What on earth are economic theorists like me trying to accomplish? This paper discusses four dilemmas encountered by an economic theorist: Copyright The Econometric Society 2006.

The aim of this paper is to explain the fact that certain properties of binary relations are frequently observed in natural language while others do not appear at all. Three features of binary relation are studied: (1) The ability to use the relation to indicate nameless elements. (2) The...

The authors study the Nash equilibria of a two-person, infinitely-repeated game in which players' preferences depend on repeated game payoffs and the complexity of the strategies they use. The model considered is that of A. Rubinstein (1986). Necessary conditions on the structure of the...

This paper questions the interpretation of the Nash bargaining solution. A new definition is suggested. Revisions of Nash axioms characterize the solution. The definition makes possible its extension to non-expected-utility preferences. It also reveals the logic behind the comparative statics of...

The paper is a discussion of the interpretation of game theory. The first half of the paper deals with the notion of "strategy". The paper endorses the view that equilibrium strategy describes a player's plan of action, as well as those considerations which support the optimality of his plan...

A speaker wishes to persuade a listener to accept a certain request. The conditions under which the request is justified, from the listener's point of view, depend on the values of two aspects. The values of the aspects are known only to the speaker and the listener can check the value of at...