Special issue: supermodularity and monotone methods in economics

Abstract

This special issue brings together eight separate contributions reflecting recent advances in the methodology of supermodular optimization/games and monotone methods. Two of the papers extend some aspects of the methodology itself: Barthel and Sabarwal (Econ Theory, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-017-1079-3) deal with comparative statics without the strong set order on constraints and Beggs (Econ Theory, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-016-0987-y) deals with the case of boundary optimal solutions. The next five papers deal with various economic applications, which may be classified into two broad groups. The first of these deals with dynamic general equilibrium within macroeconomic dynamics (Datta et al. in Econ Theory, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-017-1046-z; Barbie and Hillebrand in Econ Theory, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-017-1082-8). The second group of papers consists of studies applying the techniques at hand to industrial organization (Reynolds and Rietzke in Econ Theory 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-016-0963-6; Cosandier et al. in Econ Theory, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-017-1050-3) and applied microeconomic theory (Dekel and Pauzner in Econ Theory, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-017-1083-7). Finally, the paper by Bich et al. (Econ Theory, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-017-1045-0) considers an alternative general formulation of a theoretical framework for dynamic programming.