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Journal of Economic Literature
Vol. XXXI (June 1993), pp. 732-761
By JEAN-PASCAL BE'NASSY
CNRS and CEPREMAP,Paris
732
Benassy: Nonclearing Markets 733
a logical gap in the usual formulationsof the One might agree with the preceding
theory of the perfectly competitive economy, arguments, but still be satisfied with a
namely that there is no place for a rationaldeci- partial equilibrium approach to nonclear-
sion with respect to prices as there is with re- ing markets. In this case market imbal-
spect to quantities. (p. 41) ances would be studied at the level of
each single market, while the Walrasian
Although quantity actions by all agents
structure would be kept for general equi-
result from rationalmaximizingbehavior,
librium and macroeconomics, the basic
market clearing is assumed axiomati-
idea being that, as far as policy is con-
cally.
cerned, demand-supply imbalances can
As we demonstrate below, our method
be dealt with on a market by market ba-
allows us to build a consistent theory of
sis. We shall show here that, at least from
price (and quantity) determination on
a general equilibrium and macroeco-
markets without an auctioneer, mainly
nomic point of view, this is not a sound
because it enables us to derive the poten-
position. Indeed one of the main insights
tial quantity consequences of any price
of the models we shall study is the impor-
choices, whereas Walrasiantheory allows
tance of "spillover effects" through which
such a description of quantity conse-
disequilibrium in one market can actually
quences for the Walrasian equilibrium
be provoked by causes originating in an-
prices only. Furthermore, the explicit
other market. We shall illustrate this by
use of quantity signals in the determina- a simple example where, in spite of a
tion of demands, supplies, and prices by
fully flexible wage, unemployment in the
private agents makes our representation labor market is caused entirely by the
of the functioning of markets much closer
malfunction of the goods market.
to what is observed in real world decen-
tralized markets. The Example
From a more macroeconomic and em-
Consider an economy with two agents:
pirical point of view it is clear to most
One firm whose production function is
people that a number of historical epi-
y = F(f), and one household supplying
sodes, such as the massive unemploy-
inelastically eo units of labor and with a
ment or idleness of productive capacities
utility function:
observed during the Great Depression
or the recent crisis, seem extremely diffi- U= a log c + (1 - a) log(m/pe) (1)
cult to reconcile with a general market
where c is current good consumption,
clearing view of the world.
m the quantity of money saved and pe
Finally on the theoretical side, recent
future expected price.3 We assume the
developments in industrial economics,
household has a quantity of money mo
labor economics, or financial markets (in
to start with and receives from the firm
particularcredit markets) all point to the
all profits ur= py - we. Its budget con-
possibility of non-market clearing situa- straint is thus:
tions, due to informationalimperfections
or to the game theoretic nature of the pc+m=w4+ir+mO=py+mO. (2)
price formation process. Thus a theory
is needed that can accommodate in a gen-
3The quantity rn/pe should be thought of as ex-
eral equilibrium setting the possibility of pected future consumption, the implicit assumption
these non-market clearing situations. being that the household expects no future income.
Benassy: Nonclearing Markets 735
go through Part II and move directly to which he will receive PhSih units. Let us
the macroeconomic applications of Part note in passing that it is only in a mone-
IV. However, as the purpose of the arti- tary economy that the notion of a "market
cle is to synthesize these different cur- for good h" unambiguously exists, as the
rents, the article should be read in full counterpart is always money. In a barter
so as to exploit fully the positive external- economy there would be e - 1 markets
ities between the various parts. where good h would be traded, against
(- 1 different counterparts.
