Equilibrium in the Jungle(PDF 22)

Equilibrium in the Jungle∗
Michele Piccione
Department of Economics
London School of Economics
and
Ariel Rubinstein
School of Economics, Tel Aviv University
and Department of Economics, New York University
http://arielrubinstein.tau.ac.il/
October 5, 2004
Abstract
In the jungle, power and coercion govern the exchange of resources.
We study a simple, stylized model of the jungle that mirrors an exchange
economy. We define the notion of jungle equilibrium and
demonstrate that a number of standard results of competitive markets
hold in the jungle.
JEL Classification: C7, D4, S477, B201
Keywords: power, involuntary exchange, jungle equilibrium, competitive
equilibrium
∗We wish to thank Luca Anderlini, Samuel Bowles, Leonardo Felli, Piero Gottardi,
Heraklis Polemarchakis, Andrea Prat, Tayfun Somnez, and Rani Spiegler for their comments.
1
..............................