Mathematics for Modern Economics

Designed to give second-year undergraduates an intuitive understanding of basic mathematical techniques, and when and why they are applicable. Building on the traditional framework of calculus, the notion of a concave function is used to link the new algebraic methods with the more familiar graphical approach-and to introduce the modern use of duality in economic analysis. Final sections on consumer theory and the theory of the firm offer solutions to problems set earlier in the book. Contents: Sets, functions and their graphs; Differential calculus and local optima; Concave functions, global and constrained optima; Duality; Integration, first order differential and difference equations; Consumer theory and the theory of the firm; Appendix: Linear algebra^R