Mathematics for Economists

Customer Reviews:

Useful for advanced students.......2007-05-05

This is a very interesting case. People must understand that books on mathematics must be adequate to the level of knowledge and to the goal in terms of study. Basically we can consider that Simon and Blume is for students that:
a) Wish to follow to graduate programs - PhD
b) Have a solid knowledge on Mathematics

This book is NOT for undergraduate students and/or for students that have lack of knowledge on mathematics. I suppose that for a beginner it is wiser to buy and to study books that cover the Essentials on Mathematics for Economics. If you are entering in a Bs/BA in Economics and you don't have a solid mathematical preparation, there are better options available.

If you are a graduate student that wish to follow a PhD program, then this book it is for you.

Not worth the price.......2006-10-19

This book is essentially a reference manual for a professor. If you don't already know the material you will not learn it from this book. The price is outragous. This was the worst economics book I have ever bought. Please don't waste your money.

IF you are doing /have done maths, read this book.......2004-10-18

This book is beautiful.
clear simple explinations built up in a clear way.
1) explicitly defined Theorems
2) proofs with clear starts and ends.
3) starts at level that should be within the grasp of able A-level students
i.e. not much knowledge assumed.
4) contains goods maths followed by economic examples that use it.
5) A wellcome counterpoint to economic books and lectures that use bad maths
i) theorems with out showing the conditions are met
ii) use floating 'dx's
6)goes to a level beyond undergraduate level to give a strong powerbase.
7)Mathematics is the language of economics.
Until you are master of the relevant sections, understanding economics
will for you be like reading the Ancient Bible and not knowing hebrew.
Therefore even if yours economics degree includes maths techniques
modules, you will find yourself using maths, you have not been taught yet.
So buy this book and get on top of the maths in your course.
8)get it before you go, read it before you get to uni and then you can
spend the first few weeks partying instead of reading maths to keep on
top of your course.
9)read this book and feel like a million dollars.
10) if you have NO INTEREST IN ECONOMICS, and are doing maths get this
book and it will be a good primer on a whole heap of modules from
Linear Algebra to Analysis.

Not for the Math Econ Novice.......2004-09-04

I purchased this book on the recommendation of one of my Ph.D. program professors who likes it better than de la Fuente's book. I agree that it's better than Fuente, but that's not saying much. Simon and Blume wrote the book for people who not only already know mathematical economics, but who also think fluently in mathematics. It's not for the beginning Ph.D. candidate in economics, but for the accomplished professor. If you already know the material, I suspect that Simon and Blume will allow you to quickly reference any of the topics it covers. If you're struggling to learn mathematical economics, however, don't try to use this book because it will reinforce any fears you might have about your ability to learn the subject in the first place.

Mathematics for Economists.......2003-10-18

Where is the Comparitve Statics section? Dynamic Analysis? Difference equations? Calculus of Variations? Optimal Control? Etc.

Mathematical Methods and Models for Economists

Average customer rating:

Ambivalent
Comprehensive, specially for a Penn PD in Economics
good for the PhD
Great service
A good overview

Mathematical Methods and Models for Economists
Angel de la Fuente
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521585295

Book Description

This book is intended as a textbook for a first-year Ph. D. course in mathematics for economists and as a reference for graduate students in economics. It provides a self-contained, rigorous treatment of most of the concepts and techniques required to follow the standard first-year theory sequence in micro and macroeconomics. The topics covered include an introduction to analysis in metric spaces, differential calculus, comparative statics, convexity, static optimization, dynamical systems and dynamic optimization. The book includes a large number of applications to standard economic models and over two hundred fully worked-out problems.

Customer Reviews:

Ambivalent .......2007-05-25

I found this book to be overkill for the Chicago Ph.D. courses other than econometrics. Proofs are emphasized to the point of neglecting examples, and are not terribly lucid. The book would seem difficult to read anyhow other than as a reference on the rare occasion where you need a very rigorous definition of a given mathematical process (this is how I have used it). Good to have on the shelf since it is the standard bearer in the field, but Simon and Blume will give you everything you need if you are looking to prepare broadly. The few omitted items in constrained optimization will be taught to you in the course of your studies anyhow!

Comprehensive, specially for a Penn PD in Economics.......2006-10-29

Very good book to have if you plan to be an economist!

good for the PhD.......2006-10-06

This summarizes well the tools for the first year. I'm glad I have it after discovering that Simon and Blume is too basic.
It is important to note that if sth seems too difficult it may not be relevant. Even if it is there are always a lot of solutions which help practising.
this is a great book.

Great service.......2005-10-03

The book got there on due date and in perfect condition. Great service.

