On the generic impossibility of truthful behavior: A simple approach

Summary We provide an elementary proof showing how in economies with an arbitrary number of agents an arbitrary number of public goods and utility functions quasi-linear in money, any efficient and individually rational mechanism is not strategy-proof for any economy satisfying a mild regularity requirement.The authors wish to thank William Thomson, Salvadpr Barberá, José Angel Silva and an anonymous referee for helpful comments. The remaining errors are our exclusive responsibility. Financial support from DGICYT under project PB 91-0756 and the Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas is gratefully acknowledged.     

Bargaining, coalitions and competition

We study a Gale-like matching model in a large exchange economy, in which trade takes place through non-cooperative bargaining in coalitions of finite size. Under essentially the same conditions of core equivalence, we show that the strategic equilibrium outcomes of our model coincide with the Walrasian allocations of the economy. Our method of proof makes use of the theory of the core. With respect to previous work, our positive implementation result applies to a substantially larger class of economies: the model relaxes differentiability and convexity of preferences, and also admits an arbitrary number of divisible and indivisible goods.     

Existence of Lindahl equilibria in measure theoretic economies without ordered preferences

A proof of the existence of Lindahl equilibria is given for a class of measure theoretic economies, possibly atomless, in which consumers' preferences need be neither complete nor transitive. This is done as an application of a nonstandard-analytic technique that allows for the derivation of statements concerning measure theoretic economies from analogous finite economy propositions. This approach to the problem allows use of Foley's method of working with an associated private goods economy without the dimension of the commodity space in the associated economy becoming problematic. Potential extensions of the technique used are also discussed.     

A two-stage core with applications to asset market and differential information economies

Summary. We introduce a new core concept, called the two-stage core, which is appropriate for economies with sequential trade. We prove a general existence theorem and present two applications of the two-stage core: (i) In asset markets economies where we extend our existence proof to the case of consumption sets with no lower bound, in order to capture the case of arbitrary short sales of assets. Further, we show that the two-stage core is non empty in the Hart (1975) example where a rational expectations equilibrium fails to exist. (ii) In differential information economies where we provide sufficient conditions for the incentive compatibility of trades. Namely, that no coalition of agents can misreport the true state and provide improvements to all its members, even by redistributing the benefits from misreporting. Received: December 20, 1995; revised version: December 6, 1996     

Linear exchange economies with a continuum of agents

The purpose of this paper is to study how the equilibrium prices vary with respect to the initial endowments in a linear exchange economy with a continuum of agents. We first state the model and give conditions of an increasing strength for existence, uniqueness and continuity of equilibrium prices. Then, if we restrict ourselves to economies with essentially bounded initial endowments and if we assume that there is, from the point of view of preferences, only a finite number of types of agents, we show that, on an open dense subset of the space of initial endowments, the equilibrium price vector is an infinitely differentiable function of the initial endowments. The proof of this claim is based on a formula allowing to compute the equilibrium price vector around a so-called “regular” endowment where it is known.     

On the existence of lindahl equilibria in economies with a measure space of non-transitive consumers

We present a generalization of Roberts' theorem on the existence of Lindahl equilibria in economies with a measure space of agents. The principal contribution of this paper is methodological. We show that by formulating the problem in what we consider to be its natural infinite dimensional setting, the basic structure of Debreu's proof in the theory of value can be applied. Our proof makes use of functional analysis and relies, in particular, on Artstein's characterization of weak sequential convergence in L₁(μ).     

剩余劳动与刘易斯转折的 国际经验及理论反思

本文通过梳理国外剩余劳动与刘易斯转折的实证研究,发现剩余劳动和非充分就业是经济发展中长期存在的现象,不仅广泛存在于发展中国家,也存在于发达国家的某些地区或部门中。由于城市非正规经济也是剩余劳动的重要蓄水池,农业剩余劳动的减少和消失不宜作为判定刘易斯转折的直接证据。由于经济发展过程和现象的复杂性,判断是否已经跨越了刘易斯转折,需要综合运用多种标准和方法。     

Strict rational expectations equilibria with diffuseness

For smooth static pure-exchange economies under uncertainty, it is shown that a diffuseness condition on the distribution of traders' characteristics as the state of the world varies permits one to use only a weak dimensionality restriction in the proof of the genericity of existence of strict rational expectations equilibria. A generic result on the amount of information conveyed by equilibrium price functions and comparisons with some examples of nonexistence are given.     

