The Evolution of Exchange

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to introduce the modern techniques of evolutionary game theory introduced into economics by Young (1993) and others to analyze exchange economies. We define a dynamic matching process on the simple housing problem introduced by Shapley and Scarf (1974) and analyze the stochastic stability of its allocations. Our main findings are: 1. All the efficient allocations are stochastically stable. 2. In three-person economies, all the stochastically stable allocations are efficient. 3. An example of a four-agent economy where an inefficient allocation is stochastically stable.