A good overview.......2004-10-01

Mathematical economics has been around for about 175 years, although as a discipline it has only been recognized for about five decades. Professional economists have had various levels of confidence in its validity and applicability, and mathematical economists have been criticized for the esoteric nature of the mathematics they deploy and some have been ostracized from academic departments for this very reason. This book emphasizes the mathematical tools, these being primarily the theory of optimization and dynamical systems, but the author does find time to discuss applications. Some of these could be classified as "classical" applications, but some are very contemporary in their scope and intersect the work done in financial engineering.

Part 1 of the book introduces the reader to the necessary background in real analysis, topology, differential calculus, and linear algebra. All of this mathematics is straightforward and can be found in many books.

In chapter 5, the author considers static economic models, which are described by collections of parametrized systems of equations. The equations are dependent on parameters describing the environment and `endogenous' variables. The goal is to find the values of the endogenous variables at equilibrium, and to find out if the equilibrium solutions are unique. In addition, it is interest to find out how the solution set changes when the parameters are changed. This is what the author calls `comparative statics'. Linear models are considered first, their analysis being amenable to the techniques of linear and multilinear algebra. The comparative statics for linear models is straightforward, with the shift in equilibrium as a parameter is change readily calculated. The comparative statics of nonlinear models involves the use of the implicit function theorem, and the author derives a formula for doing comparative statics in differentiable models. The discussion here, involving concepts such as transversality, critical points, regular values, and genericity, should be viewed as a warm-up to a more advanced treatment using differential topology.

The author studies static optimization in chapter 7, with the postulate of rationality assumed throughout. This allows the study of the behavior of economic agents to be reduced to a constrained optimization problem. The techniques of nonlinear programming are used to find solutions to the constrained optimization problem. Throughout this chapter one sees discussion of the ubiquitous `agent' who is embedded in a collection of possible environments, and is able to carry out a certain collection of actions.

The author finally gets to economic applications in chapter 8, wherein the author studies the behavior of a single agent under a set of restrictions imposed on it by its environment. This rather simplistic study is then generalized to the case of many interacting agents who are taken to be rational. The concept of `equilibrium', so entrenched in economic theory and economic modeling, makes its appearance here. In a condition of equilibrium, no agent has an incentive to change its behavior, and the actions of each individual are mutually compatible. Some of the usual concepts of equilibrium are discussed in the chapter, such as Walrasian equilibrium in exchange economies, and Nash equilibrium in game theory. The (subjective) preferences of consumers are modeled by binary relations and differentiable utility functions. The differentiability allows the techniques of chapter 7 to be used. The author asks the reader to work through some examples of `imperfect' competition at the end of the chapter.

After a straightforward review of dynamical systems in chapters 9 and 10, the author discusses applications of dynamical systems in chapter 11. He begins with a discussion of a dynamic IS-LM model, using assumptions on the evolution of the money supply, the formation of expectations, and price dynamics. This model consists of two first-order ordinary differential equations, and the author studies its fixed-point structure via a standard phase-space analysis. This analysis allows the author to study the effect of a change in parameters, such as change in the rate of money creation, i.e. the effects of a certain monetary policy. Also discussed are `perfect-foresight models', which address the difficult issue of boundary conditions in economic models based on dynamical systems. Two of these models are discussed, one is a stock price model based on the no-arbitrage principle from finance, and the other is a model of exchange-rate determination. The stock price model is the most interesting discussion in the book. It requires one to specify how expectations are formed, and, depending on how this is done, some very unexpected results occur. For example, if the agents have adaptive expectations, the author shows that the forecast error is predictable, and that agents who understand the structure of the model will have an incentive to deviate from the predicted behavior. This behavior on the part of the agents will invalidate the theory since the agents will have an incentive to compute the trajectory of prices, contrary to the assumption of the model. The author concludes that this is in direct conflict with the assumption that individuals are rational and maximize utility, i.e. that in a world without uncertainty, adaptive expectations are inconsistent with the assumption of rationality. The author avoids this problem by assuming that `perfect foresight' holds for the agents, i.e. the agents form expectations that are consistent with the structure of the model. He shows that the assumption of perfect foresight eliminates the inconsistency that was found in the adaptive expectations model. In the perfect foresight model, every agent uses the correct model to predict prices, and no agent has any incentive to act differently. The author then uses this model to study the response of share prices to a change in the tax rate on dividends. The rest of the chapter discusses neoclassical growth models and the software language Mathematica is introduced as a tool for solving nonlinear differential equations.

I did not read the last two chapters of the book, which cover dynamic optimization and its applications, and so I will omit their review.