II. MicroeconomicConcepts
Demands and Transactions
We are now ready to study the basic
microeconomic elements of the theory. We must make an important distinc-
We shall show successively how transac- tion, which by nature is not made in mar-
tions and quantity signals are formed in ket clearing models, that between de-
a decentralized fashion on a nonclearing mands and supplies on the one hand, and
market, how quantity signals affect de- the resulting transactions on the other.
mand and supply, and finally how we can They will be distinguished by different
build a consistent theory of price making notations. Demands and supplies, de-
by agents internal to the system. noted dihand ?ih, are signals sent by each
agent to the market (i.e., to the other
A. Nonclearing Markets and Quantity agents) before exchange actually takes
Signals place. They represent as a first approxi-
A Monetary Economy mation the exchanges agents wish to
carry, and thus do not necessarily match
An often neglected issue in Walrasian on a market. Transactions, i. e., pur-
general equilibrium models is the prob- chases and sales of goods, are denoted
lem of the actual institutions of exchange. dt*hand s*. They are exchanges actually
In his initial model Walras himself (1874) carried on markets, and as such are sub-
referred to a barter economy, with a mar- ject to all traditional accounting identi-
ket for each pair of goods. Other authors ties, such as budget constraints. In par-
assume that all exchanges are monetary. ticular in each market h aggregate
Barter exchange is almost never ob- purchases must be equal to aggregate
served nowadays, and thus for evident sales. If there are n agents in the econ-
reasons of realism we shall from here on omy this will be written
work in the framework of a monetary
economy.4 Money is the medium of ex-
change. It is also the numeraire and a Dh = dhi Si
5h = h. 6
i=l i=l
reserve of value.
There are ( markets in the period con- As we indicated no such equality holds
sidered where nonmonetary goods, in- a priori for demands and supplies.
dexed by h = 1, . . . , e, are exchanged Rationing Schemes
against money. The money price of good
h is Ph. An agent i may make a purchase We shall now study the functioning of
dih on market h, for which he will pay a market for a particular good h, where
Phdih units of money, or a sale Sih, for a price Ph has already been quoted by
some price setter. This price being given,
4Non-Walrasian theory has been developed in
we shall, until Section II.C where price
nonmonetaryexchangestructuresas well; see notably making is explicitly studied, treat price
Benassy (1975b, 1982). makers and price takers symmetrically.
,
Benassy: Nonclearing Markets - 737
Because the price Ph is not necessarily change agents are naturally classified in
a market clearing one, we may have: two categories: Rationed ones (for which
n n
d* < djh or Sih < ?ih) and nonrationed
Dh=> dih # ih = Sh
ones (for which dih = dih or s5h = Sih).
i=l i=l We shall now say that a rationing
scheme on a market h is efficient or fric-
From any such set of possibly inconsis-
tionless if there are not both rationed de-
tent demands and supplies the exchange
manders and rationed suppliers on mar-
process must generate consistent transac-
ket h. The intuitive idea behind it is that
tions satisfying equation (6) above. Evi-
in an efficiently organized market a ra-
dently, as soon as Dh # Sh some demands
tioned buyer and a rationed seller should
and supplies cannot be satisfied in the
be able to meet, and would exchange un-
exchange process and some agents must
til one of the two is not rationed. To-
be rationed. In real life this may be done
gether with the voluntary exchange as-
through a variety of procedures, such as
sumption, this implies that agents on the
uniform rationing, queueing, propor-
"short side" of the market (i.e., deman-
tional rationing, priority systems, etc.,
ders in case of excess supply, suppliers
depending on the particular organization in case of excess demand) can realize
of each market. We shall call rationing
their desired transactions:
scheme the mathematical representation
of the exchange process on market h. Dh 2 Sh D Sih = Sih forall i
This rationing scheme gives the transac-
tions level of good h for each agent as a Sh : Dh => dih = dih for all i.
function of the demands and supplies of This also yields the "rule of the mini-
all agents present in that market (this will mum,, implicit in many macroeconomic
be formalized more rigorously in Section models, which says that the aggregate
III.A). We shall now study successively level of transactions is equal to the mini-
a number of properties of rationing mum of aggregate demand and supply:
schemes in general, which will lead us
naturally to the notion of quantity signals. D* = Sh = min(Ih,?h).
