Innovation, Dynamic Regions and Regional Dynamics

The development of economic theory after World War II has focused on clarifying the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an idealized general equilibrium. Debreu (1956), Arrow and Hahn (1971), and Scarf and Hansen (1973) established these conditions, building on earlier attempts by Cassel (1917) and Wald (1933–34, 1934–35). A key assumption in the formulation and proofs of the existence of a general equilibrium of a competitive economy is a large (or even infinite) number of buyers and sellers (Aumann 1964), which ensures anonymous markets and mutual independence of agents. Another assumption is the convexity of preference and production technology sets (Uzawa 1962). A third assumption is flexible pricing of goods and production factors.