Mathematics for Economists (Economic Theory, Econometrics, and Mathematical Economics)

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Mathematics for Economists (Economic Theory, Econometrics, and Mathematical Economics)
William Novshek
Manufacturer: Academic Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 012522575X

Book Description

This text contains the mathematical material necessary as background for the topics covered in advanced microeconomics courses. It focuses on two key components of microeconomics - optimization subject to constraints and the development of comparative statistics. Assuming familiarity with calculus of one variable and basic linear algebra, the text allows more extensive coverage of additional topics like constrained optimization, the chain rule, Taylor's theorem, line integrals and dynamic programming. It contains numerous examples that illustrate economics and mathematical situations, many with complex solutions.

Numbers Guide: The Essentials of Business Numeracy, Fifth Edition (The Economist Series)

Average customer rating:

OK, who ordered the numbers?
From Great to Good
Excellent index of business math
A good start

Numbers Guide: The Essentials of Business Numeracy, Fifth Edition (The Economist Series)
Richard Stutely
Manufacturer: Bloomberg Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1576601447

Book Description

The Numbers Guide is very useful for everyone who wants to be competent and able to communicate effectively with numbers and is particularly invaluable for managers who have budgetary, planning, or forecasting responsibilities. There are chapters on key concepts including finance and investment, measures for interpretation and analysis, forecasting techniques, sampling and hypothesis testing, incorporating judgments into decision making, linear programming and networking.

Customer Reviews:

OK, who ordered the numbers?.......2007-01-11

Appreciative readers (they tend to be long-term readers as well) of the ECONOMIST sometimes wonder why misspellings and non sequiturs are virtually absent from that superb weekly magazine.

The answer?: an obsessive dedication to editorial rigor, nowhere better exemplified than in this 'style guide' for the numbers set. It doubles as a methodological guide, for it sets out near canonical equations and means for solving economic problems.

Nine chapters cover:

Key concepts
Finance and investment
Descriptive measures for interpretation and analysis
Tables and charts
Forecasting techniques
Sampling and hypothesis testing
Incorporating judgments into decisions
Decision-making in action
Linear programming and networking

This guide should be required reading for everyone who manages from a numbers-intensive platform.

From Great to Good.......2004-03-18

I have read cover-to-cover a previous edition of this book (when it was published by Wiley in 1998) and recently had an opportunity to carefully peruse this current edition (5th ed. by Bloomberg Press???). What I found is that this is a strange case of how a great book (the 1998 edition) turned into merely a good book (this 5th edition). Because of this regression toward the average, I deducted one star from my review (but still feel that it is good enough for 4 stars).

As you may have noticed, I really loved the older edition of The Economist Numbers Guide that I thankfully own. It is a great overview and introduction of mathematics as it relates to business. There are a lot of great things about that edition of this book. One of the things I admired about it was the range of topics covered, from interest rates and basic probability/statistics all the way up to Markov Chains, linear programming, and marginal analysis. It is hard to find the breadth of topics covered in that book elsewhere - whether all in one book or in any combination of books.

So I found it perplexing that this 5th edition dedacted some materials and topics covered in older editions. Gone are the interesting discussion of descriptive statistics for sets of data that do not easily conform to any of the standard probability distributions (e.g., where median is the best measure of the 'average' and substitutes must be used for the more common parameters such as standard deviation). I have a hard time finding anything coherent much less accessible on those topics elsewhere so it is a shame that they were left off of the 5th edition.

The only new material (not previously present) is a short blurb on public-key cryptography. While that topic is interesting to me and the limited discussion was illuminating and mathematically sound, it seemed a rather quixotic choice to put in when some interesting materials in previous editions were left off and new material that would have been more useful to the targeted audience have yet to be added.

What I mean by useful material that have yet to be added is that both the 1998 edition and this edition don't have some materials that I would think naturally ought to be added. E.g., the section on finance & investment mathematics is mostly devoted to various discussions on interest rate/time value of money & basic probability. I think adding material on CAPM (although CAPM Beta is defined in the book's very helpful glossary section), option/derivative pricing, financial portfolio optimization, and other topics in financial mathematics/engineering would make a great and natural addition to this book.

Some problems common to both the prior and current edition of this book are the occassional (relatively rare) typos. They are usually minor (although they are most annoyingly frequent in the section on time value of money / interest rates).

Another flaw in both the older and newer editions is that there are gaps in the expository material that don't make much sense. To be fair, this book is designed to be a brief intro/overview into a wide swathe of topics so it wouldn't be reasonable to expect that the author go into great detail on every topic. However, there are instances - e.g., the example on mixed strategies in game theory - where one or two additional sentences would help novices to understand (e.g., how did you get the the mixed strategy probabilities? author should have added a couple of more lines about how the system of equations are interrelated with one another when determining mixed strategies).

