We enquiry about the effects of first and second order stochastic dominance shifts of the distribution of the consumers’ willingness to pay, within the standard model of a market with network externalities and hump-shaped demand curve. This issue is analyzed in the polar cases of perfect...

We consider the interplay between income distribution and optimal commodity taxation, linking equity issues to optimal taxes through the effect of income distribution on market demand and its price elasticity.We find conditions to conciliate the equity and efficiency tradeoff and to assess the...

We consider the interplay between income distribution and optimal commodity taxation, linking equity issues to optimal taxes through the effect of income distribution on market demand and its price elasticity. We find conditions to conciliate the equity and efficiency tradeoff and to assess the...

We introduce non-homothetic preferences in the Dixit-Stiglitz model of monopolistic competition, and enquire about the effects of a change in income dispersion on the firms' optimal decisions and market equilibrium. Income dispersion, modelled as a mean preserving spread, is shown to affect only...

We analyze the effects of income concentration and income dispersion on market demand and its elasticity. We show that, following an increase in income concentration towards the middle (measured by variations in mean preservingspread), the increase in demand faced by firms which serve at the...

In The Economics of Imperfect Competition, Joan Robinson argued that an increase of the consumers' incomes should make demand less elastic - which, though reasonable about individual demand as an assumption on preferences, suggests a role for income distribution as far as market demand is...

Esteban (1986) introduced the notion of income share elasticity as a function pi which can describe the size distribution of income. On the other hand, indices of first or second order stochastic dominance are widely used to describe shifts in income distribution, to which inequality measures...

We introduce non-homothetic preferences in the Dixit-Stiglitz model of monopolistic competition, and enquire about the effects of a change in income dispersion on the firms' optimal decisions and market equilibrium. Income dispersion, modeled as a mean preserving spread, is shown to affect only...