Voluntary Exchange and Market We should note that the market effi-
Efficiency ciency assumption may be somewhat un-
realistic if we consider a fairly wide and
The first property we shall require decentralized market. We shall use this
from rationing schemes is a very natural property for its convenience in the mac-
one in a free market economy, namely roeconomic examples of Part IV, but we
that of voluntary exchange, according to should keep in mind that most of the
which no agent can be forced to purchase concepts that follow do not depend on
more than he demands, or to sell more it.
than he supplies. This will be expressed We may finally note that, though these
by: properties are never explicitly discussed
in the Walrasian literature, the "ration-
h dih Sih C 8ih
ing schemes" implicit in Walrasian the-
This condition is quite natural and ac- ory satisfy both voluntary exchange and
tually verified on most markets (except market efficiency, so that our theory of
maybe for some labor markets which are markets appears as a natural generaliza-
regulated by more complex contractual tion of the Walrasian one to cases where
arrangements). Under voluntary ex- markets do not clear.
738 Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXXI (June 1993)
means, such as for example arriving ear- ory via our definition of effective de-
lier in a queue. As we shall see in Sec- mand. This we shall further see by study-
tions II.C and III.C, price setting is a ing a well-known example.
particularly important way to "manipu-
late" the quantity constraints an agent The Employment Function
is faced with. The first illustrative example of our
Now it is clear that the quantity signals definition is the employment function
perceived by the agents should have an due to Patinkin (1956) and Barro and
effect on demand, supply, and price for- Grossman (1971): Consider a firm with
mation. This is what we shall explore a diminishing returns to scale production
next. function y = F(() faced with a price p
and wage w. The Walrasian labor de-
B. Effective Demand and Supply mand is equal to F'-'(wlp). Assume now
A Definition that the firm faces a constraint y on its
sales of output (y is of course equal to
We must now discuss how demands the total demand coming from the other
and supplies are formed when markets agents). According to the above defini-
do not clear, and for that develop a the- tion the effective demand for labor, id,
ory of effective demand and supply, is the solution in ( of the program:
which will be functions of both price and
quantity signals. When formulating these Max py - we such that
effective demands and supplies, agent i Jy= F(e)
knows that his transactionswill be related
to them by equalities (9) and (10) above.
Maximizing the expected utility of the solution of which is:
these resulting transactions may lead to id = min {F'-(wlp), F-`(g)}. (11)
complex calculations, especially if con-
straints are stochastic (see for example We see that the effective demand for
Benassy 1977, 1982). In the case of deter- labor may have two forms:The Walrasian
ministic constraints, which is what we one if the sales constraint is not binding,
shall consider throughout, there exists a or, if this constraint is binding, a more
simple and workable definition which "Keynesian" form equal to the quantity
generalizes Clower's (1965) original of labor just necessary to produce the
"dual-decision" method: Effective de- output demand (this last form was actu-
mand (or supply) on one particular mar- ally the one operative in Section I.C).
ket is the trade which maximizes the We see immediately in this example that
agent's criterion subject to the usual con- effective demand may have various func-
straints and to the quantity constraints tional forms, which explains intuitively
on the other markets. This definition thus why non-Walrasian models often have
naturally includes the well-known spill- multiple regimes, as we shall see indeed
over effects: We say indeed there is a in Part IV devoted to macroeconomic ap-
spillover effect when an agent who is con- plications.
trained to exchange less than he wants
C. The Formation of Prices
in a market because of rationing modifies
his demands or supplies in other mar- We are now ready to address the
kets. These spillover effects, which un- problem of price making by agents inter-
derlie the surprising result of Section nal to the system, and we shall see that,
I. C, will be present throughout the the- as in demand and supply theory, quantity
740 Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXXI (June 1993)
signals must play a fundamental role. The this seller faces a constraint ?ih which is
general idea relating the concepts of this equal to the sum of all other agents' de-
section to those of the previous ones is mands on the market h:
thus that price makers change their
prices so as to "manipulate"the quantity ?ih = >dh = Dh. (12)
joi
constraints they face (that is, to increase
or decrease their possible sales or pur- But if we consider the market h before
chases). As a result of this introduction agent i has set price Ph, we see that he
of quantity signals into the price-making will not, contrary to a price taker, con-
process, the theory will bear some re- sider ?ih as parametric. Rather, and this
semblance to the traditional theories of is how the price making theory devel-
imperfect competition (see notably oped here links with what we saw previ-
Chamberlin 1933; Negishi 1961). ously, he will use the price Ph to "manip-
Various modes of price making inte- ulate" the quantity constraint ?ih he faces,
grating the above ideas can be envi- i.e., to increase or decrease the demand
sioned. We shall deal here with a particu- addressed to him. The relation between
lar (and realistic for many markets) the maximum quantity seller i expects
organization of the pricing process where to sell and the price he sets on the market
agents on one side of the market (usually is called the perceived demand curve.
