How Economics Became a Mathematical Science

How Economics Became a Mathematical Science PDF Author: E. Roy Weintraub
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822383802
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
In How Economics Became a Mathematical Science E. Roy Weintraub traces the history of economics through the prism of the history of mathematics in the twentieth century. As mathematics has evolved, so has the image of mathematics, explains Weintraub, such as ideas about the standards for accepting proof, the meaning of rigor, and the nature of the mathematical enterprise itself. He also shows how economics itself has been shaped by economists’ changing images of mathematics. Whereas others have viewed economics as autonomous, Weintraub presents a different picture, one in which changes in mathematics—both within the body of knowledge that constitutes mathematics and in how it is thought of as a discipline and as a type of knowledge—have been intertwined with the evolution of economic thought. Weintraub begins his account with Cambridge University, the intellectual birthplace of modern economics, and examines specifically Alfred Marshall and the Mathematical Tripos examinations—tests in mathematics that were required of all who wished to study economics at Cambridge. He proceeds to interrogate the idea of a rigorous mathematical economics through the connections between particular mathematical economists and mathematicians in each of the decades of the first half of the twentieth century, and thus describes how the mathematical issues of formalism and axiomatization have shaped economics. Finally, How Economics Became a Mathematical Science reconstructs the career of the economist Sidney Weintraub, whose relationship to mathematics is viewed through his relationships with his mathematician brother, Hal, and his mathematician-economist son, the book’s author.

How Economics Became a Mathematical Science

How Economics Became a Mathematical Science PDF Author: E. Roy Weintraub
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822383802
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Get Book Here

Book Description
In How Economics Became a Mathematical Science E. Roy Weintraub traces the history of economics through the prism of the history of mathematics in the twentieth century. As mathematics has evolved, so has the image of mathematics, explains Weintraub, such as ideas about the standards for accepting proof, the meaning of rigor, and the nature of the mathematical enterprise itself. He also shows how economics itself has been shaped by economists’ changing images of mathematics. Whereas others have viewed economics as autonomous, Weintraub presents a different picture, one in which changes in mathematics—both within the body of knowledge that constitutes mathematics and in how it is thought of as a discipline and as a type of knowledge—have been intertwined with the evolution of economic thought. Weintraub begins his account with Cambridge University, the intellectual birthplace of modern economics, and examines specifically Alfred Marshall and the Mathematical Tripos examinations—tests in mathematics that were required of all who wished to study economics at Cambridge. He proceeds to interrogate the idea of a rigorous mathematical economics through the connections between particular mathematical economists and mathematicians in each of the decades of the first half of the twentieth century, and thus describes how the mathematical issues of formalism and axiomatization have shaped economics. Finally, How Economics Became a Mathematical Science reconstructs the career of the economist Sidney Weintraub, whose relationship to mathematics is viewed through his relationships with his mathematician brother, Hal, and his mathematician-economist son, the book’s author.

Philosophy of Mathematics and Economics

Philosophy of Mathematics and Economics PDF Author: Thomas A. Boylan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351124544
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
With the failure of economics to predict the recent economic crisis, the image of economics as a rigorous mathematical science has been subjected to increasing interrogation. One explanation for this failure is that the subject took a wrong turn in its historical trajectory, becoming too mathematical. Using the philosophy of mathematics, this unique book re-examines this trajectory. Philosophy of Mathematics and Economics re-analyses the divergent rationales for mathematical economics by some of its principal architects. Yet, it is not limited to simply enhancing our understanding of how economics became an applied mathematical science. The authors also critically evaluate developments in the philosophy of mathematics to expose the inadequacy of aspects of mainstream mathematical economics, as well as exploiting the same philosophy to suggest alternative ways of rigorously formulating economic theory for our digital age. This book represents an innovative attempt to more fully understand the complexity of the interaction between developments in the philosophy of mathematics and the process of formalisation in economics. Assuming no expert knowledge in the philosophy of mathematics, this work is relevant to historians of economic thought and professional philosophers of economics. In addition, it will be of great interest to those who wish to deepen their appreciation of the economic contours of contemporary society. It is also hoped that mathematical economists will find this work informative and engaging.

How Economics Became a Mathematical Science

How Economics Became a Mathematical Science PDF Author: E. Roy Weintraub
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822328711
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
DIVDiscusses the history of 20th century economics, and how it has become dominated by mathematical approaches./div

Economics--Mathematical Politics Or Science of Diminishing Returns?

Economics--Mathematical Politics Or Science of Diminishing Returns? PDF Author: Alexander Rosenberg
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226727240
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
"Economics will never be able to move beyond these vague predictions because it treats human behavior - individual and social - as the product of expectations and preferences - beliefs and desires - the variables that cannot be measured independently of the actual choices we want to predict. These factors, combined with the economist's commitment to the search for equilibrium solutions to theoretical problems, condemn economic theory to permanent predictive weakness. In the end, Rosenberg's analysis is not merely a critique. His aim is to redefine the scope and value of neoclassical theory, suggesting that its character and most important accomplishments need to be correctly understood to defend economics against the charge that it is a science of diminishing returns."--BOOK JACKET.

