Walrasian equilibrium theory with and without free-disposal: theorems and counterexamples in an infinite-agent context

Robert M. Anderson (), Haosui Duanmu, M. Khan and Metin Uyanık
Additional contact information
Robert M. Anderson: University of California
Haosui Duanmu: University of California

Economic Theory, 2022, vol. 73, issue 2, No 2, 387-412

Abstract: Abstract This paper provides four theorems on the existence of a free-disposal equilibrium in a Walrasian economy: the first with an arbitrary set of agents with compact consumption sets, the next highlighting the trade-offs involved in the relaxation of the compactness assumption, and the last two with a countable set of agents endowed with a weighting structure. The results generalize theorems in the antecedent literature pioneered by Shafer–Sonnenschein in 1975, and currently in the form taken in He–Yannelis 2016. The paper also provides counterexamples to the existence of non-free-disposal equilibrium in cases of both a countable set of agents and an atomless measure space of agents. One of the examples is related to one Chiaki Hara presented in 2005. The examples are of interest because they satisfy all the hypotheses of Shafer’s 1976 result on the existence of a non-free-disposal equilibrium, except for the assumption of a finite set of agents. The work builds on recent work of the authors on abstract economies, and contributes to the ongoing discussion on the modelling of “large” societies.

Keywords: Exchange economy; Walrasian equilibrium; Discontinuous preferences; Free-disposal; Arbitrary set; Externalities; Bads; 03H10; 26E35; 91B50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C02 D01 D51 D62 Q51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00199-021-01395-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:joecth:v:73:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s00199-021-01395-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... eory/journal/199/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s00199-021-01395-0

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Theory is currently edited by Nichoals Yanneils

More articles in Economic Theory from Springer, Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().