To infinity and beyond: A general framework for scaling economic theories

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gonczarowski, Yannai A.; Kominers, Scott Duke; Shorrer, Ran I.
• 署名单位: Harvard University; Harvard University; Harvard University; Harvard University; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University - University Park
• 刊物名称: THEORETICAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1933-6837
• DOI: 10.3982/TE5878
• 发表日期: 2025-05-01
• 页码: 511-542
• 关键词: Revealed preferences; infinite models; C02; D00

摘要

Many economic models incorporate finiteness assumptions that, while introduced for simplicity, play a real role in the analysis. We provide a principled framework for scaling results from such models by removing these finiteness assumptions. Our sufficient conditions are on the theorem statement only, and not on its proof. This results in short proofs, and even allows us to use the same argument to scale similar theorems that were proven using distinctly different tools. We demonstrate the versatility of our approach via an array of examples from revealed-preference theory.