Mathematica for Microeconomics

From Book News, Inc.
Intended as a supplemental tool for courses in advanced microeconomics and mathematical economics, this text introduces students to a computational tool (Mathematica) for the solving of microeconomic problems. The program allows users to perform multiple statics and plot results, thereby allowing more time for concentrating on economic concepts. The authors present step-by-step solution procedures for problems in consumer theory, producer theory, and economic dynamics. The CD-ROM contains the programs constructed in the book. The text was written for the Windows version 4 of the program, and users of variants may notice some differences that the authors argue should be transparent.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Review
"This book succeeds beautifully in introducing the tools and tricks of applying Mathematica to problems in microeconomics. I strongly recommend it as a supplement for courses in microeconomics."
Elmar Wolfstetter, Humboldt-University at Berlin


Review
"This book succeeds beautifully in introducing the tools and tricks of applying Mathematica to problems in microeconomics. I strongly recommend it as a supplement for courses in microeconomics."
Elmar Wolfstetter, Humboldt-University at Berlin


Book Description
Mathematica is the most widely available computational program available to potential buyers of the book. Mathematica for Microeconomics focuses on teaching economics, not computer programming and that it devotes some space to solving equations "by hand." The author has made sure that the book is compatible with the most frequently used microeconomics textbooks on the market today. This book is designed as a supplemental tool for courses in microeconomics and mathematical economics. It shows professors and students steps to solving microeconomics problems.
Readers may begin reading at any chapter, and they may use the book as a "virtual instructor" to facilitate self-learning. They will recognize some of the popular problems, which have been taken from widely-used microeconomics texts.
Also included is a CD-ROM containing the Mathematica® MathReader (a viewing program similar to Adobe Acrobat) and folders specific to each chapter of the book.

This book emphasizes economics over mathematics as it:
* Presents applications of the mathematics required to solve microeconomics problems
* Demonstrates the use of computational tools to do
mathematics
* Provides discussions of the results of the problems
* Stimulates users to extend the programs and perform their own comparative statics and dynamics
* Provides users with tools to build their own Mathematica programs for microeconomics


From the Back Cover
"This book succeeds beautifully in introducing the tools and tricks of applying Mathematica to problems in microeconomics. I strongly recommend it as a supplement for courses in microeconomics."
--Elmar Wolfstetter, Humboldt University at Berlin

"I have been looking for a way to introduce Mathematica to advanced undergraduates for some time. This book seems perfect for the task. It offers illustrations from all of the major areas of microeconomics and shows how to implement the most common mathematical procedures (for example, Lagrangian maximization) in programming language. The simulation exercises suggested are quite helpful in building intuition."
--Walter Nicholson, Department of Economics, Amherst College

"Playing with and visualizing the mathematics of modern economics is not easy for the typical student. This book makes it easy for students to really see the meaning of constrained optimization and the most complicated mathematical notions regularly used in microeconomics."
--Arthur T. Denzau, Claremont Graduate University

This book teaches readers how to model static and dynamic problems in microeconomics using the computational software program Mathematica®. Each chapter explores a core problem in microeconomics while introducing the basics of Mathematica programming. Graphical and solution procedures are given for each problem along with discussions of fundamental economic principles. Once a model is constructed, users can explore the model's mathematical properties by changing functional forms and parameter values and letting Mathematica handle time-consuming calculations. Models can be extended to include multiple variables and greater rigor without tedious revisions.

Mathematica® for Microeconomics addresses all major concepts taught in advanced microeconomic courses and assumes that readers have backgrounds in basic calculus and linear algebra. After learning the material in the book, readers will be able to design their own Mathematica procedures or expand upon those created in the book to explore new microeconomic problems.

The accompanying CD-ROM contains the Mathematica programs discussed in the book and MathReader® software (a viewing program from Wolfram, Inc.). The CD-ROM may be used on both Windows and Macintosh platforms.


About the Author
Dr. Stinespring teaches at the School of Economics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.


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This book succeeds beautifully in introducing the tools and tricks of applying Mathematica to problems in microeconomics. I strongly recommend it as a supplement for courses in microeconomics. — (Elmar Wolfstetter, Humboldt University at Berlin)


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