Market demand. An analysis of large economics with non-convex preferences (Q761928)

The author writes in the Preface: ''The monograph is a synthesis of what has been contributed during the last decade to the analysis of market demand in large economies where consumers may have non-convex preferences... The main part of the analysis consists of chapters 5 to 7. The heart of the whole work is chapter 6 which presents the 'ergodic approach' to smoothing demand by aggregation, jointly developed by E. and H. Dierker and myself''. An alternative approach, parametric, originated by Sondermann, is presented in chapter 4. Other approaches which include results of Mas-Colell, Hildenbrand and Anderson are reviewed in chapter 7. The first four chapters, considered as introductory, are concerned with general problems of demand, equilibria, smoothing demand by aggregation, spaces of preferences and large economies. Specific problems analysed in chapters 5 through 7 include: the dispersion of consumers' tastes, continuity and differentiability of the mean demand function. The author's approach is mainly based on the methods of measure theory and differential topology, including some elements of catastrophe theory.