Groups and Markets : General Equilibrium with Multi-member Households

Description

This monograph studies multi-member households or, more generally, socio-economic groups from a purely theoretical perspective and within a general equilibrium framework, in contrast to a sizeable empirical literature. The approach is based on the belief that households, their composition, decisions and behavior within a competitive market economy deserve thorough examination. The authors set out to link the formation, composition, decision-making, and stability of households. They develop general equilibrium models of pure exchange economies in which households can have several, typically heterogeneous members and act as collective decision-making units on the one hand and as competitive market participants on the other hand. Moreover, the more advanced models combine traditional exchange (markets for commodities) and matching (markets for people or partners) and develop implications for welfare, social structures, and economic policy. In the field of family economics, Hans Haller and Hans Gersbach have pioneered a ‘market’ approach that applies the tools of general equilibrium theory to the analysis of household behavior. This very interesting book presents an overview of their methods and results. This is an inspiring work. Pierre-André Chiappori , Columbia University, USA The sophisticated, insightful and challenging analysis presented in this book extends the theory of the multi-person household along an important but relatively neglected dimension, that of general equilibrium theory. It also challenges GE theorists themselves to follow Paul Samuelson in taking seriously the real attributes of that fundamental building block, the household, as a social group whose decisions may not satisfy the standard axioms of individual choice. This synthesis and extension of their earlier work by Gersbach and H aller will prove to be a seminal contribution in its field.    Ray Rees, LMU Munich, Germany. Read more... Abstract: This monograph studies multi-member households or, more generally, socio-economic groups from a purely theoretical perspective and within a general equilibrium framework, in contrast to a sizeable empirical literature. The approach is based on the belief that households, their composition, decisions and behavior within a competitive market economy deserve thorough examination. The authors set out to link the formation, composition, decision-making, and stability of households. They develop general equilibrium models of pure exchange economies in which households can have several, typically heterogeneous members and act as collective decision-making units on the one hand and as competitive market participants on the other hand. Moreover, the more advanced models combine traditional exchange (markets for commodities) and matching (markets for people or partners) and develop implications for welfare, social structures, and economic policy. In the field of family economics, Hans Haller and Hans Gersbach have pioneered a ‘market’ approach that applies the tools of general equilibrium theory to the analysis of household behavior. This very interesting book presents an overview of their methods and results. This is an inspiring work. Pierre-André Chiappori , Columbia University, USA The sophisticated, insightful and challenging analysis presented in this book extends the theory of the multi-person household along an important but relatively neglected dimension, that of general equilibrium theory. It also challenges GE theorists themselves to follow Paul Samuelson in taking seriously the real attributes of that fundamental building block, the household, as a social group whose decisions may not satisfy the standard axioms of individual choice. This synthesis and extension of their earlier work by Gersbach and H aller will prove to be a seminal contribution in its field.    Ray Rees, LMU Munich, Germany Front Matter ....Pages i-x Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 Introduction (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 3-12 Social Groups (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 13-21 Households (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 23-31 Front Matter ....Pages 33-33 Pure Exchange with Fixed Household Structure (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 35-43 General Equilibrium with Fixed Household Structure and Production (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 45-57 General Equilibrium with Variable Household Structure (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 59-71 General Equilibrium with Endogenous Household Structure (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 73-86 Cores (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 87-91 Front Matter ....Pages 93-93 Clubs, Matching, etc. (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 95-107 Related Work (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 109-114 Front Matter ....Pages 115-115 Power in General Equilibrium (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 117-140 Risk-sharing Capacity: Markets versus Households (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 141-160 Inefficient Household Decisions (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 161-171 Public Goods and Public Choice (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 173-181 Economic Policy Analysis and Implications (Hans Gersbach, Hans Haller)....Pages 183-186