New decomposition methods for economic equilibrium models with applications to decomposition by region

Abstract

Economic equilibrium models often distinguish several regions. For model management reasons, it can be advantageous to keep to the submodels separate, even on different computers, e.g., different personnel may be in charge of developing and maintaining the demand and supply submodels. Therefore, decomposition procedures can be useful to bring the submodels together for a solution.

Although existing decomposition principles can make large-scale linear or non-linear programming models more manageable, economic equilibrium modelers cannot always use these techniques because many equilibrium models cannot be converted into optimization problems. This dissertation develops new decomposition methods by which existing LP decomposition principles can be applied to economic equilibrium models (non-optimization models). Preliminary tests are included.