Finding Equilibrium

Finding Equilibrium PDF Author: Till Düppe
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691156646
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
The remarkable story and personalities behind one of the most important theories in modern economics Finding Equilibrium explores the post–World War II transformation of economics by constructing a history of the proof of its central dogma—that a competitive market economy may possess a set of equilibrium prices. The model economy for which the theorem could be proved was mapped out in 1954 by Kenneth Arrow and Gerard Debreu collaboratively, and by Lionel McKenzie separately, and would become widely known as the "Arrow-Debreu Model." While Arrow and Debreu would later go on to win separate Nobel prizes in economics, McKenzie would never receive it. Till Düppe and E. Roy Weintraub explore the lives and work of these economists and the issues of scientific credit against the extraordinary backdrop of overlapping research communities and an economics discipline that was shifting dramatically to mathematical modes of expression. Based on recently opened archives, Finding Equilibrium shows the complex interplay between each man's personal life and work, and examines compelling ideas about scientific credit, publication, regard for different research institutions, and the awarding of Nobel prizes. Instead of asking whether recognition was rightly or wrongly given, and who were the heroes or villains, the book considers attitudes toward intellectual credit and strategies to gain it vis-à-vis the communities that grant it. Telling the story behind the proof of the central theorem in economics, Finding Equilibrium sheds light on the changing nature of the scientific community and the critical connections between the personal and public rewards of scientific work.

Machine Dreams

Machine Dreams PDF Author: Philip Mirowski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521775267
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 674

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Book Description
This is the first cross-over book into the history of science written by an historian of economics. It shows how 'history of technology' can be integrated with the history of economic ideas. The analysis combines Cold War history with the history of postwar economics in America and later elsewhere, revealing that the Pax Americana had much to do with abstruse and formal doctrines such as linear programming and game theory. It links the literature on 'cyborg' to economics, an element missing in literature to date. The treatment further calls into question the idea that economics has been immune to postmodern currents, arguing that neoclassical economics has participated in the deconstruction of the integral 'self'. Finally, it argues for an alliance of computational and institutional themes, and challenges the widespread impression that there is nothing else besides American neoclassical economic theory left standing after the demise of Marxism.

How Economics Became a Mathematical Science

How Economics Became a Mathematical Science PDF Author: E. Roy Weintraub
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
DIVDiscusses the history of 20th century economics, and how it has become dominated by mathematical approaches./div

The World in the Model

The World in the Model PDF Author: Mary S. Morgan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139560417
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
During the last two centuries, the way economic science is done has changed radically: it has become a social science based on mathematical models in place of words. This book describes and analyses that change - both historically and philosophically - using a series of case studies to illuminate the nature and the implications of these changes. It is not a technical book; it is written for the intelligent person who wants to understand how economics works from the inside out. This book will be of interest to economists and science studies scholars (historians, sociologists and philosophers of science). But it also aims at a wider readership in the public intellectual sphere, building on the current interest in all things economic and on the recent failure of the so-called economic model, which has shaped our beliefs and the world we live in.

Twilight of the Money Gods

Twilight of the Money Gods PDF Author: John Rapley
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471152774
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 568

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Book Description
Imagine one day you went to a cash-machine and found your money was gone. You rushed to your branch, where a teller said that overnight people had stopped believing in money, and it all vanished. Seem incredible? It happened, and it could happen again. Twilight of the Money Gods is the story of economics, told not as the science it strove to be, but as the religion it became. Over two centuries, it searched for the hidden codes which would reveal the path to a promised land of material abundance. While its prophets, from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, concerned themselves with the human condition, its priesthood gradually grew remote from its followers, until it lost sight of their tribulations. Today, amid a crisis of faith in their expertise, we must re-imagine an economics for a new era - one filled with both danger and opportunity.

Linear Algebra for Economists

Linear Algebra for Economists PDF Author: Fuad Aleskerov
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642205704
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
This textbook introduces students of economics to the fundamental notions and instruments in linear algebra. Linearity is used as a first approximation to many problems that are studied in different branches of science, including economics and other social sciences. Linear algebra is also the most suitable to teach students what proofs are and how to prove a statement. The proofs that are given in the text are relatively easy to understand and also endow the student with different ways of thinking in making proofs. Theorems for which no proofs are given in the book are illustrated via figures and examples. All notions are illustrated appealing to geometric intuition. The book provides a variety of economic examples using linear algebraic tools. It mainly addresses students in economics who need to build up skills in understanding mathematical reasoning. Students in mathematics and informatics may also be interested in learning about the use of mathematics in economics.