Optimization in Microeconomics

Optimization in Microeconomics is a mathematical economics textbook synthesizing what the reader knows about mathematics and about economics. The exercises in the book ask readers to translate verbal descriptions of an economic problem into mathematical terms for use with optimization techniques to analyze and then translate the mathematical answers back into economic language.The optimization topics progress from functions of one variable, to two variables, to several variables, to constrained optimization, and finally to duality. In each case, the reader is asked to find optima, solve comparative statics problems, and to apply the Envelope Theorem. These last two topics are treated as central and are included from the beginning; usually other books view them as advanced topics.This book is intended for a one-semester course in mathematical economics for undergraduates. Readers should already have seen some microeconomics and partial derivatives of functions of several variables.