IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v65y1999i3p405-426.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Instability of Equilibria in Experimental Markets: Upward‐Sloping Demands, Externalities, and Fad‐Like Incentives

Author

Listed:
  • Charles R. Plott
  • Jared Smith

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to study markets in which the value of the activity to any one person increases with the level with which the activity is undertaken by others. The general interpretation could be fads, mimicking behavior, or some sort of belief formation process in which the beliefs or expectations of agents about some underlying state of nature are influenced by the buying behavior of other agents. The result is to create a market that can be modeled as having an upward‐sloping market demand curve. The questions posed are (i) in the fad‐like environment, does the classical concept of equilibrium (as an equating of market demand and market supply) accurately predict market behavior; (ii) can both stable and unstable equilibria be observed; and (iii) which of the two classical concepts of stability best describes the conditions under which instability is observed? Under the conditions of a fad‐like demand side externality in a market organized by the multiple unit double auction (MUDA), market equilibration occurs at a point where demand equals supply. The disequilibrium behavior follows the dynamics of the Marshallian model of dynamics, as opposed to the Walrasian model. These results confirm and extend the major findings of Plott and George who studied a similar environment with a downward‐sloping supply.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles R. Plott & Jared Smith, 1999. "Instability of Equilibria in Experimental Markets: Upward‐Sloping Demands, Externalities, and Fad‐Like Incentives," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(3), pages 405-426, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:65:y:1999:i:3:p:405-426
    DOI: 10.1002/j.2325-8012.1999.tb00168.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2325-8012.1999.tb00168.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/j.2325-8012.1999.tb00168.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Plott, Charles R & George, Glen, 1992. "Marshallian vs. Walrasian Stability in an Experimental Market," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 102(412), pages 437-460, May.
    2. Karni, Edi & Levin, Dan, 1994. "Social Attributes and Strategic Equilibrium: A Restaurant Pricing Game," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(4), pages 822-840, August.
    3. Harrison, Glenn W, et al, 1987. "Coasian Solutions to the Externality Problem in Experimental Marke ts," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(386), pages 388-402, June.
    4. Becker, Gary S, 1991. "A Note on Restaurant Pricing and Other Examples of Social Influences on Price," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(5), pages 1109-1116, October.
    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. Angela A. Hung & Charles R. Plott, 2001. "Information Cascades: Replication and an Extension to Majority Rule and Conformity-Rewarding Institutions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1508-1520, December.
    2. Pandey, Ayush & Lehe, Lewis J., 2024. "Congestive mode-switching and economies of scale on a bus route," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    3. Somya Arora, 2021. "Why Are Downward-Sloping Demand Curves Unrealistic? A Critical Review of Factors Influencing Demand in More Realistic Scenario-I," Journal of Studies in Dynamics and Change (JSDC), ISSN: 2348-7038, Voices of Inclusive Change and Expressions- (VOICE) Trust, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, vol. 8(4), pages 1-16, October-D.
    4. Somya Arora, 2022. "Why Are Downward-Sloping Demand Curves Unrealistic? A Critical Review of Factors Influencing Demand in More Realistic Scenario-II," Journal of Studies in Dynamics and Change (JSDC), ISSN: 2348-7038, Voices of Inclusive Change and Expressions- (VOICE) Trust, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, January-M.

    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. K Kogan & U Spiegel, 2006. "Dynamic zigzag pricing of resalable goods with no depreciation and intergroup externalities," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 57(11), pages 1353-1365, November.
    2. Jun Honda, 2015. "Games with the Total Bandwagon Property," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp197, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    3. Grilo, Isabel & Shy, Oz & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2001. "Price competition when consumer behavior is characterized by conformity or vanity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 385-408, June.
    4. Corneo, Giacomo & Jeanne, Olivier, 1999. "Segmented communication and fashionable behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 371-385, July.
    5. Ball, Sheryl & Eckel, Catherine C., 1998. "The economic value of status," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 495-514.
    6. Tan, Hi-Lin, 2006. "Prices in Networks," MPRA Paper 62984, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ivan Pastine & Tuvana Pastine, 2000. "Coordination in Markets with Consumption Externalities : The Role of Advertising and Product Quality," Working Papers 0003, Department of Economics, Bilkent University.
    8. Roe, Brian E. & Teisl, Mario F., 2004. "Consumption Externalities, Information Policies, And Multiple Equilibria: Evidence For Genetically Engineered Food Markets," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20243, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    9. Angela A. Hung & Charles R. Plott, 2001. "Information Cascades: Replication and an Extension to Majority Rule and Conformity-Rewarding Institutions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1508-1520, December.
    10. Nick Vikander, 2011. "Capacity Constraints and Beliefs about Demand," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-015/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    11. Emanuela Randon, 2002. "L’analisi positiva dell’esternalità: rassegna della letteratura e nuovi spunti," Working Papers 58, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2002.
    12. Oz Shy, 2011. "A Short Survey of Network Economics," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 38(2), pages 119-149, March.
    13. Amegashie, J.A., 2002. "Misery Loves Company: Social Influence and the Supply/Pricing Decision of Popular Night Clubs," Working Papers 2002-10, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    14. Micha Gisser & James E. McClure & Giray Okten & Gary Santoni, 2009. "Some Anomalies Arising from Bandwagons that Impart Upward Sloping Segments to Market Demand," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 6(1), pages 21-34, January.
    15. Renato Soeiro & Alberto Pinto, 2021. "Group network effects in price competition," Papers 2110.05891, arXiv.org.
    16. Lu, Chun-Hui & Ueng, K.L. Glen & Chang, Juin-Jen, 2022. "Consumption indivisibility and the optimal tax mix," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    17. Corneo, Giacomo & Jeanne, Olivier, 1997. "Conspicuous consumption, snobbism and conformism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 55-71, October.
    18. Di Cintio, Marco, 2007. "A note on the Hotelling principle of minimum differentiation: Imitation and crowd," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 122-129, September.
    19. Ivan Pastine & Tuvana Pastine, 2002. "Comsumption Externalities, Coordination, and Advertising," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 43(3), pages 919-943, August.
    20. Vikander Nick, 2019. "Sellouts, Beliefs, and Bandwagon Behavior," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:soecon:v:65:y:1999:i:3:p:405-426. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    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.