知识表达、知识互补性、知识产权均衡

基于知识的“代数格”表达方式和知识的互补性原理 ,这篇文章讨论知识产权的博弈均衡问题。每个人都拥有“局部知识” ,显然 ,如果法律对每个人的局部知识设立产权并由政府全面加以保护的话 ,人类知识将无法获得任何发展。另一方面 ,如果法律不承认任何知识的产权且政府对任何知识产权都不加以保护的话 ,人类知识也难以获得发展的激励。这里将证明 ,N个具有局部知识的社会成员在社会整体知识构成的代数格上关于各自的“局部知识”的价格的博弈存在至少一个纳什均衡———此即该社会内部自恰的和最优的知识产权配置。由周林 ( 1 994) ,这类均衡点构成一完备格。又由MilgromandShannon( 1 994) ,博弈的每一参与者最佳对应集内的最大策略和最小策略在社会知识的代数格上 (按集合强序 )单调非减 ,这意味着当社会成员的初始知识水平有所提高时 ,由产权博弈均衡所决定的各个局部知识的知识产权价格将相应有所上升。所有上述结果都不需要通常的凸性假设 ,因此在以“知识”为核心要素的经济分析中 (包括收益递增经济学 )具有独特重要的意义     

Computing equilibria with increasing returns

This paper shows how standard algorithms for solving economic general equilibrium models may be modified so as to solve models in which some or all industries have increasing returns to scale. The modification requires that some quantities as well as prices be quoted by the algorithmic auctioneer. It is applicable to a wide range of models in which firms pricing behavior follows simple rules. As an illustration of the technique a small general equilibrium model with increasing returns is presented and solved numerically.     

Intermediate Inputs and External Economies

Is the degree of external economies （at the industry level） higher than the degree of internal increasing returns （at the firm level）？ If so, what is the exact source of this difference？ In the general equilibrium model in which firms producing final goods choose the degree of specialization of their technologies, external economies arise from the usage of intermediate inputs and the existence of internal increasing returns. It is frequently assumed that increasing returns are absent at the firm level while present at the industry level. In this model, the existence of increasing returns at the form level is necessary for the existence of external economies at the industry level. We show that the degree of external economies increases with the level of linkage effects. However, a higher linkage effect does not always lead firms to choose more specialized technologies.     

'Interrelated prices' and Sraffa's critique of partial equilibrium

The early Marshallian literature recognized that, in most significant cases, long-period equilibrium analysis must consider families of interdependent markets which are in direct relation with each other. This perspective, which is different from both standard partial equilibrium and general equilibrium analysis, was developed mainly by two Italian authors, Maffeo Pantaleoni (1857–1924) and Marco Fanno (1878–1964). This paper is aimed at showing that this ‘interrelated prices’ literature has some points of contact with Piero Sraffa's critique of partial equilibrium analysis. It is argued that Sraffa places the case of a Marshallian decreasing returns industry in a context (rivalry for the use of a common factor in fixed supply) which was familiar to Pantaleoni-Fanno: both maintain that the markets involved are interdependent, even though they evaluate differently the possibility of a sensible equilibrium analysis.     

Nonlinear Pricing in General Equilibrium Models with Joint Production

This paper considers general equilibrium models of public utilities which produce either public goods or private goods. In the models, cases of increasing returns are not a priori excluded. The products of the public utilities and their costs are allocated to the consumers according to a rule that is dependent on information communicated to the public utilities. We show that if the public utilities follow a nonlinear pricing rule, the equilibrium allocations are always Pareto-optimal. Moreover, the message space is of finite dimensions.
JEL Classification Numbers: D51, D60, H41, H42.     

A general equilibrium analysis of financial regulation

This paper utilizes a general equilibrium approach to investigate the factor returns and output effects on a regulated and unregulated sector from imposition of a rate of return on investment regulatory constraint. The results differ from those of the ‘traditional’ partial equilibrium model of the regulated firm as originally developed by Averch and Johnson (AJ). The differences are explained by the fact that the general equilibrium approach assumes the existence of efficient capital markets whereas the AJ approach does not. Introduction of the competitive capital market framework in the study of financial regulation through the general equilibrium methodology is this paper's major contribution.     