Having said all of that, let me reiterate that BOTH the old and the new edition of The Economist Numbers Guide is a wonderful resource for people interested in business mathematics. The sections on decision-making and forecasting are especially of value since they are so wonderfully explained here and a comparable set of explanations are hard to find elsewhere.

In future editions, I just hope that the author heeds my advice about bringing back some topics in older editions, correcting a few errors & lapses, and adding some material that would fit in with what has otherwise been an excellent series of books.

Excellent index of business math.......2000-12-11

This book provides concise and clear definitions of business analytics with practical applications. Excellent for the neophyte in business math. Helpful index and glossary to get started. Good guide to use if learning stats or marketing research.

A good start.......2000-06-11

For a novice in economics, not an easy field to be a novice in, this was a helpful book. It got me started, by which I mean I wasn't completely lost when I read it.

Mathematics for Economists: An Introductory Textbook, Second Edition

Average customer rating:

Excellent for Non-Quant Geek Economics Students

Mathematics for Economists: An Introductory Textbook, Second Edition
Malcolm Pemberton , and Nicholas Rau
Manufacturer: Manchester University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0719075394
Release Date: 2006-11-28

Book Description

This book is a self-contained treatment of all the mathematics needed by undergraduate and beginning-graduate students of economics. Building up gently from a very low level, the authors provide a clear, systematic coverage of calculus and matrix algebra and easily accessible introductions to optimisation and dynamics. The emphasis throughout is on intuitive argument and problem-solving. All methods are illustrated by well-chosen examples and exercises selected from central areas of modern economic analysis. New features of the second edition include:
> a thorough exposition of dynamic optimisation in discrete and continuous time
> an introduction to the rigorous mathematical analysis used in graduate-level economics

Customer Reviews:

Excellent for Non-Quant Geek Economics Students.......2002-02-20

This book is a gentle introduction to the math used in microeconomics at advanced undergrad or graduate levels. The book assumes nothing or at least very little in the way of math preparation. The authors could point out more pitfalls, but these two mathematics professors write beautifully and simply about what is, for some of us, a complicated topic. They start with things as simple as Cartesian graphs and they move on through calculus, differential equations and various forms of linear and matrix algebra. The econ examples are excellent and concise, but are basic and not of theoretical interest. No one is going to learn Cournot monopoly theory or auction theory here, but you will learn how to read a book like Wolfstetter's Topics in Microeconomics without wishing you could throttle the excessively brief and cryptic author of that interesting text. One wishes in general that economists could write like the authors of this book, but they can't. Nowhere have I seen such obtuse notation and heartless math presentation as in microeconomic theory. But econ is micro, and even if a lot of microeconomists can't teach, write, or present math, they are the roadblock to understanding much of finance, applied game theory, and matters of technical management and public policy. This book covers continuous and static analysis tools, not probability or statistics in any detail. It is truly innovative among the books I have seen in treating mathematical economics. Micro theory is the flunk-out course for econ majors. This book could get most through. A patient non-quantitative person can learn it right out of the book without lectures or high anxiety. I suspect the seriously macho econ folks will hide the fact that they own it, but they would probably benefit too at least from topics where they stumble a bit or feel a slight discomfort. It would also be a worthwhile text for Ph.D. candidates who want to prepare for comprehensive exams either oral or written, or for people like economic sociologists who vaguely wish to be taken seriously.

The Future of Technology (Economist) (Economist)

Average customer rating:

"no longer looking for HAL...."
conceptual gropings just preceding Web 2.0

The Future of Technology (Economist) (Economist)

Manufacturer: Bloomberg Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1861979711

Book Description

Drawing on the best technology writing that has appeared in The Economist, this collection is a thought-provokiing guide to where we are and where we are headed as we continue and implement the unprecendented technological innovation and challenges of our age.

Customer Reviews:

"no longer looking for HAL....".......2006-07-02

In this volume edited by Tom Standage, the material is carefully organized and presented within three Parts. As "the revolutionary ideas of a few years ago have now become conventional wisdom," the focus in Part 1 is on the implications of widespread adoption of technology. "The growing ubiquity and sophistication of consumer-electronics devices is the topic of the second part of the book." That is to say, the emergence of "digital lifestyle" within a "digital home." Once information technology has percolated into everything (e.g. wireless sunglasses that double as head phones to radio-tagged cereal boxes), "what new technology will lead the next great phase of transformation, disruption, and creativity?" Then in Part 3, the focus is on various new "contenders" such as biotechnology, energy technology, and nanotechnology.

