Perfect Foresight, Expectational Consistency, and Macroeconomic Equilibrium
Journal of Political Economy
1977
open access
This paper begins by introducing three alternative properties of expectations: weak consistency, strong consistency, perfect foresight. These concepts are then used to consider the relationship between beginning-of-period (stock) equilibrium and end-of-period (flow) equilibrium for both discrete and continuous time. We show that in the former case the consistency between them requires not only that there be perfect foresight in predicting certain relevant variables but also that there be no accumulation of assets. In the latter case the relationship between the two equilibria rests on much weaker conditions. They are equivalent provided expectations satisfy our assumption of weak consistency.
- DOI
- 10.1086/260568
- Volume
- 85 (2)
- Pages
- 379-393
- Language
- en
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- BibTeX
- Sources
- openalex crossref