@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp4018,
            	author={Dasgupta, Indraneel},
            	title={Supply Theory sans Profit-Maximization},
            	year={2009},
	month={Feb},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={4018},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/publications/dp4018},
	abstract={We utilize the analytical construct of a stochastic supply function to provide an aggregate representation of a finite collection of standard deterministic supply functions. We introduce a consistency postulate for a stochastic supply function that may be satisfied even if no underlying deterministic supply function is rationalizable in terms of profit maximization. Our consistency postulate is nonetheless equivalent to a stochastic expansion of supply inequality, which summarizes the predictive content of the traditional theory of competitive supply. A number of key results in the deterministic theory follow as special cases from this equivalence. In particular, it yields a probabilistic version of the law of supply, which implies the traditional specification. Our analysis thus provides a necessary and sufficient axiomatic foundation for a de-coupling of the predictive content of the classical theory of competitive firm behavior from its a priori roots in profit maximization, while subsuming the traditional theory as a special case.},
	keywords={supply aggregation;stochastic consistency;stochastic supply inequality;stochastic supply function;law of supply;weak axiom of profit maximization},
            }