the sellers) quote prices and agents on If expectations are deterministic (which
the other side are price takers.6 we shall assume in all that follows) it will
We shall moreover, as in the tradi- be denoted gih(Ph,Oi)where Oiis a vector
tional theories of monopolistic competi- of parameters which integrates all infor-
tion, characterize a good not only by its mation available to the price maker. In
physical and temporal characteristics, view of equation (12), this perceived de-
but also by the agent who sets its price. mand curve can also be written:
Each price maker is thus alone on his Sih(Ph,Oi) = Dh(Ph,1i)
side of the market, and appears formally
as a monopolist (or a monopsonist). This where l6h(Ph,Oi) is what the price
maker expects the aggregate effective de-
does not imply, however, anything as to
his degree of monopoly power, as there mand of the rest of the agents to be, con-
ditional on the price he sets Ph and on
may be competitors' markets where
other agents sell or buy goods that are all information contained in the vector
extremely close substitutes. Oi. We see that, depending on what the
price maker knows about the rest of the
PerceivedDemandand SupplyCurves economy, several forms of perceived de-
Consider thus the seller i who sets the mand curves can be considered:
price Ph on a market h (the exposition * In the objective demand curve ap-
for a demander would be symmetrical). proach it is assumed that Oicontains
As we saw above, once he has posted all relevant informationand that the
his price, demands are expressed, and price maker knows the exact form
of the function ])h. This assumption
is the one usually made in partial
6Other modesof pricingcould be studiedwith
our tools but have not yet been integratedin this equilibrium analysis and in indus-
line of workat a generalequilibriumlevel. Interest- trial organization. We shall see in
ing alternativeconceptshave been studieddirectly Section III.C how to use the con-
at the macroeconomic level by JoaquimSilvestre
(1988, 1989), Hans-Jorgen Jacobsenand Christian cepts developed here to construct
Schultz(1990). rigorously the objective demand
Benassy: Nonclearing Markets 741
whereas frictionless markets will not be Maximize Uj(i + zi, mi) such that
assumed unless explicitly specified.
[PZi + mi = 'hi
Quantity Signals - sik Zikj dik for all k = h
To express the way quantity signals are which yields an effective demand func-
formed in an easier way, let us rewrite tion Ch(p,di,?i).Callt;(p,di,?) the vector
the rationing scheme on market h as: ofallthesedemands,Eih, h = 1, . . . , (
for agent i. It has two good properties:
ih = Fih(Zih,Z-ih)13) The first is that, as it is easy to check
where Z-ih is the set of all net demands (or see Benassy 1977, 1982), it leads to
on market h, except that of agent i, i.e.: the best transactionvectortakingaccount
,of all constraints di and ?i. Secondly,
Z-ih = {ZjhI # i}@ whenever a constraintis binding on a
As we indicated in Section II.A we marketh, the effectivedemandor supply
shall work with nonmanipulable ration- on this marketis greaterthan the corre-
ing schemes which can be written under spondingquantityconstraint,whichthus
the form seen above: "signals"to the market that the agent
trades less than he wants. Such a signal
d= min(dih,d1h) (9) is actuallyusefulto avoidtrivialequilibria
Sih = min(?ih,?ih) (10) where nobody would trade because no-
body else signalsthat he wants to trade.
