Restricted Cores - The Epsilon Equivalence Theorem

General Equilibrium

Article

Anthropologists tell us that 150 is about the maximum number of people any given individual can know intimately enough to bond with. We know that in Edgeworthian exchange, agents who are in the process of forming coalitions must know the preferences and endowments of others. If we decide to call this "intimacy" and call coalitions "bonding", then what are the consequences of the anthropologists' observation for the theory of the core? It is clear that the process of coalition-formation is going to be restricted, but exactly in what manner?