Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents of Volumes I, II, III
- List of contributors
- Editors' preface
- Kenneth J. Arrow
- Contents
- PART I SOCIAL CHOICE
- PART II DECISION MAKING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
- 6 Testing for optimality in the absence of convexity
- 7 Toward a theory of planning
- 8 On the social risk premium
- 9 A problem of financial market equilibrium when the timing of tax payments is indeterminate
- 10 The shadow price of capital: implications for the opportunity cost of public programs, the burden of the debt, and tax reform
- Author index
7 - Toward a theory of planning
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents of Volumes I, II, III
- List of contributors
- Editors' preface
- Kenneth J. Arrow
- Contents
- PART I SOCIAL CHOICE
- PART II DECISION MAKING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
- 6 Testing for optimality in the absence of convexity
- 7 Toward a theory of planning
- 8 On the social risk premium
- 9 A problem of financial market equilibrium when the timing of tax payments is indeterminate
- 10 The shadow price of capital: implications for the opportunity cost of public programs, the burden of the debt, and tax reform
- Author index
Summary
Introduction
Planning refers to the elaboration of an explicit set of decisions concerning the present and future values of certain choice variables by a decision maker (planner) in order to achieve certain goals. Planning, therefore, involves the determination of a strategy that, in turn, involves decisions on both actions and their timing or pattern of implementation. Planning in this sense is pervasive in the economy, and it is exemplified by national economic planning, corporate capital planning, inventory planning, household expenditure planning, investor portfolio planning, and planning in many other areas, for example, defense planning, development planning, environmental planning, energy planning, and educational planning. Most previous studies have treated the problem of planning in such a particular institutional or sectoral context. The purpose of this chapter is to contribute a general theory of planning that treats certain common features of all these particular forms of planning. These features involve certain basic choices concerning timing and implementation and typically must be chosen in advance of any specific plan. First is the choice of a horizon, that is, the time interval covered by the plan. Second is the choice of a period, that is, the time interval during which the plan remains in effect before it is revised.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Essays in Honor of Kenneth J. Arrow , pp. 135 - 158Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1986
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