Stock returns and output growth in emerging and advanced economies

This paper studies the correlation between output growth and lagged stock returns in a panel of emerging market economies and advanced economies. It finds that the proportion of countries in which this correlation is significant is the same for emerging market economies as it is for advanced economies using yearly data, and somewhat lower using quarterly data. Asset prices therefore seem to contain valuable information to forecast output also in emerging market economies. Moreover, the paper finds that the strength of the correlation between output growth and lagged stock returns is significantly related to a number of stock market characteristics, such as a high market capitalization to GDP ratio and, less robustly, English legal origin and the number of listed domestic companies and initial public offerings.     

Manipulation-proof equilibrium in atomless economies with commodity differentiation

Summary. In this paper, we introduce a perfect competition test which checks the incentives of arbitrarily small coalitions to behave strategically in endowments and preferences. We apply this coalitional incentive compatibility test to atomless economies with a continuum of differentiated commodities. We show that, under thickness conditions, economies with a finite number of types and economies whose set of agents' preferences is compact, pass this perfect competition test. Limiting results for replica economies are also presented. Received: July 25, 1997; revised version: December 5, 1998     

The Cass criterion, the net dividend criterion, and optimality

Abel, Mankiw, Summers, and Zeckhauser [Assessing dynamic efficiency: theory and evidence, Rev. Econ. Stud. 56 (1989) 1-20] propose the net dividend criterion as an easy to use sufficient condition for optimality in general stochastic overlapping generations economies with production. We provide examples based on the criterion due to Cass [On capital overaccumulation in the aggregative neoclassical model of economic growth: a complete characterization, J. Econ. Theory 4 (1972) 200-223] and its extensions, the usual tools for such problems, to show that the net dividend criterion need not give the right answer. We identify the flaw in their proof. We also provide an alternative condition which, by an argument unrelated to theirs, is a sufficient condition for optimality when dividends are nonnegative and then argue that the condition is not innocuous since it cannot be verified in actual economies.     

Income inequality in corporatist and liberal economies: a comparison of trends within OECD countries

This paper examines trends in income distribution since the war in a number of OECD economies. It is shown that while most economies during the first two decades experienced decreasing income inequality, associated with the post-war boom, there has been considerable divergence thereafter. In this process the institutions of each country have mattered a great deal. By examining both liberal and corporatist economies we seek to delineate the links between economic performance and restructuring, and income inequality. The evidence is that, in contrast to the experience of liberal economies, the more corporatist economies have been able to adjust to the worsening economic climate without an increase in income inequality.     

Supporting weakly Pareto optimal allocations in infinite dimensional nonconvex economies

In this paper, we prove a new version of the Second Welfare Theorem for economies with a finite number of agents and an infinite number of commodities, when the preference correspondences are not convex-valued and/or when the total production set is not convex. For this kind of nonconvex economies, a recent result, obtained by one of the authors, introduces conditions which, when applied to the convex case, give for Banach commodity spaces the well-known result of decentralization by continuous prices of Pareto-optimal allocations under an interiority condition. In this paper, in order to prove a different version of the Second Welfare Theorem, we reinforce the conditions on the commodity space, assumed here to be a Banach lattice, and introduce a nonconvex version of the properness assumptions on preferences and the total production set. Applied to the convex case, our result becomes the usual Second Welfare Theorem when properness assumptions replace the interiority condition. The proof uses a Hahn-Banach Theorem generalization by Borwein and Jofré (in Joper Res Appl Math 48:169–180, 1997) which allows to separate nonconvex sets in general Banach spacesThis work was partially supported by Nucleo Complex Engineering System. The successive versions of the paper were partly prepared during visits of Alejandro Jofré to CERMSEM and of Monique Florenzano and Pascal Gourdel to the Centro de Modelamiento Matematico. The hospitality of both institutions and the support of the french Coopération régionale Cone Sud are gratefully aknowledged. The authors thank Ali Khan for stimulating exchange of ideas and literature, Roko Aliprantis, Jean-Marc Bonnisseau, Alain Chateauneuf, Roger Guesnerie, Filipe Martins Da Rocha, Moncef Meddeb, B. Mordukovich, Lionel Thibault and Rabee Tourky for valuable discussions     

