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The combined Kaldor-Hicks criterion ... can be non-transitive (A may be an improvement over B, and B over C, but A may not be an improvement over C).

Nothing to add.  I thought it was worthy of being thrown into the mix.

by ATinNM on Wed Jun 14th, 2006 at 10:57:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]
That's one reason why it's not taught.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Wed Jun 14th, 2006 at 11:58:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Why would that exclude it from being taught?
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Jun 14th, 2006 at 12:00:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Consistency, I suppose.  (Believe me when I say that over half of the students in my math econ class would've needed months to make the transition.)  Also, the small amount of time meant that the classes dealing with this area never went beyond Pareto.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Wed Jun 14th, 2006 at 12:09:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Was Arrow's theorem mentioned/discussed/explained?

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 14th, 2006 at 12:10:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, I vaguely remember it being mentioned, and I have it written down in my notebook, somewhere in the depths of my closet.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Wed Jun 14th, 2006 at 12:13:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Transition?  Transition to what?  
by ATinNM on Wed Jun 14th, 2006 at 07:45:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The equations we dealt with had to be transitive, according to (if I remember the name correctly) the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preferences.  But, in all honesty, I took that class quite some time ago, and my memory of the lectures is more than a bit cloudy.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Wed Jun 14th, 2006 at 09:11:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Maybe that's one reason why the formal definition is not taught to undergraduates, but clearly you are taught to reason along the lines of "as long as it would be possible in principle to compensate the losers for their losses, it's an improvement".

We should introduce that reasoning into the legal profession. That would teach all those ambulance-chasing damage lawwers: as long as your clients could in principle be compensated for the damage done to them, there's no need for the court to impose any penalties.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 14th, 2006 at 12:08:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Non-transitive statements can be True and Valid as in:

A is the FATHER of B
B is the FATHER of C
C IsNot the FATHER of A

by ATinNM on Wed Jun 14th, 2006 at 07:36:06 PM EST
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