Approximate tâtonnement processes

Summary We introduce a probabilistic model for price adjustment in an exchange economy which approximates the classical Walras tâtonnement process while avoiding many of its unrealistic features. The model is decentralized in that the trades permitted to an agent and the resulting price changes depend only on the commodity vector currently held by that agent, and not on the commodity vectors held by the other agents in the economy. Our results will show that the Walras tâtonnement process can be decentralized without changing its behavior on the macroeconomic scale. Our model has a finite set of commodities, a market maker who adjusts prices, and a large finite set of agents who trade only with the market maker. Each agent has a demand function depending on his commodity vector and the price vector. At each discrete time, one agent is chosen at random and exchanges his current commodity vector for his demand vector. Then the market maker adjusts the price vector by an amount which depends on the selected agent's commodity vector and the current price. Prices are adjusted rapidly enough to avoid prolonged trading at the wrong price, but slowly enough so that a substantial price change will depend on a significant simple of agents. The main result shows that with probability arbitrarily close to one the price will rapidly approach and then remain close to an equilibrium value, following a path which is close to the price path of the corresponding tâtonnement process.     

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.     

New Economic Indicators for Australia, 1949-84

This article attempts to identify and describe the main characteristics of Australia'a business cycles during the period 1949 to 7984 with the aid of leading, coincident, and lagging indicators, using the methodology of the International Economic lndicator project at the Center for lnternational Business Cycle Research, Columbia University, New York. The methodology to identify Australia's classical cycle and growth cycle chronologies is discussed. Reviews are made of the lead-lag patterns of, first, both chronologies in relation to the specific cycles of the individual coincident indicators, and second, the growth chronology in relation to the leading and lagging indicators. Australia's growth cycle chronology is compared with the chronology of other countries, notably of United States, United Kingdom, and Japan. The general uses of an indicator analysis are reviewed. An appendix compares the reference cycle chronologies previously available for Australia and the indicators used to obtain them.     

On supply-constrained equilibria

The paper gives sufficient conditions for the existence of an equilibrium with price rigidities and quantity rationing where: (i) demand is never rationed; (ii) net trades of an a priori chosen numeraire are never rationed; and (iii) supply is rationed only when relative prices are downward rigid.     

Distribution of a generalized t ratio for biased estimators

For certain biased estimators the standard error can be small (even zero) and Student's t ratio over-estimates their statistical significance. This paper studies the distribution of a generalized t ratio where the denominator has the square root of an unbiased estimate of the mean squared error.     

多媒体技术在英美文学教学中的运用

以建构主义学习理论和读者反应批评论为理论基础,多媒体辅助英美文学教学应遵循学习者中心原则、交互性原则、科学性原则、基本性原则、有针对性地选择媒体形式,开展多样化的课堂教学活动,提高课堂教学实效。     

电子文件归档思考

电子文件的归档思考实质上是一项系统技术工程,电子文件收集积累和整理归档等工作是一项长期的、艰苦的、细致的、难度较大的工作。推动电子文件归档工作着眼点要高、立足点要实,使电子文件归档纳入办公自动化和信息管理的工作程序。     

论银行承兑汇票业务的经营和管理

该文通过对嘉兴市银行承兑汇票业务开展现状的调查,剖析了当前银行承兑汇票在经营和管理中存在的突出问题及成因,并提出了完善和改进银行承兑汇票管理的对策.