To infinity and beyond: A general framework for scaling economic theories
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.
Authors
- Yannai A. Gonczarowski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7887-0490)
- Scott Duke Kominers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7608-6619)
- Ran I. Shorrer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3198-0702)
Institutions
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Theoretical Economics
- Published
- 2025-01-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3982/te5878
- Primary Topic
- Economic theories and models
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Microsoft Research
- European Commission
- United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
- Israel Science Foundation
- Tel Aviv University
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Seventh Framework Programme
- Division of Mathematical Sciences