All of this material consists of various surveys and articles which appeared in The Economist between 2002 and 2005. "Collectively they illustrate how the technology industry is changing, how technology continues to affect many areas of everyday life - and, looking further ahead, how researchers in several promising fields are developing the innovations that seem most likely to constitute the future of technology." It is important to keep in mind that the value of survey results -- such as those generated by four surveys and provided in Part 1 ("Coming of age," "Make it simple," and "A world of work") -- is derived from what they suggest about what Joel Barker characterizes as "paradigm shifts." That is, the survey responses indicate both emerging and apparent trends and patterns.

Tom Standage and his seven collaborators are to be commended on the precision of their thinking and the eloquence of their writing. I especially appreciate, also, their caution when sharing their thoughts about the future of technology. No doubt they recall (as Standage does in the Foreword) "the hype of the internet boom [which contained] a kernel of truth, although harnessing the new technology proved harder and is taking longer that the cheerleaders of the 1990s anticipated."

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Kellogg on Technology & Innovation co-edited by Ranjay Gulati, Mohanbir Sawhney, and Anthony Paoni. Also, Seeing What's Next co-authored by Clayton C. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony, and Erik A. Roth, Geoffrey A. Moore's Dealing with Darwin, and Constantinos C. Markides and Paul A. Geroski's Fast Second.

conceptual gropings just preceding Web 2.0.......2006-06-02

The book is a compendium of articles from the Economist magazine, taken from the years 2001-5. Readers of the magazine may well recognise several or even most of the writings. They are arranged in several themes. What has been omitted is the dates in which each article originally appeared. Perhaps this should have been added.

Anyhow, the articles have the Economist's typical insightful musings; here on technology trends. During what is now universally acknowledged as the aftermath of the dot-com era. Most of the discussion revolves around the Web.

If you read the articles now in 2006 or later, what is striking is that they are not quite in what some are calling the Web 2.0 era. Web Services get a mention in the book. But little about developments in 2005 and 2006. Not surprising, given the constraints of book publishing. Maybe, just maybe, we can already see the flowerings of such things as mashups, and sites like MySpace, that might take us into the next phase of the Web.

The book can be useful, right now, if you are trying to anticipate or bring about new ideas. But also a few years hence, as a retrospective. When we can assess how accurate the musings were.

Mathematics and Mathematica for Economists

Average customer rating:

Great Introduction...
Exceptionally valuable contribution to graduate economics

Mathematics and Mathematica for Economists
Cliff J. Huang , and Philip S. Crooke
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1577180348

Customer Reviews:

Great Introduction..........2001-10-31

Here is a practical comment for the typical economics graduate student: Buy this book if you want to start using Mathematica!

What does a typical economics graduate student need? First, s/he needs to review her/his knowledge of mathematics. Second, s/he needs to learn how to use the tool (math) to solve an economic problem. Cliff J. Huang and Philip S. Crooke's book is helpful in both respects. While they are introducing the basic language of Mathematica they review most of the undergraduate math. And they teach with a hands-on approach--that is, you solve almost every problem using Mathematica.

Mathematica is a great tool for economics graduate students, it helps you out in understanding the basic intuitions behind mathematical concepts--because you do not have to solve complex problems (Mathematica solves them for you), you just have to understand them. Of course, students are advised to consult their professors to choose the right computer software or programming language. Mathematica can do a lot, but some other software might be much more practical for your PhD thesis project...

[Also consider Differential Equations: An Introduction with Mathematica by Clay C. Ross]

Exceptionally valuable contribution to graduate economics.......1998-10-05

This book covers mathematical methods topics that would ordinarily constitute the core of a one semester course at the first year graduate level in economics. The book could also be used at the advanced undergraduate level. It is the first book to fully integrate Wolfram Research's Mathematica software into a study of mathematical methods for economists. The authors' stated objective in this integration is to relieve students, via use of computer software, of the rather tedious computations typically associated with mathematics for economists coursework so that attention can be focused on underlying principles. To further this objective, a Mathematica notebook, MathEcon, comprised of functions commonly implemented in mathematics for economists courses accompanies the book.

The book features fifteen chapters including coverage of topics in linear algebra, quadratic forms, vector calculus, functional properties, mathematical programming, and differential and difference equations. The first two chapters provide an introduction to Mathematica and a review of calculus. Chapters are divided into sections and subsections and all chapters include exercises at the conclusion of each subsection. Many, though not all, of the exercises involve use of the Mathematica software. Numerous examples are included in all chapters and the use of Mathematica to illustrate concepts and problem solving is prevalent throughout the book. In this regard, the numeric, symbolic, and, in particular, graphic capabilites of Mathematica are used extensively to explain concepts and example problem solutions.

