General equilibrium theory describes those states of an economy in which the individual plans of many agents with partially conflicting interests are compatible with each other. Such a state is called an equilibrium. The concept of an equilibrium simply being based on a consistency requirement lends itself to the study of specific questions of quite different character. Indeed, equilibrium theory provides a unifying framework for the analysis of questions arising in various branches of economic theory. In our opinion it is fruitful to view equilibrium theory as a method of thinking applicable to a variety of problems of different origin.
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