Self-Organizing Production and Exchange

Byline: Allen Wilhite (1) Keywords: emergent organizations; trade networks; customer loyality; specialization Abstract: Consider autonomous agents endowed with two goods and the capability ofproducing each. Regularly each agent can produce one (only) of the goods or trade with other agents. Each good yields utility according to a utility function. This paper studies how utility-maximizing agents optimize in these circumstances, examines the aggregate characteristics of the resulting economy, and investigates the internal organization of production and exchange. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Economics and Finance, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, 35899, U.S.A. Article History: Registration Date: 06/10/2004