Produzione con posti di lavoro indivisibli e equilibrio concorrenziale

The main aim of the paper is to extend the traditional axiomatic model of production in order to allow for job indivisibility. To this purpose a new axiom is required : the permutability axiom. This axiom, on the other hand, creates problems if used together with the usual convexity axioms. In section two these problems are solved and a coherent axiom system is developed which generalizes the standard one. The rest of the paper is devoted to studying a few applications of the axioms. The A. first asks how the Arrow-Debreu model copes with our notion of technology. Proposition 1 states a few conditions under which it is possible to transfer the Arrow-Debreu existence results to our case. These conditions are indeed very restrictive (such as the condition that working for more employers is costless to the worker) and therefore equilibria of the Arrow-Debreu sort will generally fail to exist. However, even when these conditions are violated, there can be competitive equilibria of different nature, such as equilibria with free entry. In the last section, the A. studies the existence of equilibria of the latter type in a market where it is costly for the worker to work for more employers