[PDF] How Economics Became A Mathematical Science eBook

Author : E. Roy Weintraub
Publisher : Duke University Press
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 16,83 MB
Release : 2002-05-28
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0822383802

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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.

Author : E. Roy Weintraub
Publisher : Duke University Press
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 37,6 MB
Release : 2002-05-28
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780822328711

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

Author : Thomas A. Boylan
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 307 pages
File Size : 50,71 MB
Release : 2018-04-09
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1351124544

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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.

Author : Aiko Ikeo
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 12,4 MB
Release : 2014-04-03
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1317747534

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Japanese economists began publishing scientific papers in renowned journals including Econometrica in the 1950s and had made their significant contributions to the sophistication of general equilibrium analysis by intensive use of a variety of mathematical instruments. They had contributed significantly to the transformation of neoclassical economics. This book examines how it became possible for Japanese economists to do so by shedding light on the "professional" discussion of the international gold standard and parity policies in the early twentieth century, the acceptance of "mathematical economics" in the following period, the impact of establishment of the Econometric Society (1930), and the swift distribution of theory-oriented economics journals since 1930. This book also includes topics on the historical research of the Japanese foundations of modern economics, the transformation of the economics of Keynes into Keynesian economics, Japanese developments in econometrics, and Martin Bronfenbrenner's visit to Japan in the post-WWII period. This book provides insight into the economic research done by Japanese scholars in the international context. It traces how, during the period 1900-1960, economics was harmonized with economics and a standard economics was re-shaped on the basis of mathematics thanks to economists' appetite for rigor and will help to contribute to existing literature.

Author : Camila Orozco Espinel
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 35,33 MB
Release : 2020
Category :
ISBN :

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Before the use of mathematics in economics was generalized, mathematical and nonmathematically trained economist lived together. This paper studies this period of cohabitation. By focusing on the communication challenges between these two groups during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, a watershed moment, this paper analyzes the entrance of mathematics into economists' training. The paper explores the development of teaching materials specific for the mathematical training of social scientists, the entrance of mathematics to the economics curriculum, and the role of the Social Science Research Council in this delivered process. All these elements are integral to understand how the mathematical methods and tools introduced by a small group of economists during the mid-twentieth century came to be adopted by the entire discipline within a couple of decades and thus effected a permanent transformation of economics.

Author : Barry Cipra
Publisher : American Mathematical Soc.
Page : 108 pages
File Size : 20,16 MB
Release :
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780821890431

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Mathematicians like to point out that mathematics is universal. In spite of this, most people continue to view it as either mundane (balancing a checkbook) or mysterious (cryptography). This fifth volume of the What's Happening series contradicts that view by showing that mathematics is indeed found everywhere-in science, art, history, and our everyday lives. Here is some of what you'll find in this volume: Mathematics and Science Mathematical biology: Mathematics was key tocracking the genetic code. Now, new mathematics is needed to understand the three-dimensional structure of the proteins produced from that code. Celestial mechanics and cosmology: New methods have revealed a multitude of solutions to the three-body problem. And other new work may answer one of cosmology'smost fundamental questions: What is the size and shape of the universe? Mathematics and Everyday Life Traffic jams: New models are helping researchers understand where traffic jams come from-and maybe what to do about them! Small worlds: Researchers have found a short distance from theory to applications in the study of small world networks. Elegance in Mathematics Beyond Fermat's Last Theorem: Number theorists are reaching higher ground after Wiles' astounding 1994 proof: new developments inthe elegant world of elliptic curves and modular functions. The Millennium Prize Problems: The Clay Mathematics Institute has offered a million dollars for solutions to seven important and difficult unsolved problems. These are just some of the topics of current interest that are covered in thislatest volume of What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences. The book has broad appeal for a wide spectrum of mathematicians and scientists, from high school students through advanced-level graduates and researchers.

Author : Philip Mirowski
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 674 pages
File Size : 50,68 MB
Release : 2002
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780521775267

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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.

Author : Roger E. Backhouse
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 37,82 MB
Release : 2018
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781911116691

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Roger E. Backhouse and Keith Tribe present a broad introduction to the history of economic thought based upon courses they have taught for many years. Its main purpose is to provide an overview for students and teachers who have not had the opportunity of taking a course in the subject. The book is presented as a series of twenty-four lectures. Each lecture presents an outline of aims, a select bibliography, a chronology, an overview of between 3,000 and 4,000 words, and questions for further study or reflection. Contemporary understanding of economic principles sheds little light on the manner in which past thinkers thought, so the student is provided with the much-needed context behind the development of ideas as well as being guided through the original writings of economists such as Smith, Jevons, Marshall, Robbins, Keynes, and others. The emphasis is on the broad developing stream of economic argument from the seventeenth century to the present, seeking to emphasize a diversity that is sometimes suppressed in more conventional textbooks, which tend to organize their histories into sequences of schools of thought. With many years of experience teaching economic thought, the authors have honed their presentation to the needs of those with no previous background in the subject, without sacrificing analysis or rigor. The book will be warmly welcomed by students and teachers alike.

Author : Roger E Backhouse
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 311 pages
File Size : 21,28 MB
Release : 2002-01-31
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0141937432

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The definitive guide to the history of economic thought, fully revised twenty years after first publication Roger Backhouse's definitive guide takes the story of economic thinking from the ancient world to the present day, with a brand-new chapter on the twenty-first century and updates throughout to reflect the latest scholarship. Covering topics including globalisation, inequality, financial crises and the environment, Backhouse brings his breadth of expertise and a contemporary lens to this original and insightful exploration of economics, revealing how we got to where we are today.

Author : John Rapley
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 567 pages
File Size : 13,86 MB
Release : 2017-07-13
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1471152774

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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.