» Mathematics for Economists

Mathematics for Economists Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Mathematics for Economist...
Comment: Very good review tool for graduate level Microeconomic theory....it is a little more in depth than Chang & Wainwright's Math for Economist...definitely should get and keep as a reference...

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A good book for undergraduate students, but not for PHD students!
Comment: This book is clearly much better than Chiang's book and it seems to be a good choice for undergraduate students. Most of the subjects are introduced in a simple way and good examples are also provided.

The problem is that the presentation is not the best and this book is also incomplete for advanced studies.

Regarding the presentation I strongly believe that linear algebra is not presented in the best way. The correct way to learn linear algebra is the way that it can be easily extended for other abstract spaces such as space of functions (very useful in dynamic programming and advanced econometrics). Furthermore, optimization is not presented in the best way either. The best way to present this topic is based on the construction of the tangent cones. Using this approach is easy for instance to use the Faska's lemma in order to prove the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions of optimality.

There some important subjects in this book that are missing for instance the fixed point theorems (very useful to study dynamic programming and market equilibrium) and dynamic programming.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Useful for advanced students
Comment: 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.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not worth the price
Comment: 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.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: IF you are doing /have done maths, read this book
Comment: 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.

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