where the quantities dih and &ih are func-
tions of all demands on the market, ex- B. Fixprice Equilibria
cept that of agent i himself, which is writ-
ten: We shall now begin with a first con-
dih = Gih(Z-ih) 0 > (14)
cept of equilibrium, somehow polar to
2
the Walrasianone, that of fixpriceequi-
Sjh = G6h(2-ih) 0. (15) libriumassociatedto a given pricevector
For compactness of notation, equations p. This concept is interestingfor several
(13), (14), (15) will be rewritten in vector reasons:First it will give us a very wide
form as: classof logicallyconsistentmarketalloca-
tions, as we shallfindout thatundervery
ZL Fi(ii,zi (16) standard conditions a fixprice equilib-
di= Gi(Z_i) (17) rium exists for all strictly positive price
?i= G!(_i) (18) vectors and every rationingscheme (we
where: may note also that Walrasianallocations
are part of these allocations,as they are
-i= {ijj $ i} simply those correspondingto a Wal-
Effective Demand rasianpricevector).Secondly,as we shall
see in SectionIII.C below, fixpriceequi-
As we indicated in Section II.B the libriaare a very useful buildingblockfor
effective demand Zih is obtained by maxi- constructingother non-Walrasianequi-
mizing the utility function Ui subject to libriumconceptswith flexibleprices. We
the budget constraint and to the quantity shall now study two different fixprice
constraints on the other markets, i.e., it equilibriumconcepts.
will be the solution in Zih (unique because The firstconceptwe shalldescribewas
of strict concavity) of the following pro- developed in Benassy (1975a, 1977,
gram: 1982). It derives straightforwardly from
744 Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXXI (June 1993)
spectively purchase and sell, so that his traditional concavity assumptions for the
transactions on market h are limited to utility functions. The concept can be eas-
the interval: ily extended to nonuniform bounds dih
and ?ih (Jean-Michel Grandmont and Guy
-8h < Zih s dh Laroque 1976), but in this last case it is
We are now ready to give the defini- not specified in the concept how short-
tion of a fixprice equilibrium in the sense ages are allocated among rationed de-
of Dreze: manders and rationed suppliers, so that
there are usually a large number of equi-
DEFINITION 2: A fixprice equilibrium for libria for a given price vector.
a given set of prices p is characterized At this stage the reader may wonder
by transactions Z*h, i = 1, . . . n, if there are connections between the two
h = 1,. . . , X, and quantity constraints concepts we described. It was proved by
dh and h', h = 1, . . ., , such that: Silvestre (1982, 1983; see also Antoine
n D'Autume 1985) that one obtains the
(a) z*i= for all h same set of equilibrium allocations for
definition 1 (assuming all rationing
(b) The vector z is solution in zi of the schemes to be frictionless) and definition
2 (extended for nonuniform bounds), in
following program:
Maximize Ui(wi+ zi, mi) such that both exchange and production econo-
mies. These allocations have a number
JPZi + mi = mi of suboptimality properties which we
{-Sh Zih' dh h=1, ... , shall not study here, but which are devel-
(c) if Zih = dh for some agent i, then oped in Benassy (1975a, 1982, 1990),
?h for all agents j.
Dreze and Heinz Muller (1980), and Sil-
Zjh > vestre (1985).
If Zih = -Sh for some agent i, then
Zjh < dh for all agents j. C. Equilibria with Price Makers
Let us now interpret these conditions. We shall now construct a non-Wal-
Condition (a) simply says that transac- rasian general equilibrium model where
tions should balance on each market. prices are explicitly set by agents internal
Condition (b) says that transactions maxi- to the system. This will show that, as a
mize utility subject to the budget con- "by-product," our theory provides a sim-
straint and the quantity constraints on ple and naturalsolution to the (heretofore
all markets, a natural individual rational- unsolved) problem of defining an objec-
ity condition. We may note that the uni- tive demand curve for price makers in a
form rationing procedure used here dis- general equilibrium situation.
