Franklin M. Fisher – författare

This book, the fourth volume of Franklin M. Fisher's collected articles, contains work in microeconomics stretching over four decades. Principal sections include essays on stability and disequilibrium, welfare economics and consumer theory, and applications of microeconomics. Topics include the decision whether or not to use statistical methods to adjust the census, and the economics of water in the Middle East as well as the effect of computer reservations systems on airlines and the theory of united fund drives by charities. An autobiographical essay serves as an epilogue.

The most common mode of analysis in economic theory is to assume equilibrium. Yet, without a proper theory of how economies behave in disequilibrium, there is no foundation for such a practice. The necessary step in proposing a foundation is the formulation of a theory of stability, and in this 1984 book, Professor Fisher is primarily concerned with this subject, although disequilibrium behavior itself is analyzed. The author first undertakes a review of the existing literature on the stability of general equilibrium. He then proposes a more satisfactory general model in which agents realize their state of disequilibrium and act on arbitrage opportunities. The interrelated topics of the role of money, the nature of quantity constraints, and the optimal behaviour of arbitraging agents are extensively treated.

This work on index-number construction focuses on production indexes, including output and input deflators that can be used for constructing real output and real input. Fisher and Shell treat separately the different production units: the firm, the industry, and the economy, as well as the different forms of industrial organization: monopoly, monopsony, and competition. Only in the simplest cases is the appropriate theory isomorphic to that of the cost-of-living index because of the interlinkages among the various production units. A firm cannot always assume that the behavior of its competitors, suppliers, and customers will be unaffected by price changes and only in special cases can an industry take supply and demand conditions as given.

This book, the fourth volume of Franklin M. Fisher's collected articles, contains work in microeconomics stretching over four decades. Principal sections include essays on stability and disequilibrium, welfare economics and consumer theory, and applications of microeconomics. Topics include the decision whether or not to use statistical methods to adjust the census, and the economics of water in the Middle East as well as the effect of computer reservations systems on airlines and the theory of united fund drives by charities. An autobiographical essay serves as an epilogue.

Any discussion of the various facets of petroleum policy in the United States rests to a greater or less extent on the issue of sensitivity of petroleum exploration, and hence of new petroleum discoveries to economic incentives. Indeed, a principle argument in favour of having a special petroleum policy at all is that domestic petroleum exploration is so sensitive to economic considerations that in the absence of special incentives exploration expenditures would sharply decrease, as would the amount of petroleum discovered; consequently, the nation’s known oil resources would be reduced to an extent dangerous in the event of an international crisis. This study attempts to answer the question: how sensitive are new petroleum discoveries to economic incentives? This book will be of interest to students of environmental studies.