units

BEX5850

Faculty of Business and Economics

Monash University

Postgraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 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

0 points, SCA Band 2, 0.000 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

LevelPostgraduate
FacultyFaculty of Business and Economics
Organisational UnitDepartment of Economics
OfferedClayton First semester 2015 (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:

  1. understand the theories of static optimisation, including the first and second order conditions for the multi-dimensional case
  2. analyse mathematically how changes in the economic environment affect economic agents' optimal decisions
  3. analyse dynamic optimisation problems faced by economic agents
  4. 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%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload equals 144 hours per semester.

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

Prohibitions