The Equilibrium Existence Duality: Equilibrium with Indivisibilities & Income Effects
We show that, with indivisible goods, the existence of competitive equilibrium fundamentally depends on agents’ substitution effects, not their income effects.Our Equilibrium Existence Duality allows us to transport results on the existence of competitive equilibrium from settings with transferable utility to settings with income effects. One consequence is that net substitutability—which is a strictly weaker condition than gross substitutability—is sufficient for the existence of competitive equilibrium. We also extend the “demand types” classification of valuations to settings with income effects and give necessary and sufficient conditions for a pattern of substitution effects to guarantee the existence of competitive equilibrium.

Link to paper: elizabeth-baldwin.me.uk/papers/equilibrium-existence-duality.pdf
Date: 29 April 2021, 13:00 (Thursday, 1st week, Trinity 2021)
Venue: Held on Zoom
Speaker: Elizabeth Baldwin (University of Oxford )
Organising department: Department of Economics
Part of: Department of Economics Seminar
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Melis Clark