The Usefulness of Core Theory in Economics

Core theory furnishes a useful framework for studying a wide variety of economic problems. It has an undeserved reputation of being too abstract owing mainly to the manner in which it is employed in the theory of general equilibrium. In fact, core theory is a highly flexible way of looking at practical economic problems, especially problems in industrial organization. This paper seeks to show how simple numerical examples can illustrate the idea of the core and, in turn, how the core can illustrate basic principles of economics.