IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cor/louvco/2005033.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

General equilibrium models of monopolistic competition: CRRA versus CARA

Author

Listed:
  • BEHRENS, Kristian
  • MURATA, Yasusada

Abstract

We analyze a class of "large group" Chamberlinian monopolistic competition models using multiplicatively quasi-separable (MQS) and additively quasi-separable (AQS) functions. We first prove that the MQS and AQS functions are equivalent to the "constant relative risk aversion" (CRRA) and "constant absolute risk aversion" (CARA) classes of functions, respectively. Whereas both approaches allow for closed-form solutions, only the AQS functions yield profit-maximizing prices that decrease in the mass of competing firms. We then characterize the equilibrium in both cases and discuss some possible applications of the AQS framework to trade, growth, and development.

Suggested Citation

  • BEHRENS, Kristian & MURATA, Yasusada, 2005. "General equilibrium models of monopolistic competition: CRRA versus CARA," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2005033, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    • Handle: RePEc:cor:louvco:2005033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://sites.uclouvain.be/core/publications/coredp/coredp2005.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gali, Jordi, 1995. "Product diversity, endogenous markups, and development traps," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 39-63, August.
    2. d'Aspremont, Claude & Dos Santos Ferreira, Rodolphe & Gerard-Varet, Louis-Andre, 1996. "On the Dixit-Stiglitz Model of Monopolistic Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 623-629, June.
    3. Masahisa Fujita & Paul Krugman & Anthony J. Venables, 2001. "The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262561476, December.
    4. Kiminori Matsuyama, 1995. "Complementarities and Cumulative Processes in Models of Monopolistic Competition," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 701-729, June.
    5. Krugman, Paul, 1980. "Scale Economies, Product Differentiation, and the Pattern of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(5), pages 950-959, December.
    6. Gianmarco Ottaviano & Takatoshi Tabuchi & Jacques-François Thisse, 2021. "Agglomeration And Trade Revisited," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 3, pages 59-85, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    8. Blanchard, Olivier Jean & Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro, 1987. "Monopolistic Competition and the Effects of Aggregate Demand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(4), pages 647-666, September.
    9. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    10. Oliver D. Hart, 1985. "Monopolistic Competition in the Spirit of Chamberlin: A General Model," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 52(4), pages 529-546.
    11. Blackorby, Charles, et al, 1970. "Homothetic Separability and Consumer Budgeting," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 38(3), pages 468-472, May.
    12. Yang, Xiaokai & Heijdra, Ben J, 1993. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 295-301, March.
    13. Olivier Jean Blanchard & Stanley Fischer, 1989. "Lectures on Macroeconomics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262022834, December.
    14. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1993. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 302-304, March.
    15. Ethier, Wilfred J, 1982. "National and International Returns to Scale in the Modern Theory of International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(3), pages 389-405, June.
    16. Vives, Xavier, 1985. "On the efficiency of Bertrand and Cournot equilibria with product differentation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 166-175, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Masahisa Fujita & Tomoya Mori, 2005. "Frontiers of the New Economic Geography," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 84(3), pages 377-405, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ottaviano, Gianmarco & Thisse, Jacques-François, 1999. "Monopolistic Competition, Multiproduct Firms and Optimum Product Diversity," CEPR Discussion Papers 2151, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Etro, Federico, 2017. "Research in economics and monopolistic competition," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 645-649.
    3. Behrens, Kristian & Murata, Yasusada, 2007. "General equilibrium models of monopolistic competition: A new approach," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 776-787, September.
    4. J. Peter Neary, 2000. "Monopolistic Competition and International Trade Theory," Working Papers 200025, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    5. Jens Suedekum, 2005. "Increasing returns and spatial unemployment disparities," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 84(2), pages 159-181, June.
    6. Ottaviano, Gianmarco & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2004. "Agglomeration and economic geography," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 58, pages 2563-2608, Elsevier.
    7. Kristian Behrens & Frédéric Robert‐Nicoud, 2009. "Krugman's Papers in Regional Science: The 100 dollar bill on the sidewalk is gone and the 2008 Nobel Prize well‐deserved," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(2), pages 467-489, June.
    8. Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, 2006. "Agglomeration and Trade with Input–Output Linkages and Capital Mobility," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 101-126.
    9. BEHRENS, Kristian, 2004. "Market size and urban hierarchy," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2004029, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    10. Brito, Paulo B. & Costa, Luís F. & Dixon, Huw, 2013. "Non-smooth dynamics and multiple equilibria in a Cournot–Ramsey model with endogenous markups," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 2287-2306.
    11. Fujita, Masahisa & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2009. "New Economic Geography: An appraisal on the occasion of Paul Krugman's 2008 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 109-119, March.
    12. J.Peter Neary, 2001. "Of Hype and Hyperbolas: Introducing the New Economic Geography," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 536-561, June.
    13. Kristian Behrens, 2005. "Choix de localisation et structure du commerce intra-branche," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 56(4), pages 965-982.
    14. Karolina Ekholm & Katariina Hakkala, 2007. "Location of R&D and High-Tech Production by Vertically Integrated Multinationals," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(518), pages 512-543, March.
    15. F Medda & P Nijkamp & P Rietveld, 1999. "Urban Industrial Relocation: The Theory of Edge Cities," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 26(5), pages 751-761, October.
    16. Takatoshi Tabuchi & Kristian Behrens & Andrea R. Lamorgese, 2004. "Testing the Home Market Effects in a Multi-country World: The Theory," Econometric Society 2004 Far Eastern Meetings 595, Econometric Society.
    17. Giordano Mion & Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano & Kristian Behrens, 2008. "Industry reallocations in a globalizing economy," ECONOMIA E POLITICA INDUSTRIALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2008(4), pages 51-63.
    18. Thisse, Jacques-François & Fujita, Masahisa, 2008. "New Economic Geography: an appraisal on the occasion of Paul Krugman's 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics," CEPR Discussion Papers 7063, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Fabien Candau, 2008. "Entrepreneurs' Location Choice And Public Policies: A Survey Of The New Economic Geography," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 909-952, December.
    20. Stephen J. Redding, 2013. "Economic Geography: A Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Daniel Bernhofen & Rod Falvey & David Greenaway & Udo Kreickemeier (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of International Trade, chapter 16, pages 497-531, Palgrave Macmillan.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    monopolistic competition; general equilibrium; price equilibrium; additive quasi-separability; multiplicative quasi-separability.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D50 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - General
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cor:louvco:2005033. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alain GILLIS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/coreebe.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.