Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The models of the mature phase
- 1 Walras's conception of a competitive market economy
- 2 The mature models: Not a normative scheme
- 3 The mature models of the barter of stocks of commodities
- 4 Institutions and participants in the model of monetary oral pledges markets
- 5 Disequilibrium and equilibrium in the model of monetary oral pledges markets
- 6 The structure of the mature nondurable consumer commodities model
- 7 The equilibrating processes in the mature nondurable consumer commodities model
- 8 The structure of the mature comprehensive model
- 9 The equilibrating processes in the mature comprehensive model
- 10 Walras and his critics on the maximum utility of new capital goods
- 11 The mature models of the money market
- 12 Iteration in the mature model of tatonnement
- 13 The mature model of the behavior of the entrepreneur
- 14 Walras versus Edgeworth on tatonnement processes
- Part II The models of the phase of decline
- References
- Collation of editions of the Eléments
- Index
8 - The structure of the mature comprehensive model
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The models of the mature phase
- 1 Walras's conception of a competitive market economy
- 2 The mature models: Not a normative scheme
- 3 The mature models of the barter of stocks of commodities
- 4 Institutions and participants in the model of monetary oral pledges markets
- 5 Disequilibrium and equilibrium in the model of monetary oral pledges markets
- 6 The structure of the mature nondurable consumer commodities model
- 7 The equilibrating processes in the mature nondurable consumer commodities model
- 8 The structure of the mature comprehensive model
- 9 The equilibrating processes in the mature comprehensive model
- 10 Walras and his critics on the maximum utility of new capital goods
- 11 The mature models of the money market
- 12 Iteration in the mature model of tatonnement
- 13 The mature model of the behavior of the entrepreneur
- 14 Walras versus Edgeworth on tatonnement processes
- Part II The models of the phase of decline
- References
- Collation of editions of the Eléments
- Index
Summary
This chapter begins the examination of the comprehensive model that Léon Walras constructed during the mature period of his theoretical work. This model constitutes the culmination of his work on capital and on what he regarded as the essentials of general economic equilibration and equilibrium. The chapter answers fundamental questions about Walras's definitions, his assumptions about the nature of capital goods in the model, and his treatment of productive services, consumer commodities, participants, market institutions, money, and the types of economic activities with which the markets in the model are concerned.
Introduction
This chapter continues the study of the mature phase of Walras's theoretical work, which spanned the years 1878 to the mid-1890s. Chapters 6 and 7 dealt with his mature model of the production and sale of productive services, primary materials, nondurable consumption goods, and consumable services in an economy in which there is no saving and in which capital goods are not subject to wear and tear or accidents. Walras did not use that model in his mature comprehensive model, but he employed some of its features in developing the latter. By the “mature comprehensive model” is meant his allinclusive mature model of general equilibration and equilibrium, which he introduced and largely completed in the lessons in the Eléments he titled “Theory of Capital Formation and of Credit.” The model includes all the basic components of his theoretical system.
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- Walras's Market Models , pp. 155 - 180Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996