PRAKASH AND SERTELS THEORY OF NONCOOPERATIVE EQUILIBRIA IN SOCIAL-SYSTEMS - 20 YEARS LATER

This paper is intended as a companion to the paper 'Existence of non-c ooperative equilibria in social systems by Prakash and Sertel (1974b) appearing in this volume. It aims to perform two tasks: (1) to give th e reader a glimpse at the literature relevant to the existence of equi libria in social systems as it has developed since the writing of the Prakash and Sertel (PS) paper; and (2) to provide a class of examples illustrating where the PS notions of a social system and the non-coope rative equilibrium of a social system generalize the well-known concep ts of games, abstract economies and their associated equilibria, showi ng how the existence theory of PS even today bears economic results be yond where alternative theories are applicable.