Book Description

Economics students will welcome the new edition of this excellent textbook. Mathematics is an integral part of economics and understanding basic concepts is vital. Given that many students come into economics courses without having studied mathematics for a number of years this clearly written book will help to develop quantitative skills in even the least numerate student up to the required level for a general Economics or Business Studies course.

Customer Reviews:

Basic Math For Econ (2nd Edition, pb).......2004-04-07

The author does a pretty good job of presenting the basic mathematical techniques for economics students. The explanations are, for the most part, clear and understandable. The mathematics covered in this book ranges from the very basic to the more advanced topics.

Although the author starts off with the most basic math, there are, nevertheless, more advanced concepts introduced within these basic chapters. For example, the chapter on arithmetic not only covers the basic elements of arithmetic but also has sections on the elasticity of demand and logarithms. However, it is unfortunate that the author combines the most basic math with the more advanced topics within the same chapter.

At the beginning of each chapter, the learning objectives are presented. The book contains many examples and exercises, and with few exceptions the author provides the answers to all the exercises unlike other books that give the answers only to selected problems.

In reading this book certain assumptions are made. For example, the author uses Excel in some of the chapters and it is assumed that the student has some prior knowledge of using this software package. Also, it is assumed that the student has some knowledge of economics.

There are certain areas in this book that can be a matter of confusion for readers. First, the author uses two different symbols for the square root, i.e., a check mark and the more familiar traditional square root symbol. Second, the author does not clearly explain when the antilog in division is taken or not taken when using logarithms. Third, an example on matrix algebra shows calculated numbers to two decimal places when, in fact, these numbers are actually carried out to more than two decimal places for purposes of getting the final answer. This can be frustrating to students trying to understand the example if they are not aware that the author has done this. Fourth, there are some errors in the book. It is important that readers be aware of these types of problems.

Book Description

The present collection of formulas has been composed for students of economics or management science at universities, colleges and trade schools. It contains basic knowledge in mathematics, financial mathematics and statistics in a compact and clearly arranged form. This volume is meant to be a reference work to be used by students of undergraduate courses together with a textbook and by researchers in need of exact statements of mathematical results. People dealing with practical or applied problems will also find this collection to be an efficient and easy-to-use work of reference.

A Brief History of Economic Genius (Cloth)

Average customer rating:

Very good general overview of the history of economic thought
This is the first draft of a great book
The evolution of the science of economics
Good but there is ALOT better out there
Readable, but with numerous mistakes

A Brief History of Economic Genius (Cloth)
Paul Strathern
Manufacturer: Texere
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1587991284

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Paul Strathern's A Brief History of Economic Genius is a lively and ambitious series of linked biographies of notable visionaries in the world of economics. The cast includes schemers, dreamers, unheeded prophets, utopians, sages, mountebanks, dour pessimists, megalomaniacal optimists, socialists, laissez-faire extremists, mighty eccentrics, and, within their own rights, geniuses of all ranks. Some of these are well known--John Maynard Keynes, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Robert Malthus, George Marshall, and John Nash of A Beautiful Mind fame. Others are obscure: John von Neumann, inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove character; Luca Pacioli, "inventor" of double-entry bookkeeping; John Gaunt, the father of statistics; John Law, a good candidate for the title of "richest man in history," who, in the early 18th century, almost single-handedly bankrupted France. Strathern weaves the men's lives and contributions with notable marketplace milestones such as Holland's 17th-century bout of tulipmania, Britain's notorious South Sea Bubble, the Great Depression, and the rebuilding and retribution strategies following the two world wars. A Brief History of Economic Genius is an amiable, measured, delightful, instructive, and, at times, extremely humorous narrative. In Strathern's hands, the "dismal science" becomes anything but. --H. O'Billovich

Book Description

Paul Strathern uncovers the lives and ideas of the great philosophers of money against the backdrop of some of history's most turbulent events: The South Sea Bubble, the French and Russian Revolutions, and the Crash of 1929. On the way, he provides an enriching and entertaining account of the great, the good, and the downright bad in economic theories- from double-entry bookkeeping to game theory.