plays the two properties of voluntary The Framework
exchange and nonmanipulability that we
discussed earlier. Condition (c) says ba- As we indicated in Section II.C, we
sically that rationing may affect either shall consider the case where agents on
supply or demand, but not both si- one side of the market (demanders or
multaneously. We recognize here the suppliers) set prices and agents on the
assumption of efficient or frictionless other side act as price takers. Call Hi
markets, which is thus "built in" to this the (possibly empty) subset of goods
definition. whose prices are set by agent i. As said
The existence of such an equilibrium above goods are distinguished not only
was proved in Dreze (1975) under the by their physical characteristics, but also
746 Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXXI (June 1993)
by the agent who sets their price. As a to the idea that there are many price set-
result, the sets Hi are disjoint: ting agents, as in monopolistic competi-
tion. Each agent chooses his price vector
Hi nHj =1{0} j# i
pi, taking as given the prices decided by
and each price maker is alone on his side others, which we shall denote by p .:
of the market. Subdivide further Hi into
H (goods supplied by i) and Hd (goods P-i = {pjIj# i}.
demanded by i). Agent i appears formally The idea behind the objective demand
as a monopolist on markets h E Hs, as curve approach is that the agent knows
a monopsonist on markets h E Hd. Con- the economy well enough to be able to
sequently the constraints he perceives compute the quantity constraints he will
have the simple form: face under all circumstances. In particu-
heHE (19)
lar he must be able to compute the dih
Sih->djh
joi or ?ih of equations (19, 20) for any value
of the prices p-i and pi that others and
dih =>Sjh hEHd. (20) himself may set. This is actually quite
joi
Now the basic idea of the concept we easy to do given the results of Section
shall present is that the agent i uses the III. B where we saw that, for any given
prices he controls to "manipulate" his market organization, we could notably
constraints. Call pi the set of prices con- compute demands, supplies, and quan-
trolled by i: tity constraints as functions of the price
vector p = (pi,p-i) These were denoted
Pi = {PhI hE Hi}. Di(p), Si(p), Di(p), Si(p). The objective
In order to pose the problem of the demand curve for a good h E Ht is thus:
optimal price choice by the firm, all we
need to know is how he perceives the E Djh(P) = Sih(P)
j#i
quantity constraints in equations (19) and
(20) to vary with pi. We shall now de- and symmetrically the objective supply
scribe here the objective demand curve curve for a good h E Hid:
approach, as developed in Benassy
(1988).8 The subjective demand curve ap- E Sjh(p) = Dih(P).
joi
proach will be treated by way of example
in Section IV.C.9 Price Making and Equilibrium
The Objective Demand Curve
Once it is assumed that agent i knows
The equilibrium structure we shall the exact functions Di(p) and Si(p), the
consider is that of a Nash equilibrium program yielding his optimal price pi is
in prices, which corresponds implicitly very naturally written
8 Earlierworkson the objective demand curve ap- Maximize Ui((.i + zi, mi) such that
proach are found in Jean Gabszewiczand Jean-Phi- [PZi + Mt =Mt
lippe Vial (1972), Thomas Marschakand Reinhard
Selten (1974), HukukaneNikaido(1975),FrankHahn -Sih(P) Zih(P)< Dih(p) h = 1, . . .e
(1978).
9 For an applicationof this methodologyto subjec- which gives the optimum price decision
tive demand curves in general equilibrium, see B& of agent i as a function of the prices cho-
nassy (1976, 1978, 1982, 1990), which link the ap-
proachdescribed here with Negishi's (1961) seminal sen by the other agents:
workon general equilibriumwith subjectivedemand
curves. Pi= i(P-i)
Benassy: Nonclearing Markets 747
Let us make a few observations: The able policy instrument. Note that this
first is that money is not any more neu- time crowding out does not occur
tral, but that increases in mo will increase through prices, but by a direct rationing
production, employment, and private mechanism. The only variable which af-
consumption. These will also be in- fects the level of employment and pro-
creased by decreases in taxes or increases duction is the level of real wages, thus
in government spending. The traditional validating the "classical" presumption
results of "Keynesian" analysis are thus that there is unemployment because
valid in this regime. "real wages are too high."
