Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics
Author: Alpha C. Chiang
List Price: $130.65
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ISBN: 0070108137
Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Irwin (01 February, 1984)
Sales Rank: 56,628
Average Customer Rating: 4.53 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Great Text & Reference Book
I used this book in my Mathematical Economics textbook in an Economics Masters program. This book covers ALOT of basic math material needed in economics. It is an excellent text/reference/review math book for a graduate level student in economics and possibly other areas in the social sciences. I highly recommend this book to any economics student (though it may be difficult for some undergraduates).It covers the basics of number theory, economics related math (i.e. market equilibriums, etc.), linear (matrix) algebra, comparative static analysis, differentiation, integration, logarithmic & exponential functions, differential equations, and more that we did not cover in the class like programming. Even if you have taken many math classes outside of the field in economics, this book is a great bridge to apply that math to economics.
While most of the math in this book is not specific to economics, I would not strongly recommend it to science majors since only math that is commonly used in economics is discussed (i.e. no trig functions). In addition, this book does not cover econometrics (statistics) or probability at all.
For a hard-cover textbook, this book is small and relatively light so it would make a great reference book to keep in your bookbag.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Great Introduction to Mathmatical Economics
I used Chaing's book for an intro the mathematical economics as an econ undergrad. Much of the material is useful for both advanced undergraduates and graduate studies. I especially found the optimization (applied differential calculus) and matrix algebra useful. Using an input output coefficient matrix (as described in the text) we were able to see how Russia operated under the communist regime. We used GAMMS for the mathematical programming. Overall the course and this book were an eye opening experience to applying mathematical models to real world problems. I hope to explore this realm of thinking further in my graduate studies. I highly recommend this book, even to people with a somewhat limited math background (1 calculus course).
Rating: 2 out of 5
Never quite goes to the point
I am writing my PhD dissertation in Economics. I was first assigned this book almost 10 years ago during my second year undergraduate course in mathematics for economists. This book has then kept resurfacing, for instance in the summer course in math that preceded my master.
Actually, I quite dislike the book. Lukily, I was given the choice between this book and Simon&Blume and I chose the latter. I unfortunately bought Chang first and started studying this becuase it was the "preferred text".
It turns out that Chang tries to make it too easy. It's great when books make the subject easy, and I abhor formalism for its own sake, but when you have to wade through pages and pages of bubbling and exercises to find out what the chapter is all about, then it is too sloppy. Please have nicely stated assumption, theorem, nicely worked out examples and explanations. No! Chang thinks that it is better to work out for you tons of examples without bothering to put it all together in a nice statement. I get lost in this! Too easy is wrongly easy, if the text book omit to clearly state all the assumptions (because it would be too difficult) you can be sure that my profs put a tricky case in the exam in which the assumptions are violated and you don't know what to do, because Chang never stated them, nor bothered to solve that specific case - or maybe he did solve that case but it got lost among the others.Have a look at the table of content. The first half of the book is appropriate for a first undergraduate course in mathematics for economists, and the second half for a second course. It won't lead you much further than that.
Most masters will require you to learn at least hamiltonians (but that's easy). True problem is that this book does not really give you good basis for thinking mathematically in graduate school.
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