Economic interdependence

Economic interdependence is a consequence of specialization or the division of labour. The participants in any economic system must be part of a trading network to obtain the products they cannot produce efficiently for themselves. Any change in such a network affects other participants, so that the demands for various products and the incomes of the participants are interdependent. As A. A. Cournot wrote in Mathematical Researches into the theory of Wealth "...the economic system is a whole in which all of the parts are connected and react on one another. An increase in the income of the producers of commodity A will affect the demand for commodities B, C, etc. and the incomes of their producers, and by their reaction will affect the demand for commodity A." Such complex reactions are evident in general equilibrium theory.