Maybe the most striking fact is that
Repressed Inflation
an increase in government spending will
increase not only production and em- In this regime there is excess demand
ployment, but also private consumption. in both markets. In particular the house-
There is thus no crowding out, quite the hold is faced with a binding constraint 5
contrary, as even though the government (actually equal to its purchases c* in the
collects real output from the private sec- goods market). Its supply of labor iS is
tor, more of it is available for private con- thus given by the solution in f to the
sumption, a remarkable by-product of following program:
the inefficiency of the Keynesian multi-
plier state. 13 Maximize aolog c + 13log(0 - )
+ -ylog(m/pe) such that
Classical Unemployment
In this case there is excess supply of
{pc+ m = mo + we + iT-pT
labor and excess demand for goods. The
firm, being on the "short" side in both where the last constraint is binding. The
markets, is able to carry out its Walrasian solution to this program (assuming labor
plan, so that: supply is strictly positive) is:
-* = F' l(w/p) = Ec (32) s_ 1
y* = F[F'-'(w/p)] = Yc. (33)
We see immediately that "Keynesian" MO
Pe P-] + we0+1T - -
y* = F(er) = Yr-
become clearer below). In spite of this so that we have on the demand side of
we shall still observe three regimes with the goods market:
markedly different properties in this y = K(p,m^,g,r).
model (if an equilibrium exists):
The firm is unconstrained on the goods
* Excess supply of labor and goods
market (which clears) and on the labor
(Regime A),
market (where it is on the short side).
* Excess supply of labor with the
It carries thus its Walrasian plan, which
goods market cleared (Regime B), yields, taking into account that wlp = :
* Both markets cleared (Regime C)
Regime A ("Keynesian") e* =F'F-1(
With excess supply on both markets,
the price will be blocked at pO and the We see here that only a reduction in
real wage at o. the real wage X can cure unemployment,
as in the "classical" regime of Section
P = Po W/p = (0.
IV. B. As we already emphasized, this oc-
Output level will be determined by curs without any rationing on the goods
demand in exactly the same way as in market.
the "Keynesian" case of Section IV.B,
yielding: Regime C ("Walrasian")
y*= -(MO+g-_T +g Because both markets clear, we are in
Y P the Walrasian case, described in Section
IV.A (see equations 25-28). We shall not
and comment on policies, which were dis-
,e*= F-'(y*). cussed there, but simply note for the se-
quel that equation (28), inverted to give
These are exactly the values found in y as a function of p, yields:
the Keynesian unemployment regime of
the fixprice-fixwage model, and employ- y = K(p,m.,g,r).
ment will be increased through the same
policy measures:An increase in mo, g, The General Picture
or a decrease in T. For what follows it If we look at the systems of equations
will be convenient to define a "demand
giving the equilibrium values of y and p
curve"K(p,mo,g,), similarin spiritto in each of the three regimes (as well as
the "aggregate demand curve" of macro- the inequalities they must satisfy, which
economic textbooks, by:
are left to the reader), we see that they
can be determined as the intersection in
K(p,MO,g T) =g - T + g. (p,y) space of a "demand curve" and a
"supply curve" (Figure 5), The "demand
With this definition y* in this regime curve" has for equation:
is simplyequalto K(pO,MO,g,T).
y = K(p,mO,g,T).
Regime B ("Classical")
The "supply curve" consists of two
Here the real wage is blocked at o, parts: A vertical part with equation p =
but the price is now determined by the
po. A horizontal part with equation:
equality of supply and demand. As in the
previous regime, y is equal to demand, y = min{F[F''1((x)], yw} = min(yc,yj)
756 Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXXI (June 1993)
wage wW/ptare flexibleupwardsbut rigid (regime A), and thus that Pi is blocked
downwards. The aggregate household at its floor value. Equation (53) immedi-
has a utility function ately yields a multiplier on current gov-
ernment expenditures equal to (ac, + -y)/
U = Y.at log ct + Z Pt log( - et)
-y. We see that, with expectations cor-
+ -y log mipe rectly taken into account, the multiplier
where m is the quantityof money saved is the same as it would be in a one period
and pe the price expected after the last model where the propensity to consume
period (which may be thought of as the would be ac,/(ac,+ -y), whereas the pro-
retirement time). Assuming the house- pensity to consume out of current income
hold does not have anybinding"liquidity is actually equal to (cf. equation 52):
constraint,"its budget constraintsforpe- a1
riods t = 1, . . . , k can be merged into
the single followingone: X tt + -Y
an equilibrium concept with fully flexible such as the one we provided. Thus it
(though non-Walrasian) prices by deriv- would certainly be worthwhile to inte-
ing rigorously an "objective demand grate the most relevant "New Keynes-
curve" in a general equilibrium situation ian" insights into the general equilibrium
with price makers. The concepts so ob- approach developed here.
