The non-existence of smooth demand in general Banach spaces (Q1117127)

We study the questions of existence and smoothness of demand functions with an infinite number of commodities. The main result obtained under some hypotheses, is: if a \(C^ 1\) demand exists in a commodity space B, then B can be given an inner products structure. For example, if B is \(L_ p\), \(1\leq p\leq \infty\), and if there exists a \(C^ 1\) demand function defined on B then p must be 2. Another result is: if a demand function exists, defined for all prices p and income, then the commodity space must be reflexive. For example, if B is \(L_ p\) and a demand function exists on B, defined for all prices and incomes then \(1<p<\infty\). We also study the cases \(L_{\infty}\) and \(L_ 1\) with weaker assumptions. We finish the paper proving that the demand function is always defined for a dense set of prices and convenient incomes.