http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/28031486

General equilibrium economics space, time and money

Among the most challenging areas in modern microeconomic theory is general equilibrium analysis, concerned with the simultaneous determination of all economic variables or a large body of them (for the most part, prices and quantities). Traditional general equilibrium theory assumes purely competitive market structures, an assumption which limits its usefulness in interpreting modern economies whose dominant competition form is differentiated oligopoly. The papers in this work focus on this deficiency and propose a means of moving towards an oligopolistic framework. They also examine the problems of deriving useful insights from large-scale models and explore the application of input-output techniques to empirical large-scale modeling. Introducing space and time as explicit dimensions within which economic variables must be determined involves thorny problems. The papers dealing with spatial analysis present algorithms for the optimal and approximate solutions to single-source and multi-source Weber point-location problems and to network creation. They also introduce Poisson demand processes in space. Austrian capital theory is examined for contributions to building the temporal structure of general equilibrium theory. Finally, the existence of money in a static general economic system and its effective incorporation with real sectors has been a source of controversy for over forty years. The papers in the book examine these issues in depth and propose solutions and reconstructions of existing models. Also, a dynamic model is used to derive insights into the functions of money in the general economic model.

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