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Customer Reviews:

Very good general overview of the history of economic thought.......2006-06-29

Strathern(S) has done a commendable job in this book.He covers practically every major economist who has made a contribution over the last 400 hundred years.The one oversight here is that Samuelson does not receive the number of pages needed to cover his general contributions accurately.
I will concentrate on how S handles Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes.S makes it clear that the libertarian conceptualization of Smith's term,the Invisible Hand,is anathema to Smith.The Libertarian view of the Invisible Hand is that of an optimal self adjusting mechanism that guarantees that the capitalist system can never break down as long as there is no government involvement/regulation in the economy.This was the view of Quesnay,Mandeville,and Say, but not Smith. S fails to mention that Smith's repeated support for interest rate control laws simply means that he had an understanding that savings would not be transformed into Investment intertemporally unless the savings made its way into the hands of productive investment and not speculator con men like John Law.Low and fixed interest rates would promote productive investment and not wasteful extravagance on consumption.S also fails to mention that,while Smith did vigorously opposed protective tariffs aimed at saving the monopoly position of firms in their home market,he did not oppose retaliatory and/or revenue tariffs,although he recognized the second best nature of both tariffs.It is an interesting historical fact that Smith's Wealth of Nations served as the blueprint on which conservatives Alexander Hamilton and George Washington based early American economic policy,while such policies were opposed by the libertarian Jefferson ,who claimed that Say was a much superior economist than Smith.Finally,as claimed by S, there is no contradiction between Smith's advocating universal education and religious instruction for all citizens and his observation that the division of labor reduced workers to unthinking cogs in an economic machine process.The value of education is not reducible to purely one dimensional economic considerations.

S's handling of Keynes is generally correct,but filled with many omissions that undermine the worth of his commentary.The problem shows up on p.269 and p.273 where S claims that " Keynes insisted that the " tacit assumptions " of neoclassical economics " are seldom or never satisfied ...It cannot solve the problems of the actual world." Yet according to the final passage in the General Theory,"If our central controls succeed in establishing an aggregate volume of output corresponding to full employment as nearly as is practible,the classical theory comes into its own again from this point onwards." He seemed to want to have it both ways." Unfortunately,S's mathematical deficiencies have led him astray.I am not singling out S since this characterization of his mathematical capabilities applies to all 20th and 21st century economists ,whenever the issue arises about what was the mathematical model used by Keynes in the GT . Another example is that S is unable to comprehend that,since the marginal propensity to consume,mpc,is equal to 1-(1/k),then,by definition,the marginal propensity to spend on investment goods,mpi,must be equal to 1/k,which is just the inverse of the investment multiplier,k.

Keynes told Dennis Robertson bluntly in mid 1935 that the mathematical model of his theory of effective demand(Keynes's D-Z model) was not contained in the first 17 chapters of the General Theory.Keynes stated that the Employment Function model was contained in a later chapter and not in chapter 3 of the GT, as Robertson argued.It is obvious to anyone who can read English that the model is in CHAPTER 20 OF THE GT,titled The Employment Function. Keynes derives the following condition,first presented to the readers of the GT on pp.261-262:w/p=mpl/(mpc+mpi)is the general optimality condition at the macroscopic level based on a microeconomic foundation of purely competitive firms and industries,of which there were two,consumptions goods and investment goods.w is the money wage,p is the expected price level,w/p is the expected real wage,mpl is the marginal product of labor derived from an aggregated neoclassical production function(see p.283 and p.285 of the GT),mpi is the marginal propensity to spend on investment goods,and mpc is the marginal propensity to spend on consumption goods.Unless the mpc+mpi=1,it is impossible to attain the result required for full employment of all resources in neoclassical theory,excluding frictional or slack unemployment,which is w/p=mpl.If mpc+mpi < 1,multiple stable unemployment equilibria exist in the economic system which cannot be eliminated by labor cutting its money wages because the optimality condition specified by Keynes above requires that the money wages must rise,which is a direct contradiction of classical and neoclassical economic theory.Keynes's central controls are aimed at making sure that mpc+mpi=mpc+mps=1,where mps is the marginal propensity to save.There is no contradiction here on Keynes's part.S simply is ignorant of Keynes's mathematical analysis in chapter 20 of the GT.Only Paul Samuelson has taken this statement by Keynes seriously,although he has operated with it in an intuitive sense only, due to his failing to realize that Richard Kahn and Joan Robinson were lying to him when they told him that Keynes had no correct worked out mathematical or microeconomic theory contained in the GT because Keynes had ignored their advice.

This is the first draft of a great book.......2004-08-04

I feel sorry for the author. I do not know enough about the industry to know if this is very bad writing or catastrophically bad editing, but under all this lies quite an interesting book.

As others have pointed out the book starts with frequent editing errors, where the spacing is wrong (somewhat lik ethis). This happens every other page for about the first 25 pages, but then seems to stop. Even worse are smaller, stranger errors that remind me of my student papers before I reviewed them. For example in discussing John Law he makes a very interesting introduction, until he mistakenly refers to him at one point in the text as William Law (he had discussed a William Peterson right before). I find this sort of error inexcusable in a published book, and once I lose respect for the work it becomes truly hard to enjoy it.

