Postgraduate - UnitECC5850 - Mathematical economic theory

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Business and Economics
Organisational Unit	Department of Economics
Offered	Clayton First semester 2013 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Birendra Rai

Synopsis

Mathematical preliminaries; static optimisation theory; introduction to calculus of variations and optimal control theory; necessary and sufficient conditions; investment theory: costs of adjustment, neoclassical, Q theory; consumption theory; use of duality theory; growth models; Hamilton Jacobi theory; discrete time stochastic models; selected current applications.

Outcomes

The learning goals associated with this unit are to:

understand the theories of static optimisation, including the first and second order conditions for the multi-dimensional case
analyse mathematically how changes in the economic environment affect economic agents' optimal decisions
analyse dynamic optimisation problems faced by economic agents
develop students' ability to access frontier research in economics that routinely makes use of many mathematical concepts in optimisation theories.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 40%
Examination: 60%

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Birendra Rai

Contact hours

3 hours per week