tained link the Walrasian, Keynesian, There are several prospective future
and imperfect competition theories in a developments for research in the field
manner that allows us to treat the corre- we have surveyed. On the theoretical
sponding issues in a unified way, as dem- side, various theories of price formation
onstrated in the macroeconomic applica- without an auctioneer can be developed
tions of Part IV. Although the role of and integrated within the general equi-
expectations is not at all the focus of this librium framework presented here. (So
article we indicated, and emphasize far only imperfect competition under
again, that our framework is consistent complete information has been fully inte-
with both rational and nonrational expec- grated.) Insights should come not only
tations. This leaves maximal flexibility to from macroeconomics, but also from mi-
the model builder. croeconomic studies, particularly in the
Some readers may be curious about fields of industrial organization, labor,
the relation between the approach devel- and financial markets. The methodology
oped in this article and the currently and framework we outlined will permit
popular "New Keynesian economics." the derivation of the micro and macro-
Rather than a school of thought, New economic consequences of these new de-
Keynesianism, recently described in the velopments, as well as the potential
insightful survey by Robert Gordon consequences of economic policy pre-
(1990), is a collection of contributions de- scriptions.
signed to describe non-market clearing Though we did not discuss the empiri-
price making derived from rational mi- cal literature, important work remains to
crofoundations, the ultimate aim being be done on the empirical side. Our con-
to rationalize Keynesian-type situations. cepts apply to various sorts of market
This literature covers a wide range of economies, whether of the U.S. type or
topics: Labor contracts, unions, insider- of the planned socialist type. But clearly
outsider theory, efficiency wages, and the type of market imbalances observed
menu costs, to name only a few. While will differ widely across countries, de-
many of these ideas are worth pursuing, pending on the underlying economic and
a problem with this literature (noted by institutional organization of markets.
Gordon 1990) is that for the most part Further development of econometric
these insights are of a partial equilibrium methods should allow us to choose the
nature.18 But, as we have seen in this most relevant hypotheses for each coun-
article, many interesting results (and cer- try and to characterize specific historical
tainly most of the "true Keynesian" in- episodes. 19
sights) come from the "spillover" effects All this shows that this article, and the
between several non-clearing markets in
a full general equilibrium framework, 19Econometricwork in this area is actuallya lively
researchdomain. A bibliographycirculatedby Rich-
18 There are of course exceptions to this qualifica- ard Quandtof PrincetonUniversitycontainedaround
tion, for example Russell Cooper and Andrew John 400 empiricalstudies in June 1990. For recent contri-
(1988). Gordonhimself, though more empiricalthan butions see, for example, Dreze and Charles Bean
the current article, is distinctly general equilibrium (1991), Jean-Paul Lambert (1988), Quandt (1988),
oriented in his approach. Sneessens and Dreze (1986).
Benassti: Nonclearing Markets 759
work described therein, should certainly ._ _ "Imperfect Competition, Unemployment
not be seen as a completed research pro- and Policy," European Econ. Rev., Feb./Mar.
1987, 31(1/2), pp. 417-426.
gram. Its purpose is rather to sketch a . "The Objective Demand Curve in General
few aspects and potential developments Equilibrium with Price Makers," Econ. J., Supple-
of this very large field of research, and ment 1988, 98(390), pp. 37-49.
. "Market Size and Substitutability in Imper-
to encourage researchers to explore it fect Competition: A Bertrand-Edgeworth-Cham-
further. berlin Model," Rev. Econ. Stud., Apr. 1989, 56(2),
pp. 217-34.
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