Download Extensions …

Extensions …
This and that
Bits of motivation
J-P Aubin (Dynamic Economic Theory)
• If we accept that physics studies much simpler phenomena than the
ones investigated by social (and biological) sciences and that for
this purpose they motivated and used more and more complex
mathematical apparatus, we have to accept also that social sciences
require a [..] dedicated arsenal, which goes beyond what is presently
available.
• It has been said that physics could be defined as the part of the
environment, which can be understood through mathematical
metaphors. So, how we try and understand economics without
mathematical metaphors [JK]?
• Paradoxically, the very fact that the mathematical tools useful for
social sciences are and have to be quite sophisticated impairs their
acceptance by many social scientists and the gap menaces to
widen.
Bits of motivation
Student says…
• 90% of the material covered was new
• students feel highly intimidiated by the
implication that they are supposed to have
covered and be familiar with much of the
material - I know I felt this way
Bits of motivation
Lecturers say…
ECON 404 Micro and MOFI 401 Options
Math Extentions --- students benefited from the exposure to concepts such as
convexity, continuity, basic set notation, etc.; the real
plus they had seen the terms before we covered them in class.
The students in MOFI 401 actually get their hands dirty;
would benefit from being reminded about the chain
and quotient rules, and even basic probability theory.
ECON 405
• optimisation – both constrained and unconstrained (lagrangeans).
• implicit function theorem
• supermodularity
• what it is to invert a matrix
• concavity
• quasi concavity
• fixed point theorems