics or the f Leggi tutto

The book investigates the problem of aggregating individual preferences into a collective decision and introduces what is now known as Arrow's Impossibility Theorem. This theorem has had a profound impact on the fields of welfare economics, political science, and decision-making theory. Arrow's Impos Leggi tutto

READ DEC 2021 I was intrigued by this one because of how COVID is being dealt with around the world. This was a short book, but was long as an academic piece. Very technical. The focus was on the tension between individual values and how a social group arrives at a decision on the choices they have. H Leggi tutto

I have to give this book 4 stars which I hate about myself because I'm aware it's a groundbreaking, foundational text which would underpin any true understanding of our democratic process but I had a few beers while I was reading it (it was very hot) and I skimmed through the predicate logic and now Leggi tutto