Nonlinear Economic Dynamics

The present study is a preliminary draft on nonlinear economic dynamics, with which the author has been concerned the last years. It grew out from the joint work by Professor Martin Beckmann and the present author on nonlinear statics in spatial economics, Beckmann and Puu, 'Spatial Economics' (North-Holland 1985). The monograph mentioned contains sections on price waves and business cycles, but in a linear format. The rest is static theory. The author has finally come to the conviction that linear dynamic modelling has very little to yield. This is due to the poor set of alternatives -decay or explosion of motion -pertinent to linear models. Therefore, the pr~sent work centres on non-linearity. Another distinction is that only purely causal models are dealt with, as those formatted as inter-temporal equilibria hardly belong to the more restricted field of dynamics. The spatial origin is visible in the choice of models. Chapter 2 summarizes the work by the author on the stmctural stability of continuous spatial market equilibrium models. Chapter 3 deals with a re-formulation of the ingenious population growth and diffusion model invented by the young Hotelling in 1921. Chapter 4 is a detailed digression on business cycle models in a continuous spatial format with interregional trade.