If a smooth demand function violates the strong axiom of revealed preference, the income and prices can follow a cycle and returm to their starting values even though real income is always rising. We show how real income growth along the “worst” revealed preference cycle depends on the range...

Cross section consumer expenditure data are frequently used to make conclusions about consumer demand behavior. Such conclusions, however, can only be justified under certain assumptions, which are often left unstated in the empirical demand literature. An assumption of this type, the metonymy...

Cross section consumer expenditure data are frequently used to make conclusions about consumer demand behavior. Such conclusions, however, can only be justified under certain assumptions, which are often left unstated in the empirical demand literature. An assumption of this type, the metonymy...

Single consumer models are often used to focus attention on economic efficiency, leaving aside equity considerations. In general, these ¡°representative consumer" models do not accurately portray the effects of changes in policies, endowments or technology in the multi-consumer economies they...

We formulate several laws of individual and market demand and describe their relationship to neoclassical demand theory. The laws have implications for comparative statics and stability of competitive equilibrium. We survey results that offer interpretable sufficient conditions for the laws to...

In a generic competitive economy with constant returns production and "increasing dispersion," market demand satisfies the weak axiom of revealed preference and equilibrium is unique. Increasing dispersion requires, roughly, that when the households' incomes rise slightly their demand vectors...