IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-01405306.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is individual rationality essential to market price formation? The contribution of zero‐intelligence agent trading models

Author

Listed:
  • Paola Tubaro

    () (CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Greenwich Business School - University of Greenwich)

Abstract

The paper investigates the minimum level of individual rationality that is needed for market prices to converge toward their equilibrium level. It does so by examining the theoretical and methodological foundations of the ‘zero‐intelligence' (ZI) agent trading approach, with which Gode and Sunder (1993a) claimed that weak individual rationality requirements suffice to obtain equilibrium prices. The paper shows that ZI agents are endowed with a higher degree of rationality than previously believed. Though not maximizing utility, they exhibit utility‐improving behavior, and their decision‐making rules fulfill important predictions of the theory of choice based on maximization, namely downward‐sloping individual demand and upward‐sloping individual supply. Additional cognitive skills would be required, were some simplifying assumptions of the basic model removed. Gode and Sunder's analysis supports a non‐neoclassical rational choice theory, in which optimization can be replaced by a variety of behavioral rules, while still preserving important results on the functioning of markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Paola Tubaro, 2009. "Is individual rationality essential to market price formation? The contribution of zero‐intelligence agent trading models," Post-Print hal-01405306, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01405306
    DOI: 10.1080/13501780802225528
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01405306
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Doyne Farmer & Paolo Patelli & Ilija I. Zovko, 2003. "The Predictive Power of Zero Intelligence in Financial Markets," Papers cond-mat/0309233, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2004.
    2. Wagner, Alfred, 1891. "Marshall's Principles of Economics," History of Economic Thought Articles, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, vol. 5, pages 319-338.
    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. Brewer, Paul & Ratan, Anmol, 2019. "Profitability, efficiency, and inequality in double auction markets with snipers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 486-499.
    2. Paola Tubaro, 2011. "Computational Economics," Chapters, in: John B. Davis & D. Wade Hands (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Recent Economic Methodology, chapter 10, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Moscati, Ivan & Tubaro, Paola, 2009. "Random behavior and the as-if defense of rational choice theory in demand experiments," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 27001, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Giuseppe Attanasi & Samuele Centorrino & Ivan Moscati, 2011. "Double Auction Equilibrium and Efficiency in a Classroom Experimental Search Market," LERNA Working Papers 11.03.337, LERNA, University of Toulouse.

    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. A.J. Arnold, 2017. "Capital reduction case law decisions and the development of the capital maintenance doctrine in late-nineteenth-century England," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 172-190, February.
    2. Basant Kapur, 1997. "Book Reviews," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 113-116.
    3. SAITO Yukiko, 2013. "Role of Hub Firms in Geographical Transaction Network," Discussion papers 13080, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Charlot, Sylvie & Duranton, Gilles, 2004. "Communication externalities in cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 581-613, November.
    5. Mark Freel, 2000. "External linkages and product innovation in small manufacturing firms," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 245-266, July.
    6. Emanuela Marrocu & Raffaele Paci & Stefano Usai, 2013. "Productivity Growth In The Old And New Europe: The Role Of Agglomeration Externalities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 418-442, August.
    7. David Doloreux & Jose Gaviria de la Puerta & Iker Pastor-López & Igone Porto Gómez & Borja Sanz & Jon Mikel Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, 2019. "Territorial innovation models: to be or not to be, that’s the question," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(3), pages 1163-1191, September.
    8. Yun, Kwan Koo, 1995. "The Dubovickii-Miljutin Lemma and characterizations of optimal allocations in non-smooth economies," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 435-460.
    9. Duranton, Gilles & Jayet, Hubert, 2011. "Is the division of labour limited by the extent of the market? Evidence from French cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 56-71, January.
    10. Ludwig von Auer & Andranik Stepanyan & Mark Trede, 2019. "Classifying industries into types of relative concentration," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 182(3), pages 1017-1037, June.
    11. Kristien Werck & Bruno Heyndels & Benny Geys, 2008. "The impact of ‘central places’ on spatial spending patterns: evidence from Flemish local government cultural expenditures," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 32(1), pages 35-58, March.
    12. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Sylvie Démurger & Shi Li, 2017. "Productivity Gains from Agglomeration and Migration in the People's Republic of China between 2002 and 2013," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 34(2), pages 184-200, September.
    13. Vind, Karl, 1995. "Perfect competition or the core," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1733-1745, December.
    14. Ho Yeon KIM & Petra de Jong & Jan Rouwendal & Aleid Brouwer, 2012. "Shrinking population and the urban hierarchy [Housing preferences and attribute importance among Dutch older adults: a conjoint choice experiment]," ERSA conference papers ersa12p350, European Regional Science Association.
    15. Evert-Jan Visser & Oedzge Atzema, 2007. "With or Without Clusters: Facilitating Innovation through a Differentiated and Combined Network Approach," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(9), pages 1169-1188, April.
    16. Wang, Shilei, 2013. "Dynamical trading mechanisms in limit order markets," Algorithmic Finance, IOS Press, vol. 2(3-4), pages 213-231.
    17. John P. Watkins, 1998. "Towards a Reconsideration of Social Evolution: Symbiosis and Its Implications for Economics," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 87-106, March.
    18. SHIMAMOTO Daichi & Yu Ri KIM & TODO Yasuyuki, 2019. "The Effect of Social Interactions on Exporting Activities: Evidence from Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises in rural Vietnam," Discussion papers 19020, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    19. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    20. Faggio, Giulia & Silva, Olmo & Strange, William C., 2019. "Tales of the city: what do agglomeration cases tell us about agglomeration in general?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102721, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    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:hal:journl:hal-01405306. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (CCSD). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.