The Econometric SocietyEdited by: Guido W. Imbens • Print ISSN: 0012-9682 • Online ISSN: 1468-0262
Econometrica: May, 1982, Volume 50, Issue 3
https://doi.org/0012-9682(198205)50:3<593:PTAPO>2.0.CO;2-S
p. 593-606
Ross M. Starr, Steven M. Goldman
An allocation is said to be t-wise optimal (for t a positive integer) if for every collection of t traders, there is no reallocation of their current holdings that will make some better off while making none worse off. The allocation is pairwise optimal if it is t-wise optimal for t = 2. A t-wise optimal allocation is the outcome of a trading process more decentralized than that of the Walrasian equilibrium. It represents the result of a variety of separate transactions in small groups without the (centralized) coordination provided by a single Walrasian auctioneer. Necessary conditions and sufficient conditions on allocations for t-wise optimality to imply Pareto optimality are developed. These generally require sufficient overlap in goods holdings among traders to ensure the presence of common support prices. This is formalized as indecomposability of a truncated submatrix of the allocation matrix. A necessary and sufficient condition remains an open question.
March 5, 2024
The terms of the Editors of the Econometric Society's three journals end June 30, 2025. We are pleased to announce the incoming Editors and to thank the outgoing Editors for their excellent and continuing service.
Econometrica: Since 2019, Guido Imbens has served as the 14th Editor of Econometrica. On July 1, 2025, Marina Halac will become the Editor.
Quantitative Economics: Stéphane Bonhomme has been the Editor of Quantitative Economics since 2021. His successor will be Bernard Salanié.
Theoretical Economics: The Editor of Theoretical Economics since 2021 has been Simon Board. Taking over for him in July 2025 will be Federico Echenique.
Guido, Stéphane, and Simon have been outstanding Editors. We are grateful to them for the work they have done and will continue to do, and we look forward to further congratulating them next year. We believe Marina, Bernard, and Federico will be outstanding successors and we thank them in advance for their service.
Finally, we are grateful to Larry Samuelson for chairing all three search committees, and we thank the search committee members for their hard and fruitful work:
Econometrica: Christian Dustmann, Lars Hansen, Alessandro Lizzeri, George Mailath, Ariel Pakes, Helene Rey, and Elie Tamer.
QE: Kate Ho, Michael Keane, Felix Kubler, Whitney Newey, and Frank Schorfheide.
TE: Jeff Ely, Johannes Horner, Gilat Levy, Meg Meyer, and Ran Spiegler.
