Introduction to Mathematical Economics
This Site
This site pertains to the text Introduction to Mathematical Economics, which is based on an earlier text with the same title. The earlier text’s authors are Professors Anthony L. Ostrosky, Jr. and James V. Koch. They graciously granted me permission to revise their text, mainly by incorporating material from Maxima, an open-source computer algebra system.
The material at this site consists of three components. The first is the text itself. It can be accessed here. This text can be used as a standard textbook without reference to the use of Maxima. Some such references will appear in the text, but these can be ignored without loss of continuity.
The second component is a zipped file, accessible here, the contains the text and the workbooks that provided most of the graphs and many of the computations that appear in the text. This file also contains another text that provides additional insights into the use of Maxima and wxMaxima, a graphical user interface for Maxima. This material will serve anyone who wishes to learn or review the elements of mathematical economics while also gaining proficiency with a computer algebra system.
Finally, another zipped file, accessible here, contains all of the above and all of the LaTeX files and image files that are used to produce the book. This added material allows this book to be open-source, as well a free of charge. A user who knows the elements of LaTeX can revise the text at will. Such revisions could include making corrections, adding or deleting material, and replacing Maxima output with that from another computer algebra system, like Mathematica, Maple, or GeoGebra.
To repeat: Any of three files can be downloaded.
- Those who want the text but do no want to use Maxima should download this pdf file (3.5 MB).
- Those who want to work with Maxima while learning or reviewing the material in the text should download this zipped file (4 MB).
- Those who want to revise the text can download this zipped file (19 MB), which contains the text, the workbooks, and all LaTeX and graphics files required to produce the text.
More on Maxima
If you are a newcomer to computer algebra systems, you will likely require guidance beyond what the material at this site offers. This site contains links to and brief descriptions of material that can be quite valuable in this regard. One particularly useful site relates to Josef Leydold and Martin Petry, Introduction to Maxima for Economics, which complements our textbook. Introduction to Maxima for Economics is included in the file that contains workbooks. You might still want to check the site, here, in case the authors have revised the material since we posted the material found here.