Ysidro

The interactive Edgeworth Box

Directly to the app

For whom? For what?

Every lecture on microeconomics about exchange and Walrasian equilibirium has to show many graphics of Edgeworth boxes to illustrate the math of the model. This WebApp offers an interactive alternative to the common static graphics. It was developed for my article The Exchange Economy with the intent to show how elements in the Edgeworth box move, if ceteris paribus any variable is changed. This intent is fulfilled by four main features of the app:

1. Parametric. The Edgeworth box is not drawn with a virtual pen and ruler. The user just chooses parameters and the app draws an Edgeworth box according to them. One, for example, chooses the exponents of the utility functions and thereby changes the form of the indifference curves. Different from the schematic illustration of a sketch all points, lines and curves are calculated with the microeconomic math.

2. Linkable. For every Edgeworth box drawn with this app, you can request a link that contains all relevant parameters. This link can be opened with every browser. The app automatically recognizes the included parameters and shows the Edgeworth box that is described by this link. The link is made and copied by one click on a button at the bottom. Paste. Done.

3. Browser-based. The app does not need any installation of additional software. It works like any website in an up-to-date browser. Are notebook and beamer present instead of black- or whiteboard it is just one click on the link and you can show how the Marshallien demands move on the budget line and meet in the Walrasian equilibrium by rotating the budgetline.

4. Device-independent The page www.berndneumann.eu is designed not only for desktop and notebook but also for smartphone and tablet. And so this app works on any device with an up-to-date browser. On small devices like smartphone and tablet it is best to use the fullscreen mode. You can activate it with the button right on top of the app. All common browsers forbid apps with good reason to switch to fullscreen mode by themself. Hence a user's click is necessary for fullscreen mode. The app can be used in portrait and landscape mode. It adjusts automatically if the device is turned.

If you so far only understand that this app does some graphics that deal with math and economics, you probably got here by coincidence. The article Basic Terms of Microeconomics briefly explains the most important terms, so that you get an idea of what the parameters in the app mean. The economic background in the terms of a textbook chapter is explained in the article The Exchange Economy.

The app is named in honor of Francis Ysidro Edgeworth. In 1881 he presented in the essay Mathematical Psychics on page 28 for the first time a contract curve, as it is usually represented today as the set of pareto-efficient allocations in an Edgeworth box. However, Edgeworth himself did not yet draw a box in its present form. The box is first found in Vilfredo Pareto's Manuale di Economia Politica from 1906. For a detailed discussion of the history of the Edgeworth box, see Thomas M. Humphrey in The Early History of the Box Diagram, published in Economic Quarterly, Vol. 82/1, Winter 1996, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

The address of the app is:
http://www.berndneumann.eu/project/ysidro.php

Licence

This license distinguishes between the use of the app in a browser and the use of the graphics apart from the app.

Usage of the App. The app in a browser may be freely used worldwide for private, commercial and especially scientific purposes. This right explicitly includes the public presentation in the context of a presentation, seminar or lecture. This also includes commercial use in the context of a presentation or workshop for which the presenter receives a fee. Linking to a specific Edgeworth box is also permitted at any time. These usage rights are not granted for an unlimited period of time. I reserve the right to restrict access or discontinue providing this service at any time.

It is not permitted to copy, modify the code or offer the code for use elsewhere. This also includes the so-called "framing", where content of this page (code of the app) is embedded from a third-party site. In simple words: As long as the address line of the browser says www.berndneumann.eu/apps/ysidro.html or links to this address, the use of the app is permitted.

Usage of the graphics apart from the app. The SVG graphics created by this app according to my specifications may be used freely for private and scientific purposes as long as the graphics are not part of a work that is offered for sale. The price and remuneration of the author in whose work these graphics are used are irrelevant. I grant this right irrevocably, so that nobody must fear to be asked in any future to pay for today's free use in a work. A work that uses these graphics may also be offered for free download on a web page for an unlimited period of time. It is thereby obligatory to mention the author with the web-address www.berndneumann.eu.

Separate licensing is required if the work containing these graphics is offered for a fee by the author himself or by a third-party provider. Use in a printed book always requires its own licence. Please contact me by email and I am sure we will quickly agree on a reasonable price for use in a work not offered for free.