I also believe this form of mistake has motivated most of the bad reviews, even those which mention flaws in economic theory. For example one reviewer critiqued the comparative advantage example (I presume it is the one where two men work in a deserted island); it is indeed very poorly phrased, but it is an example of comparative advantage. However, after all the previous mistakes who cares to read carefully that which was not written carefully?

The evolution of the science of economics.......2002-06-07

A Brief History Of Economic Genius by Paul Strathern (Lecturer in Mathematics and Philosophy, Kingston University, London) is an engaging and highly accessible look at the most eccentric and gifted economists including Johann Becher (1635-1682); John Law (1671-1729); Adam Smith (1723-1790); Robert Malthus (1766-1833); Karl Marx (1818-1883); Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929); and John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946). These notable and influential figures, along with their triumphs and failings, and the evolution of the science of economics, are all intelligibly considered in this fascinating presentation that is recommended for academia, as well as the non-specialist general reader.

Good but there is ALOT better out there.......2002-05-28

I bought this book hoping it might shed some insights into the thoughts and times of the world's greatest economists and I got what I hoped for. In particular I was hoping to see if the author did a good job in relating economics to other areas such as politics, science, sociology, history philosophy and mathematics and the book fulfilled my desire. The book was well written, in terms of prose, making it an easy book to read economics books, especially for non-economists.

If I had anything to gripe it would be the EXTREMELY poor editing. Throughout the book I found words that had mistakenly been split up by a spac e mark, such as what I have included in this review. One or two can be forgiven but the twenty or so I seem to have come across is truly shameful for a book at approximately $20 or more. As a result of this and the poor examples provided I rate the book a 3 star book

This book, like The Worldly Philosophers and New Ideas from Dead Economists, is designed to illustrate the thoughts and history of the world's greatest economic thinkers. Economists. This book is ideal for those seeking to learn about some of the contributions of the world's greatest economists as well as those who are history buffs and want to learn more about the times / overlap of the world's greatest minds in other areas such as philosophy, science, etc as many of these individuals had an impact on economists of their times.

Economists highlighted in the book, which goes in chronological order from past to recent, include Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Robert Malthus, George Marshall, Thorton Veblen, Joseph Schumpeter, John von Neumann, John Nash and Milton Friedman.

Some historic events mentioned in the book, since they affected the economists' thoughts, are Holland's 17th-century bout of tulipmania, Britain's notorious South Sea Bubble, The French Revolution, the Great Depression, and the rebuilding and retribution strategies following the two world wars.

Most of my reviews are in business / economics and I encourage people to read them. If you are interested in another excellent economics book I would start with The Worldly Philosophers (which I would buy before this book) and then read Hernando DeSoto's Mystery of Capital. A great general business book is by the management guru Peter Drucker entitled "The Essential Drucker". Just so you know, he didn't pick the title but his work is excellent and highly applicable for managers.

One final note, The Mystery Of Capital is a highly regarded, easy to read book on economic development that is VERY popular in the offices of dignitaries throughout the world, including Paul O'Neill (Secretary of State for the U.S). During a recent CNBC documentary on Mr. O'Neill the secretary met Mr. DeSoto to get some insights before his trip to Africa where he will focus on ways to improve economic development in 3rd world nations.

Readable, but with numerous mistakes.......2002-05-14

This review is for a book by Strathern published in Canada under the title
"Dr. Strangelove's Game: A Brief History of Economic Genius".

I found this book a major disappointment. It seems to me that the author is
clearly outside his field of expertise, the result being a book riddled
with errors. For instance, in his exposition of Ricardo's theory of
comparative advantage, the example has no comparative advantage. If he had
bothered to read a chapter of an introductory international economics book,
he would have found a clear illustration, Similarly, his description of
Edgeworth's contract curve is muddled and wrong with one consumer gaining
utility at the expense of the other. Indeed, it seems that the author spent
so little time writing the book that he does not even get his arithmetic
right -- his own numbers indicating the American domestic market was 167
percent larger than the British in 1910, not 250 percent larger as claimed.

To his merit, he does say something about nearly every major figure in
economics up to Friedman -- I would probably have included Samuelson as
well -- and other figures as well, e.g., Luca Pacioli, the father of
accounting. And his prose is quite readable, although I found his tendency
towards hyperbole annoying.

On the whole, if you are interested in biographical sketches of leading
economic thinkers in history and are not concerned about an explanation of
their ideas, you may find this book interesting. But I would look
elsewhere.

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