Economics For Mathematicians

This is the expanded notes of a course intended to introduce students specializing in mathematics to some of the central ideas of traditional economics. The book should be readily accessible to anyone with some training in university mathematics; more advanced mathematical tools are explained in the appendices. Thus this text could be used for undergraduate mathematics courses or as supplementary reading for students of mathematical economics.

This text offers a presentation of the mathematics required to tackle problems in economic analysis. After a review of the fundamentals of sets, numbers, and functions, it covers limits and continuity, the calculus of functions of one variable, linear algebra, multivariate calculus, and dynamics.

A concise, accessible introduction to maths for economics with lots of practical applications to help students learn in context.

Mathematics has become indispensable in the modelling of economics, finance, business and management. Without expecting any particular background of the reader, this book covers the following mathematical topics, with frequent reference to applications in economics and finance: functions, graphs and equations, recurrences (difference equations), differentiation, exponentials and logarithms, optimisation, partial differentiation, optimisation in several variables, vectors and matrices, linear equations, Lagrange multipliers, integration, first-order and second-order differential equations. The stress is on the relation of maths to economics, and this is illustrated with copious examples and exercises to foster depth of understanding. Each chapter has three parts: the main text, a section of further worked examples and a summary of the chapter together with a selection of problems for the reader to attempt. For students of economics, mathematics, or both, this book provides an introduction to mathematical methods in economics and finance that will be welcomed for its clarity and breadth.

A textbook for a first-year PhD course in mathematics for economists and a reference for graduate students in economics.

This book about mathematics and methodology for economics is the result of the lifelong experience of the authors. It is written for university students as well as for students of applied sciences. This self-contained book does not assume any previous knowledge of high school mathematics and helps understanding the basics of economic theory-building. Starting from set theory it thoroughly discusses linear and non-linear functions, differential equations, difference equations, and all necessary theoretical constructs for building sound economic models. The authors also present a solid introduction to linear optimisation and game theory using production systems. A detailed discussion on market equilibrium, in particular on Nash Equilibrium, and on non-linear optimisation is also provided. Throughout the book the student is well supplied with numerous examples, some 2000 problems and their solutions to apply the knowledge to economic theories and models.

With the failure of economics to predict the recent economic crisis, the image of economics as a rigorous mathematical science has been subjected to increasing interrogation. One explanation for this failure is that the subject took a wrong turn in its historical trajectory, becoming too mathematical. Using the philosophy of mathematics, this unique book re-examines this trajectory. Philosophy of Mathematics and Economics re-analyses the divergent rationales for mathematical economics by some of its principal architects. Yet, it is not limited to simply enhancing our understanding of how economics became an applied mathematical science. The authors also critically evaluate developments in the philosophy of mathematics to expose the inadequacy of aspects of mainstream mathematical economics, as well as exploiting the same philosophy to suggest alternative ways of rigorously formulating economic theory for our digital age. This book represents an innovative attempt to more fully understand the complexity of the interaction between developments in the philosophy of mathematics and the process of formalisation in economics. Assuming no expert knowledge in the philosophy of mathematics, this work is relevant to historians of economic thought and professional philosophers of economics. In addition, it will be of great interest to those who wish to deepen their appreciation of the economic contours of contemporary society. It is also hoped that mathematical economists will find this work informative and engaging.

In How Economics Became a Mathematical Science E. Roy Weintraub traces the history of economics through the prism of the history of mathematics in the twentieth century. As mathematics has evolved, so has the image of mathematics, explains Weintraub, such as ideas about the standards for accepting proof, the meaning of rigor, and the nature of the mathematical enterprise itself. He also shows how economics itself has been shaped by economists’ changing images of mathematics. Whereas others have viewed economics as autonomous, Weintraub presents a different picture, one in which changes in mathematics—both within the body of knowledge that constitutes mathematics and in how it is thought of as a discipline and as a type of knowledge—have been intertwined with the evolution of economic thought. Weintraub begins his account with Cambridge University, the intellectual birthplace of modern economics, and examines specifically Alfred Marshall and the Mathematical Tripos examinations—tests in mathematics that were required of all who wished to study economics at Cambridge. He proceeds to interrogate the idea of a rigorous mathematical economics through the connections between particular mathematical economists and mathematicians in each of the decades of the first half of the twentieth century, and thus describes how the mathematical issues of formalism and axiomatization have shaped economics. Finally, How Economics Became a Mathematical Science reconstructs the career of the economist Sidney Weintraub, whose relationship to mathematics is viewed through his relationships with his mathematician brother, Hal, and his mathematician-economist son, the book’s author.