Convergence to Price-Taking Behavior in a Simple Market

Aldo Rustichini

No 914, Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science

Abstract: An independent private values model of trade with m buyers and m sellers is considered in which price is chosen to equate revealed demand and supply. In ever symmetric Bayesian Nash equilibrium, each trader does not act as a price-taker, but instead strategically misrepresents his true demand/supply to influence price in his favor. This misrepresentation causes inefficiency. It is shown that the amount by which a trader misreports is 0(1/m) and the corresponding influence is 0(1/m^2). Price-taking behavior and its associated efficiency thus quickly emerges despite the asymmetric information and the noncooperative behavior of traders.

Date: 1990-12
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/math/papers/914.pdf main text (application/pdf)

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:nwu:cmsems:914

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science, Northwestern University, 580 Jacobs Center, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-2014. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Fran Walker ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).