The division of labour and market structure

Most firms produce most of the time under conditions of substantial economies of scale. The division of labour, according to Adam Smith the mainspring of wealth, is intrinsically an economies of scale phenomenon. Market structure in most industries in characterized by a small number of suppliers and a larger number of customers. I explain this law of small numbers as the equilibrium of two forces: the deconcentration effect of imitation and the market spliting effect of further refinements in the division of labour by innovation. A deconcentrated market creates larger incentives for market splitting (product differentiation) by innovation than a concentrated market. But market splitting raises concentration in the market and it raises the number of different markets in the economy. Before the economies of scale of old products are fully exploited, new products are being offered which again are produced under conditions of economies of scale.     

PROBLEMS OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTING AGGREGATES BETWEEN COUNTRIES WITH DIFFERENT ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

This paper discusses a number of problems arising in comparisons of levels of national accounting aggregates between countries with different economic systems, notably between countries with market economies and countries with centrally planned economies. It considers problems arising from differences in the national accounting concepts used and problems arising from institutional differences, both of which are viewed as relating to the concepts on which the comparison should be based and the adjustment of national data to these concepts. The final section considers index number problems.     

Reflections on the perspectives of the global economy from the point of view of emerging economies

 Recently a number of emerging economies, with high inflation and various kinds of imbalances have experienced what has come to be referred to as dollarization– the phenomenon of currency substitution where the dollar gradually replaces the national currency in the performance of its fundamental functions. The phenomenon is most commonly encountered as a component of the exchange-rate-based stabilization programs implemented in a number of emerging economies in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. The fundamental issue we want to explore is whether this process forces the monetary authorities of emerging economies to act with their hands tied, as if caught in a trap. It is argued that when the expansion of liquidity and domestic credit is determined by the quantity of foreign-exchange reserves, an independent monetary policy vanishes and national sovereignty itself is shackled. Since this scenario typically occurs in a world of increasing globalization of finance, this paper also discusses (with reference to emerging economies) the risks and implications of capital inflows for macroeconomic policy autonomy, economic instability, and vulnerability to external shocks.     

Macroeconomic spillover effects of the Chinese economy

The slowdown of economy and widening of domestic imbalances in China bothers economists and politicians across the globe. We estimate the influence of a negative output shock in China on a number of different economies. We concentrate on China's neighboring countries. We compare the results from the Global VAR model and from the Bayesian VAR models. Also using Bayesian model averaging we search for determinants of Chinese spillovers for the global economy. We find that spillovers are stronger to economies with less flexible exchange rates, a higher share of manufacturing in gross value added and to economies which are larger.     

Incentive Mechanism Design for Production Economies with Both Private and Public Ownerships

In this paper we deal with the problem of incentive mechanism design which yields efficient allocations for general mixed ownership economies when preferences, individual endowments, and coalition patterns among individuals are unknown to the planner. We do so by doubly implementing the proportional solution for economies with any number of private sector and public sector commodities and any number of individuals as well as the coexistence of privately and publicly owned firms with general convex production possibility sets. Furthermore, the mechanisms work not only for three or more agents, but also for two-agent economies. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, D61, D71, D82.     

发达和发展中经济体对华贸易救济的比较研究

本文在对发达经济体和发展中经济体对华贸易救济的特征差异进行分析的基础上,运用贸易救济指控指数和贸易救济涉案金额指数两项指标,进一步分析了其对中国出口贸易影响的差异,得出的结论是:发达经济体和发展中经济体在立案数量、措施选取、涉案行业、涉案金额、案件执行率和诉诸WTO等方面呈现出明显的特征差异,相对其在中国出口贸易中的地位而言,发展中经济体的贸易救济对中国出口贸易的影响大于发达经济体。