Re: mathematical intro to economics

From: Robert Vienneau (rvien_at_see.sig.com)
Date: 06/27/04 

Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 17:37:21 -0400

In article <4aaed8a2.0406262105.57776b09@posting.google.com>,
icmpxchg8b@aol.com (Danny Y.) wrote:

> hello, can anyone please recommend economics books that take a general
> mathematical approach, while still including practical applications
> and exercises,
>
> and, in particular, not assuming any background in economics?

Mas-Colell et al is the main competitor to Varian for introductory
graduate level microeconomics. Both have lots of math. I think
the point of studying these textbooks is to see how little
mainstream economists have to say about actually existing markets.

Debreu's Theory of Value: An Axiomatic Analysis of Economic
Equilibrium (1959) is not a textbook. It was important in the
development of post (World) War (II) Anglo-American economics.
Since it is in the style of Bourbaki, it can be read as if it
is nothing but a series of exercises.

I thought Sargent and Lucas had a textbook presenting macroeconomics
as an application of Vector Auto-Regression (VAR) models, a type
of time series analysis. Perhaps I was thinking of Sargent's
Macroeconomic Theory or Dynamic Macroeconomic Theory. A more-or-
less mainstream response to that style is Frank Hahn and Robert
Solow's A Critical Essay on Modern Macroeconomic Theory (1995).
Hahn and Solow's book is not a textbook.

Heinz D. Kurz and Neri Salvadori's Theory of Production: A Long-Period
Analysis (1995) is a textbook treatment of another approach. It
draws more on discrete mathematics and has lots of exercises. 

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