Adam Smith's Problems and Ours

The paper contrasts what modern economists, reflecting the priorities of general equilibrium theory, expect to find in the Wealth of Nations with Smith's own much broader theoretical and policy concerns. A theory of growth in which increasing returns are pervasive conflicts not only with neo-classical expectations but with the emphasis on diminishing returns to be found in Smith's classical successors. Smith's assumptions on rationality, technology, firms, 'projectors', and the incompleteness of markets do not square with post-Walrasian criteria. In advancing practical solutions Smith also shows more concern for the problems of living in a second-best world than is common in pure theories of the invisible hand and the thinking of some of his free-market admirers.     

Equilibria with Increasing Returns: Sufficient Conditions on Bounded Production Allocations

This paper deals with the existence of marginal pricing equilibrium or equilibrium with general pricing rules in an economy with increasing returns to scale or more general types of nonconvexities in production. Its main contribution is to demonstrate existence of equilibrium with bounded loss and survival assumptions required only on a bounded subset of production allocations. Furthermore, we require only a weakened form of the free‐disposal assumption and we also allow nonpositive prices.     

Urban Structure and Growth

Most economic activity occurs in cities. This creates a tension between local increasing returns, implied by the existence of cities, and aggregate constant returns, implied by balanced growth. To address this tension, we develop a general equilibrium theory of economic growth in an urban environment. In our theory, variation in the urban structure through the growth, birth, and death of cities is the margin that eliminates local increasing returns to yield constant returns to scale in the aggregate. We show that, consistent with the data, the theory produces a city size distribution that is well approximated by Zipf's law, but that also displays the observed systematic underrepresentation of both very small and very large cities. Using our model, we show that the dispersion of city sizes is consistent with the dispersion of productivity shocks found in the data.     

Walrasian equilibria as limits of noncooperative equilibria. Part II: Pure strategies

We examine the connection between Walrasian equilibria of a limit economy (with infinitesimal firms) and noncooperative (Cournot) equilibria of approximating finite economies (with significant firms). Nonconvex production sets, decreasing returns in the aggregate, and endogenous determination of the number of active firms are allowed. A Walrasian equilibrium is a limit of pure strategy noncooperative equilibria only if a condition (loosely analogous to downward sloping demand in the partial equilibrium constant returns to scale case) holds. The condition is also sufficient to guarantee the existence of a robust sequence of pure strategy noncooperative equilibria which converges to the Walrasian equilibrium.     

SEARCH EXTERNALITIES IN MACROECONOMIC THEORY

The paper gives a survey of the basic features of macroeconomic models with search externalities. It presents a simple static general equilibrium model with search externalities. Within this context the main results characterizing steady state in dynamic search models are reproduced in a simple context. Specifically, the link between transaction technology and strategic complementarity is analysed. It is shown that increasing returns to scale in the transaction technology create feed-back effects and multiple, Pareto-ranked equilibria may arise. With economies of scale in matching, fluctuations in the economy can be large even with a low elasticity of search activity. The formal equivalence to models with investment externalities is analysed. In an application to the labour market, the allocative role of wages in the presence of search frictions and hysteresis effects are discussed. General conditions are given under which the set of welfare ranked equilibria is described by a closed loop. Finally, it is shown that with a more general transaction technology, even with constant returns to scale multiple equilibria may occur in the presence of externalities.     

GENERAL AND PARTIAL EQUILIBRIUM THEORY IN BORK'S ANTITRUST ANALYSIS

In applying economic theory to evaluate antitrust laws, Judge Robert Bork explicitly favors a partial equilibrium over a general equilibrium approach. He believes the general model assumes away too many real-world aspects to be usefully employed as a criterion by which to judge real-world laws.
However, Bork's partial equilibrium replacement, the Oliver Williamson trade-off model, implicitly contains many of the same assumptions as general equilibrium theory. Equilibrium prices in all industries, an absence of external effects, and well-defined demand curves are assumptions of both general equilibrium theory and the Williamson trade-off model. If one theory is judged inadequate because of these assumptions, so should the other.
Bork's analysis is more consistent with market process theory than with his own partial equilibrium approach. Market process theory assumes neither the absence of externalities, nor the presence of well-defined demand and equilibrium prices in all industries.     

