General equilibrium with uncertain delivery

Resumo

We present a general equilibrium model of trade ex ante with dierential information. Agents choose plans of state-contingent lists of bundles, that give them the right to receive, in each state of nature, one of the bundles in the corresponding list. Being unable to verify that the state of nature is s and not t, an agent has to accept the delivery of any bundle in the list for delivery in state s or in the list for delivery in state t. In equilibrium, the price of a list coincides with the price of the cheapest bundle that belongs to the list, and it is always this cheapest bundle that is delivered. This property leads to a system of linear inequalities which are deliverability constraints on the choice set. We establish existence of equilibrium under the assumption that each state of nature can be veriffed by at least one agent.