Core and competitive equilibria: An approach from discrete convex analysis

Abstract

We extend the assignment market (Shapley and Shubik, 1972; Kaneko, 1976, 1982) by utilizing discrete convex analysis. We consider the market in which buyers and sellers trade indivisible commodities for money. Each buyer demands at most one unit of commodity. Each seller produces multiple units of several types of commodities. We make the quasi-linearity assumption on the sellers, but not on the buyers. We assume that the cost function of each seller is M♮-convex, which is a concept in discrete convex analysis. We prove that the core and the competitive equilibria exist and coincide in our market model.