What if Achilles and the tortoise were to bargain? An argument against interim agreements

Dov Samet

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Zeno's paradoxes of motion, which claim that moving from one point to another cannot be accomplished in finite time, seem to be of serious concern when moving towards an agreement is concerned. Parkinson's Law of Triviality implies that such an agreement cannot be reached in finite time. By explicitly modeling dynamic processes of reaching interim agreements and using arguments similar to Zeno's, we show that if utilities are von Neumann-Morgenstern, then no such process can bring about an agreement in finite time in linear bargaining problems. To extend this result for all bargaining problems, we characterize a particular path illustrated by \cite{ra}, and show that no agreement is reached along this path in finite time.

Keywords: Zeno's paradox; bargaining problems; interim agreements; vNM utility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C70 C78 D70 D72 D73 D74 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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