Indifference Curves and a Hydraulic Model of General Equilibrium

Robert Dimand

Chapter Chapter 2 in Irving Fisher, 2019, pp 17-44 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Indifference Curves and a Hydraulic Model of General Equilibrium examines Fisher’s Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices (Yale PhD dissertation 1891, published 1892) which not only independently reinvented general equilibrium analysis before Fisher read Walras or Edgeworth (hence Robert Dorfman’s view that the thesis should have been rejected for unnecessary duplication of existing literature) but also introduced ordinal utility and indifference curves and constructed a hydraulic model to simulate the determination of equilibrium prices and quantities (justifying Paul Samuelson’s verdict that it was “the greatest Ph.D. dissertation ever written in economics”).

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:gtechp:978-3-030-05177-8_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9783030051778

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-05177-8_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Great Thinkers in Economics from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().