A discrete approach to continuum economies

Summary We consider a perfectly competitive economy in which only a finite number of different agents' characteristics can be distinguished. We associate this economy with ann-agents' economy with an ordered Banach commodity space, and we prove that the continuum and the discrete approach to the equilibrium problem can be considered equivalent.The authors are indebted to Javier Ruiz-Castillo for his helpful suggestions to an earlier version of this paper. We would like to thank Nicholas C. Yannelis and an anonymous referee for helpful suggestions and ecomments.