Rational Expectations in Urban Economics
Abstract
Canonical analysis of the classical general equilibrium model demonstrates the existence of an open and dense subset of standard economies that possess fully-revealing rational expectations equilibria. This paper shows that the analogous result is not true in urban economies under appropriate modifications for this field. An open subset of economies where none of the modified rational expectations equilibria fully reveals private information is found. There are two important pieces. First, there can be information about a location known by a consumer who does not live in that location in equilibrium, and thus the equilibrium rent does not reflect this information. Second, if a consumer's utility depends only on information about their (endogenous) location of residence, perturbations of utility naturally do not incorporate information about other locations conditional on the consumer's location of residence. Existence of equilibrium is proved. Space can prevent housing prices from transmitting information from informed to uninformed households, resulting in an inefficient outcome.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.Bibliographic Info
Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 41356.Length:
Date of creation: 15 Sep 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:41356
Contact details of provider:
Postal: Schackstr. 4, D-80539 Munich, Germany
Phone: +49-(0)89-2180-2219
Fax: +49-(0)89-2180-3900
Web page: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de
More information through EDIRC
Related research
Keywords: Urban Economics; General Equilibrium; Private Information; Rational Expectations;Other versions of this item:
- Berliant, Marcus & Yu, Chia-Ming, 2013. "Rational expectations in urban economics," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 197-208.
- Berliant, Marcus & Yu, Chia-Ming, 2009. "Rational expectations in urban economics," MPRA Paper 12709, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Berliant, Marcus & Yu, Chia-Ming, 2009. "Rational expectations in urban economics," MPRA Paper 17327, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Berliant, Marcus & Yu, Chia-Ming, 2010. "Rational Expectations in Urban Economics," MPRA Paper 22562, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Berliant, Marcus & Yu, Chia-Ming, 2011. "Rational expectations in urban economics," MPRA Paper 33754, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Berliant, Marcus & Yu, Chia-Ming, 2012. "Rational expectations in urban economics," MPRA Paper 37121, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- R13 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General Equilibrium and Welfare Economic Analysis of Regional Economies
- D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
- D51 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Exchange and Production Economies
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2012-09-22 (All new papers)
- NEP-CTA-2012-09-22 (Contract Theory & Applications)
- NEP-GEO-2012-09-22 (Economic Geography)
- NEP-URE-2012-09-22 (Urban & Real Estate Economics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Jordan, J S, 1980. "On the Predictability of Economic Events," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 955-72, May.
- Henderson, J V, 1974.
"The Sizes and Types of Cities,"
American Economic Review,
American Economic Association, vol. 64(4), pages 640-56, September.
- J.V. Henderson, 1972. "The Sizes and Types of Cities," Working Papers 75, Queen's University, Department of Economics.
- Abdel-Rahman, Hesham M., 1996. "When do cities specialize in production?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-22, February.
- Henderson, J. Vernon & Abdel-Rahman, Hesham, 1991. "Urban diversity and fiscal decentralization," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 491-509, November.
- Debreu, Gerard, 1972. "Smooth Preferences," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 40(4), pages 603-15, July.
- Berliant, Marcus & Fujita, Masahisa, 1992.
"Alonso's Discrete Population Model of Land Use: Efficient Allocations and Competitive Equilibria,"
International Economic Review,
Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 33(3), pages 535-66, August.
- Berliant, M. & Fujita, M., 1990. "Alonso'S Discrete Population Model Of Land Use: Efficient Allocations And Competitive Equilibria," RCER Working Papers 217, University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER).
- Roback, Jennifer, 1982. "Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(6), pages 1257-78, December.
- Abdel-Rahman Hesham M. & Fujita Masahisa, 1993. "Specialization and Diversification in a System of Cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 189-222, March.
- Sanford J Grossman & Joseph E Stiglitz, 1997.
"On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets,"
Levine's Working Paper Archive
1908, David K. Levine.
- Grossman, Sanford J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1980. "On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 393-408, June.
- Grossman, Sanford J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1976. "Information and Competitive Price Systems," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(2), pages 246-53, May.
- Jordan, J. S., 1982. "The generic existence of rational expectations equilibrium in the higher dimensional case," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 224-243, April.
- Radner, Roy, 1979. "Rational Expectations Equilibrium: Generic Existence and the Information Revealed by Prices," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(3), pages 655-78, May.
- Alex Anas, 2003.
"Vanishing Cities: What Does the New Economic Geography Imply About the Efficiency of Urbanization?,"
Urban/Regional
0302005, EconWPA.
- Alex Anas, 2004. "Vanishing cities: what does the new economic geography imply about the efficiency of urbanization?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 181-199, April.
- Henderson, Vernon & Becker, Randy, 2000. "Political Economy of City Sizes and Formation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 453-484, November.
- Anas, Alex & Xiong, Kai, 2003.
"Intercity trade and the industrial diversification of cities,"
Journal of Urban Economics,
Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 258-276, September.
- Alex Anas & Kai Xiong, 2003. "Intercity Trade and the Industrial Diversification of Cities," Urban/Regional 0302003, EconWPA.
- Allen, Beth E, 1981. "Generic Existence of Completely Revealing Equilibria for Economies with Uncertainty when Prices Convey Information," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(5), pages 1173-99, September.
- Fujita, Masahisa, 1985. "Existence and uniqueness of equilibrium and optimal land use : Boundary rent curve approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 295-324, June.
- Ausubel, Lawrence M., 1990. "Partially-revealing rational expectations equilibrium in a competitive economy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 93-126, February.
- Roy Radner, 1997. "Rational Expectations Equilibrium: Generic Existence and the Information Revealed by Prices," Levine's Working Paper Archive 1594, David K. Levine.
- Abdel-Rahman, Hesham M. & Wang, Ping, 1997. "Social Welfare and Income Inequality in a System of Cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 462-483, May.
- Magill, Michael & Shafer, Wayne, 1991. "Incomplete markets," Handbook of Mathematical Economics, in: W. Hildenbrand & H. Sonnenschein (ed.), Handbook of Mathematical Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 30, pages 1523-1614 Elsevier.
- Robert J Aumann, 1999. "Agreeing to Disagree," Levine's Working Paper Archive 512, David K. Levine.
- Hirshleifer, Jack, 1971. "The Private and Social Value of Information and the Reward to Inventive Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(4), pages 561-74, September.
- Fujita, Masahisa & Smith, Tony E., 1987. "Existence of continuous residential land-use equilibria," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 549-594, November.
- Beth Allen & James S. Jordan, 1998. "The existence of rational expectations equilibrium: a retrospective," Staff Report 252, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
- Anas, Alex, 1992. "On the birth and growth of cities: : Laissez-faire and planning compared," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 243-258, June.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Berliant, Marcus & Yu, Chia-Ming, 2009.
"Locational signaling and agglomeration,"
MPRA Paper
19462, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Berliant, Marcus & Yu, Chia-Ming, 2009. "Locational signaling and agglomeration," MPRA Paper 24799, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Berliant, Marcus & Yu, Chia-Ming, 2012. "Locational signaling and agglomeration," MPRA Paper 41838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Berliant, Marcus & Yu, Chia-Ming, 2010. "Locational signaling and agglomeration," MPRA Paper 24155, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:41356For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Ekkehart Schlicht).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

