Exchange economy

Exchange economy is technical term used in microeconomics research to describe interaction between several agents. In the market, the agent is the subject of exchange and the good is the object of exchange. Each agent brings his/her own endowment, and they can exchange products among them based on a price system. Two types of exchange economy are studied:

• In a pure exchange economy, all agents are consumers; there is no production and all agents can do is exchange their initial endowments. In daily research, to avoid research difficulties caused by a large number of consumers and goods, the simple trading conditions of two consumers and two goods are usually assumed.
• In contrast, in an exchange economy with production, some or all agents are firms that may also produce new goods.^: 313

A major interesting question regarding an exchange economy is if and when the economy attains a competitive equilibrium. Exchange and distribution efficiency are concerned.