The Dynamics of General Equilibrium

Herbert Gintis ()

Economic Journal, 2007, vol. 117, issue 523, pages 1280-1309

Abstract: The Walrasian general equilibrium model is the centrepiece of modern economic theory, but progress in understanding its dynamical properties has been meagre. This article shows that the instability of Walras' tâtonnement process is due to the public nature of prices, which leads to excessive correlation in the behaviour of economic agents. When prices are private information, a dynamic with a globally stable stationary state obtains in economies that are unstable in the tâtonnment process. We provide an agent-based model of a multi-sector Walrasian economy with production and exchange, in which prices are private information. This economy is dynamically well behaved. Copyright 2007 The Author(s). Journal compilation Royal Economic Society 2007.

Date: 2007
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