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What years and by who were the first and second welfare theorems first proven?

Giskard
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B T
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    Why the downvote? – B T Mar 29 '16 at 18:08
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    Unfortunately whoever downvoted it gets no message when you comment so it is unlikely they will answer. But if you like getting feedback please consider accepting answers to some of your older questions. – Giskard Mar 29 '16 at 18:39
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    @denesp I make sure to accept answers when I feel the answers adequately answer the question, and I don't like accepting my own answers, so one of those questions I have to leave without an accepted answer. The other had interesting info, but wasn't very specific - I just accepted anyway since in looking at it again, i'm not likely to get a better answer. – B T Mar 29 '16 at 22:15

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Perhaps you have heard the competitive equilibrium referred to as the Arrow-Debreu equilibrium.

The idea of the theorems existed earlier but Arrow introduced the theorems formally in a way that is equivalent to what we today call the first and second welfare theorem in 1951 in his paper

AN EXTENSION OF THE BASIC THEOREMS OF CLASSICAL WELFARE ECONOMICS.

Debreu is more associated with proving that the equilibrium exists under certain conditions. If you think about it this makes the first welfare theorem much stronger. His seminal paper on the subject is

The Coefficient of Resource Utilization.

Giskard
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  • Arrow's paper is called "an extension", indicating that those theorems already existed. Are Arrow and Debreu really the two that introduced them originally? – B T Mar 29 '16 at 04:44
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    This article seems to say that Kenneth Arrow first proved the First and Second theorems, but that Debreu proved that a general equilibrium is reached under certain conditions http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Arrow.html . Am I understanding this right? – B T Mar 29 '16 at 04:57
  • @BT The idea of the theorems existed earlier but Arrow introduced the theorems formally in a way that is equivalent to what we today call the first and second welfare theorem. Debreu is indeed more associated with proving that the equilibrium exists under certain conditions. If you think about it this makes the first welfare theorem much stronger. – Giskard Mar 29 '16 at 08:58
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    @denesp I think your comment would fit nicely into the answer :) – FooBar Mar 29 '16 at 13:39
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    Actually, the usual textbook version with local non-satiation is due to Koopmans. Arrow assumed strong convexity instead. – Michael Greinecker Jun 25 '21 at 05:31