IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejtec/vcontributions.3y2003i1n8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Homothetic or Cobb-Douglas Behavior Through Aggregation

Author

Listed:
  • Giraud Gael

    (CNRS, BETA, umr 7522, Strasbourg (France))

  • Quah John K.-H.

    (University of Oxford)

Abstract

A common theme in the theory of demand aggregation is that market demand can acquire properties which are not always individually present among the agents who make up that market, a phenomenon we call heteroiosis in this paper. This paper focusses on the well known result that with a suitable distribution of demand behavior (arising perhaps from the underlying distribution of preferences), market demand can become an approximately linear function of income or even take on approximately Cobb-Douglas properties. We highlight the mathematical arguments underpinning these models and show that in the right context, it is possible to carry the arguments further and achieve exact, rather than just approximate, results: exact Cobb-Douglas market demand or exact linearity of market demand with respect to income.

Suggested Citation

  • Giraud Gael & Quah John K.-H., 2003. "Homothetic or Cobb-Douglas Behavior Through Aggregation," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-23, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejtec:v:contributions.3:y:2003:i:1:n:8
    DOI: 10.2202/1534-5971.1058
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1534-5971.1058
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1534-5971.1058?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jerison, Michael, 1999. "Dispersed excess demands, the weak axiom and uniqueness of equilibrium," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 15-48, February.
    2. Dierker, Egbert & Dierker, Hildegard & Trockel, Walter, 1980. "Continuous mean demand functions derived from non-convex preferences," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 27-33, March.
    3. John Quah, 2006. "Weak axiomatic demand theory," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 29(3), pages 677-699, November.
    4. John K.H. Quah, 2003. "The Law of Demand and Risk Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(2), pages 713-721, March.
    5. Gael Giraud & Isabelle Maret, 2001. "Behavioral Heterogeneity in Large Economies," Working Papers of BETA 2001-08, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    6. Kim, Taesung & Richter, Marcel K., 1986. "Nontransitive-nontotal consumer theory," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 324-363, April.
    7. Grandmont, Jean-Michel, 1992. "Transformations of the commodity space, behavioral heterogeneity, and the aggregation problem," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 1-35.
    8. John K.-H. Quah, 1997. "The Law of Demand when Income Is Price Dependent," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(6), pages 1421-1442, November.
    9. John Quah, 2006. "Weak axiomatic demand theory," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 29(3), pages 677-699, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Murat Yildizoglu & Nicolas Carayol & Pascale Roux, 2005. "Coordination Failures in Network Formation," Post-Print hal-00160385, HAL.
    2. Estelle Dhont-Peltrault & Etienne Pfister, 2007. "R&D cooperation versus R&D subcontracting: empirical evidence from French survey data," Working Papers of BETA 2007-17, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    3. Sean Crockett & Daniel Friedman & Ryan Oprea, 2021. "Naturally Occurring Preferences And General Equilibrium: A Laboratory Study," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 62(2), pages 831-859, May.
    4. Gisèle Umbhauer, 2007. "De l’amiante au chrysotile, un glissement stratégique dans la désinformation," Working Papers of BETA 2007-15, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    5. Giovanni Dosi & Patrick Llerena & Mauro Sylos Labini, 2005. "Science-Technology-Industry Links and the ”European Paradox”: Some Notes on the Dynamics of Scientific and Technological Research in Europe," LEM Papers Series 2005/02, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    6. Stéphane Betrand & Kene Boun My & Alban Verchère, 2005. "Faire émerger la coopération internationale : une approche expérimentale comparée du bilatéralisme et du multilatéralisme," Working Papers of BETA 2005-13, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    7. Nicolas Carayol & Pascale Roux, 2006. "A strategic model of complex networks formation," Working Papers of BETA 2006-02, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    8. Jalal EL OUARDIGHI & Rabija SOMUN-KAPETANOVIC, 2006. "Convergence des contributions aux inégalités de richesse dans le développement des pays européens," Working Papers of BETA 2006-19, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    9. Tapas K. Mishra, 2006. "A Further Look into the Demography-based GDP Forecasting Method," Working Papers of BETA 2006-17, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    10. Rachel Levy & Paul Muller, 2006. "Do academic laboratories correspond to scientific communities? Evidence from a large European university," Working Papers of BETA 2006-15, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    11. Sofia Pessoa e Costa & Stéphane Robin, 2007. "The Impact Of Training Programmes On Wages In France: An Evaluation Of The “Qualifying Contract” Using Propensity Scores," Working Papers of BETA 2007-18, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    12. Li Qin & Eleftherios Spyromitros & Moïse Sidiropoulos, 2007. "Monetary Policy with Uncertain Central Bank Preferences for Robustness," Working Papers of BETA 2007-23, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    13. Michael Jerison & John K.-H. Quah, 2006. "Law of Demand," Discussion Papers 06-07, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Quah, John K.-H., 2008. "The existence of equilibrium when excess demand obeys the weak axiom," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3-4), pages 337-343, February.
    2. Quah, John K.-H., 2008. "The existence of equilibrium when excess demand obeys the weak axiom," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3-4), pages 337-343, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:bejtec:v:contributions.3:y:2003:i:1:n:8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.