Description
Book SynopsisDemand and Exchange in Economic Analysis provides a rare combination of detailed analysis of a central area of economics with the history of economic thought. The first part of the book examines major attempts to treat mathematically the partial equilibrium concept of demand conceived as a schedule. The second part, after generalizing Cournot's model of trade in a single good, traces the general equilibrium analysis of exchange. This adds to the concept of a demand curve the fundamental interpretation of the rate of exchange, or price ratio, in terms of the amount of one good offered in return for a unit of another good. The similarity in the treatments of Mill, Whewell, Marshall and Walras is revealed along with the emphasis on multiple equilibria. Edgeworth's grand synthesis and extension of Jevons's approach to exchange is then discussed in detail. The book will be of interest to a wide range of economists interested in placing modern theory in historical perspective.
Trade Review’The essays in this book display a high level of scholarship and technical competence. They certainly raise the quality of doctrinal history several notches.’Table of ContentsPart 1 Partial equilibrium analyses: the first demand schedule; the elasticity of demand; inter-related goods; commodity taxation; trade between regions. Part 2 General equilibrium analyses: exchange and reciprocal demand; diagrammatic treatment of exchange; exchange within price-taking; Jevons's "complex cases" of exchange; exchange without price-taking; competition and efficiency; the role of stocks in supply and demand. Appendixes: multiple equilibria in a Walras/Marshall model; Nash equilibria and barter.
