First edition of the Nobel Prize-winning economist's groundbreaking work. Octavo, original blue cloth with titles and frontispiece in gilt. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For John with best wishes, Kenneth J. Arrow." Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Rare, especially in this condition. The Nobel Prize-winning economist's first book was his doctoral dissertation at Columbia. "Arrow s impossibility theorem appeared to have such startling consequences for both political philosophy and welfare economics that literally hundreds of papers have been written to refute it. But Arrow s theorem has withstood all technical criticisms and has never been decisively challenged on its own grounds" (Great Economists Since Keynes, 6). Named by The Times Literary Supplement as one of the 100 most influential books since World War II.