International Trade with Increasing Returns in the Transportation Sector

In this general equilibrium framework, the transportation sector is modeled as a distinct sector with increasing returns. A more advanced technology has a higher fixed cost but a lower marginal cost of production. Even with both manufacturing finns and transportation firms engaged in oligopolistic competition and optimally choosing their technologies, the model is tractable and results are derived analytically. Technology adoptions in the manufacturing sector and transportation sector are reinforcing, and multiple equilibria may exist. Firms choose more advanced technologies and the prices decrease when the size of the population is larger.     

Increasing returns to scale and the reverse flexible accelerator

We show that the flexible accelerator principle characterizes optimal investment behavior only when the firm's technology exhibits decreasing returns to scale throughout. When there are increasing returns we show that there is a range in which investment increases as the capital stock increases towards its long-run equilibrium level.     

The Choice of Technology and Equilibrium Wage Rigidity

In this general equilibrium model, firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose increasing returns technologies to maximize profits. Capital and labor are the two factors of production. The existence of efficiency wages leads to unemployment. The model is able to explain some interesting observations of the labor market. First, even though there is neither long-term labor contract nor costs of wage adjustment, wage rigidity is an equilibrium phenomenon: an increase in the exogenous job separation rate, the size of the population, the cost of exerting effort, and the probability that shirking is detected will not change the equilibrium wage rate. Second, the equilibrium wage rate increases with the level of capital stock. Third, a higher level of capital stock does not necessarily reduce the unemployment rate. That is, there is no monotonic relationship between capital accumulation and the unemployment rate.     

Credit risk in general equilibrium

This paper contributes to the literature on default in general equilibrium. Borrowing and lending takes place via a clearing house (bank) that monitors agents and enforces contracts. Our model develops a concept of bankruptcy equilibrium that is a direct generalization of the standard general equilibrium model with financial markets. Borrowers may default in equilibrium and returns on loans are determined endogenously. Restricted to a special form of mean variance preferences, we derive a version of the capital asset pricing model with bankruptcy. In this case, we can characterize equilibrium prices and allocations and discuss implications for credit risk modeling.     

Partial‐ and General‐Equilibrium Measures of Trade Restrictiveness

New partial‐equilibrium forms of the Trade Restrictiveness Index and the Mercantilist Trade Restrictiveness Index have recently been used by the World Bank and others. In this paper we examine the bias in the partial‐equilibrium forms due to the neglect of general‐equilibrium effects. We propose “semi‐general‐equilibrium” measures that capture those general‐equilibrium effects due to vertical input–output relations without the need for a computable general‐equilibrium model. These measures also incorporate nontariff measures. Australian data are used to compute the semi‐general‐equilibrium measures. These estimates indicate that the partial‐equilibrium forms generally underestimate the true value of the indices, and by a large margin in some cases.     

A TRACTABLE CITY MODEL FOR AGGREGATIVE ANALYSIS

An analytically tractable city model with external increasing returns is presented. The equilibrium city structure is either monocentric or decentralized. Regardless of which structure prevails, intracity variation in endogenous variables displays exponential decay from the city center, where the decay rates depend only on parameters. Given population, the equilibrium of the model is generically unique. Tractability permits explicit expressions for when a central business district (CBD) will emerge in equilibrium, how external increasing returns affect the steepness of downtown rent gradients, and how wages and welfare vary with population. An application to urban growth boundary is presented.     

Destabilization effect of international trade in a perfect foresight dynamic general equilibrium model

In the present paper, we consider a two-country, two-good, two-factor general equilibrium model with CIES nonlinear preferences, asymmetric technologies across countries and decreasing returns to scale. It is shown that aggregate instability and endogenous fluctuations may occur due to international trade. In particular, we prove that the integration into a common market on which countries trade the produced good and the capital input may lead to period-two cycles even when the closed-economy equilibrium is saddle-point stable in both countries.     

Resource abundance,market size,and the choice of technology

How resource abundance and market size affect the choice of increasing returns technologies is studied in an overlapping‐generations general equilibrium model in which manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition. The model is surprisingly tractable. First, for the steady state, the wage rate, the level of technology, and capital stock are not affected by the amount of natural resources. An increase in the share of agricultural revenue going to natural resources leads to a lower wage rate and firms choose less advanced technologies. Second, an increase in market size increases the equilibrium wage rate, level of technology, and capital stock. Finally, other things equal, a country with a lower endowment of natural resources or a higher market size has a comparative advantage in producing the manufactured good.