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Microeconomics Corso E. John Hey. This Week. Tuesday with Daria: Exercise 2: useful for the future. Later (I am asking for more time) Exercise 2b: useful for this course (and the exams!) Wednesday: Chapter 8 (the most beautiful and important of the course). Thursday: Chapter 10. Chapter 8.
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MicroeconomicsCorso E John Hey
This Week • Tuesday with Daria: • Exercise 2: useful for the future. • Later (I am asking for more time) • Exercise 2b: useful for this course (and the exams!) • Wednesday: Chapter 8 (the most beautiful and important of the course). • Thursday: Chapter 10.
Chapter 8 • This chapter introduces the Edgeworth Box... ... the most important concept in the course. • Used for studying exchange between two individuals. • We look for an efficient exchange and we ask about fairness.
Chapter 8 • We begin with a society of two individuals with Cobb-Douglas preferences over two goods: Good 1 and Good 2. • Individual A with parameter a = 0.7. • Individual B with parameter a = 0.6. • Individual A has an endowment of 22 of Good 1 and of 92 of Good 2. • Individual B has an endowment of 128 of Good 1 and 8 of Good 2.
Chapter 8 • The contract curve is... ... the locus of allocations efficient in the sense of Pareto. • An allocation off the curve is inefficient. • An allocation on the curve is efficient.
Chapter 8 • The second scenario with different preferences: • Individual A with parameter a = 0.7. • Individual B with parameter a = 0.3. • Individual A has an endowment of 22 of Good 1 and 92 of Good 2. • Individual B has an endowment of 128 of Good 1 and 8 of Good 2.
Summary • The contract curve shows the allocations that are efficient in the sense of Pareto. • There always exist the possibility of mutually advantageous exchange if preferences are different and/or endowments are different. • ‘Price-taking behaviour’ is always Pareto efficient. • If one of the individuals chooses the price the allocation is not Pareto efficient. • Perfect competitive equilibrium (with both individuals taking the price as given) always leads to a Pareto efficient allocation.
Chapter 8 • The competitive equilibrium depends on the preferences and the endowments.
Chapter 8 • Goodbye!