IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zur/econwp/187.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the origin of r-concavity and related concepts

Author

Listed:
  • Tamás L. Balogh
  • Christian Ewerhart

Abstract

In a less widely known contribution, Béla Martos (1966, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) introduced a generalized notion of concavity that is closely related to what is nowadays known as r-concavity in the operations research literature, and that is identical to what is nowadays known as ρ-concavity in the economics literature. The present paper aims at making the original contribution accessible to a wider audience and illustrating its importance from a modern perspective. To this end, we offer a translation of those parts of Martos (1966) that are directly related to generalized concavity. Reviewing the virtues of r-concavity and ρ-concavity, we find a surprisingly short proof of the univariate Prékopa-Borell theorem. We also survey a number of applications of the considered concepts in operations research and economics.

Suggested Citation

  • Tamás L. Balogh & Christian Ewerhart, 2015. "On the origin of r-concavity and related concepts," ECON - Working Papers 187, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:zur:econwp:187
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/109606/1/econwp187.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zahra Mashayekhi Zadeh & Esmaile Khorram, 2012. "Convexity of chance constrained programming problems with respect to a new generalized concavity notion," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 651-662, July.
    2. Anderson, Simon P. & Renault, Regis, 2003. "Efficiency and surplus bounds in Cournot competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 253-264, December.
    3. Caplin, Andrew & Nalebuff, Barry, 1991. "Aggregation and Social Choice: A Mean Voter Theorem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(1), pages 1-23, January.
    4. David P. Myatt & Chris Wallace, 2005. "Production Targets and Free Disposal in the Private Provision of Public Goods," Economics Series Working Papers 231, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    5. Y. X. Zhao & S. Y. Wang & L. Coladas Uria, 2010. "Characterizations of r-Convex Functions," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 186-195, April.
    6. Gupta, Somesh Das, 1980. "Brunn-Minkowski inequality and its aftermath," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 296-318, September.
    7. Moyes, Patrick, 2003. "Redistributive effects of minimal equal sacrifice taxation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 111-140, January.
    8. Simon Cowan, 2012. "Third-Degree Price Discrimination and Consumer Surplus," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 333-345, June.
    9. Iñaki Aguirre & Simon Cowan & John Vickers, 2010. "Monopoly Price Discrimination and Demand Curvature," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(4), pages 1601-1615, September.
    10. Caplin, Andrew & Nalebuff, Barry, 1991. "Aggregation and Imperfect Competition: On the Existence of Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(1), pages 25-59, January.
    11. Simon Cowan, 2007. "The welfare effects of third-degree price discrimination with nonlinear demand functions," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(2), pages 419-428, June.
    12. Horst, R., 1984. "On the convexification of nonlinear programming problems: An applications-oriented survey," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 382-392, March.
    13. Ewerhart, Christian, 2014. "Cournot games with biconcave demand," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 37-47.
    14. AVRIEL, Mordecai, 1973. "Solution of certain nonlinear programs involving r-convex functions," LIDAM Reprints CORE 129, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    15. DavidP. Myatt & Chris Wallace, 2009. "Evolution, Teamwork and Collective Action: Production Targets in the Private Provision of Public Goods," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(534), pages 61-90, January.
    16. An, Mark Yuying, 1998. "Logconcavity versus Logconvexity: A Complete Characterization," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 350-369, June.
    17. Harvey J. Greenberg & William P. Pierskalla, 1971. "A Review of Quasi-Convex Functions," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 19(7), pages 1553-1570, December.
    18. Hirofumi Uzawa, 1962. "Production Functions with Constant Elasticities of Substitution," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 29(4), pages 291-299.
    19. Christian Ewerhart, 2013. "Regular type distributions in mechanism design and $$\rho $$ -concavity," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 53(3), pages 591-603, August.
    20. Mares, Vlad & Swinkels, Jeroen M., 2011. "Near-optimality of second price mechanisms in a class of asymmetric auctions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 218-241, May.
    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. Janko Hernández Cortés & Paolo Morganti, 2022. "Existence and uniqueness of price equilibria in location-based models of differentiation with full coverage," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 115-148, July.
    2. Rota-Graziosi, Grégoire, 2019. "The supermodularity of the tax competition game," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 25-35.

    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. Rota-Graziosi, Grégoire, 2019. "The supermodularity of the tax competition game," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 25-35.
    2. Ewerhart, Christian, 2014. "Cournot games with biconcave demand," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 37-47.
    3. Anderson, Simon P. & Celik, Levent, 2015. "Product line design," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 517-526.
    4. Mares, Vlad & Swinkels, Jeroen M., 2014. "On the analysis of asymmetric first price auctions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 1-40.
    5. Schweizer, Nikolaus & Szech, Nora, 2015. "A quantitative version of Myerson regularity," Working Paper Series in Economics 76, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    6. Takanori Adachi & Noriaki Matsushima, 2014. "The Welfare Effects Of Third-Degree Price Discrimination In A Differentiated Oligopoly," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(3), pages 1231-1244, July.
    7. DavidP. Myatt & Chris Wallace, 2009. "Evolution, Teamwork and Collective Action: Production Targets in the Private Provision of Public Goods," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(534), pages 61-90, January.
    8. Madeleine Cule & Richard Samworth & Michael Stewart, 2010. "Maximum likelihood estimation of a multi‐dimensional log‐concave density," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 72(5), pages 545-607, November.
    9. Christian Ewerhart & Julia Lareida, 2018. "Voluntary disclosure in asymmetric contests," ECON - Working Papers 279, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Jul 2023.
    10. Yongmin Chen & Jianpei Li & Marius Schwartz, 2021. "Competitive differential pricing," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(1), pages 100-124, March.
    11. Simon Cowan, 2007. "The welfare effects of third-degree price discrimination with nonlinear demand functions," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(2), pages 419-428, June.
    12. Corchón, Luis C. & Torregrosa, Ramón J., 2020. "Cournot equilibrium revisited," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-10.
    13. Iñaki Aguirre & Simon G. Cowan, 2015. "Monopoly price discrimination with constant elasticity demand," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 3(2), pages 329-340, October.
    14. Jong-Hee Hahn & Chan KIm, 2018. "Input price discrimination with differentiated final products," Working papers 2018rwp-118, Yonsei University, Yonsei Economics Research Institute.
    15. Per Hjertstrand, 2023. "On the Curvature of Homogeneous Functions," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 198(1), pages 215-223, July.
    16. Yongmin Chen & Marius Schwartz, 2015. "Differential pricing when costs differ: a welfare analysis," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 46(2), pages 442-460, June.
    17. Liu, Lin & Wang, X. Henry & Yu, Haojun, 2022. "Sequential search with partial depth," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    18. Johnson, Justin P. & Myatt, David P., 2015. "The properties of product line prices," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 182-188.
    19. E. Glen Weyl & Michal Fabinger, 2013. "Pass-Through as an Economic Tool: Principles of Incidence under Imperfect Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(3), pages 528-583.
    20. Mares, Vlad & Swinkels, Jeroen M., 2011. "Near-optimality of second price mechanisms in a class of asymmetric auctions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 218-241, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Generalized concavity; r-concavity; ρ-concavity; nonlinear optimization; economic applications;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C6 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling
    • D0 - Microeconomics - - General
    • Y8 - Miscellaneous Categories - - Related Disciplines

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zur:econwp:187. 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: Severin Oswald (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/seizhch.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.