What we learned in the twentieth century

Is the traditional form of general equilibrium theory, and the neoclassical framework that supports it, still worth talking about? Or is the subject too old and outmoded to bother with? When confronted with criticisms of general equilibrium, many economists claim that the discipline has moved on. No one, it is said, still relies on the old Arrow-Debreu framework. Instead, avant-garde economists describe themselves as being involved in all manner of new, sophisticated theoretical analysis. The old, idealized, textbook model of competitive markets is said to be uninteresting, yesterday’s news, no longer representative of the leading edge of theory.