General systems and phi-stable sets - a formal analysis of socioeconomic environments

The purpose of this paper is to offer a general framework for analyzing com plex economic and social environments. I introduce a new notion of a genera l system. The solution concept for a general system is given by the notion of a phi -stable set. By making use of Tarski's fixed point theorem, I then establish the existence of a p-stable set. In this paper, I further apply the proposed notions to existing solutions in game theory, e.g. Bernheim an d Pearce's rationalizability, Roth's subsolutions, and Chwe's consistent se ts. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.