We characterize those non-negative, measurable functions ψ on [0, 1] and positive, continuous functions ω1 and ω2 on ℝ+ for which the generalized Hardy–Cesàro operator

$$\begin{equation*}(U_{\psi}f)(x)=\int_0^1 f(tx)\psi(t)\,dt\end{equation*}$$

The classical spaces ℓp+, 1 ≤ p < ∞, and Lp−, 1<p ≤ ∞, are countably normed, reflexive Fréchet spaces in which the Cesàro operator C acts continuously. A detailed investigation is made of various operator theoretic properties of C (e.g., spectrum, point spectrum, mean ergodicity) as well as certain aspects concerning the dynamics of C (e.g., hypercyclic, supercyclic, chaos). This complements the results of [3, 4], where C was studied in the spaces ℂℕ, Lploc(ℝ+) for 1 < p < ∞ and C(ℝ+), which belong to a very different collection of Fréchet spaces, called quojections; these are automatically Banach spaces whenever they admit a continuous norm.

We prove some inequalities for the spectral radius of positive operators on Banach function spaces. In particular, we prove the following extension of Levinger's theorem. Let $K$ be a positive compact kernel operator on $L^2(X, \mu)$ with the spectral radius $r(K)$. Then the function $\phi$ defined by $\phi(t) = r(t K + (1-t) K^*)$ is non-decreasing on $[0, \frac{1}{2}]$. We also prove that $\| A + B^* \| \ge 2 \cdot \sqrt{r(A B)}$ for any positive operators $A$ and $B$ on $L^2(X, \mu)$.