📖 Course introduction

📖 Course introduction#

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Course title: Mathematical Techniques for Economic Analysis

  • Compulsory first math course in all Master of Economics programs

Course prerequisites#

See Course overview and Class summary

Essentially, this course picks up from the high school math course and goes a bit further, with the focus on techniques useful for economic research and other courses in economics.

Q&A

Q: Is optimization covered in this course?

A: We will look at a couple of examples of optimization problems in this course, but the next math course ECON6012 is dedicated to optimization in depth.

How tutorials will be conducted#

  • tutorials = practical exercises

  • posted with the corresponding lecture

  • try to solve the exercises before the tutorial

  • exercises solved and discussed at the tutorial

  • participation is not mandatory but highly recommended

  • if you solve all tutorial excesses, you will be able to solve all practical problems in the exams

  • solutions posted a week after

Tutorials start on week 2

Where to send your questions#

  1. Administrative questions: RSE admin

    • Bronwyn Cammack Senior School Administrator

    • Email: enquiries.rse@anu.edu.au

    • “I can not register for the tutorial group”

  2. Content related questions: please, refer to the tutors

    • “I don’t understand this step in showing that this function is continuous”

  3. Other questions: to Fedor

    • “I’m working hard but still can not keep up”

    • “Can I please have extra assignment for more practice”

Attendance#

  • please, do not use email for instructional questions

  • instead make use of the office hours

  • office hours follow after each lecture = I will stay in the classroom to answer questions

  • attendance of tutorials is very highly recommended
    You will make your life much easier this way

  • attendance of lectures is highly recommended
    But not mandatory

Assessments#

Online tests, 10% each#

  • 30 min long timed assignment

  • administered online through the Wattle site

  • one day during which to attempt this task

  • consists of some number of questions: multiple choice, true or false, short answer, or single numeric answer

  • immediate feedback

  • each assignment is worth 10% of your raw overall mark for this course

  • no late submissions will be accepted

  • not submitted by the due date — mark of zero

  • will include material from the lectures and tutorials since the last online test

Computerized quizzes are located at the course Wattle page

Final exam, 60%#

  • Classic close book on-campus

  • Invigilated

  • 3-hour exam

  • Only writing materials allowed

  • Covers the material from the whole semester!

  • More information will be provided by Week 10, with practice examples discussed prior to the exam

  • Will be held during the examination period

Note on assessments#

Exams and tests will award:

  • Hard work = all tutorial problems worked through

  • Deeper understanding of the concepts

If you follow the work done in the tutorials, you will be able to solve all the problems in the exam

In each question there will be a reasonably short path to the solution

Lectures notes/slides#

  • Cover exactly what you are required to know

  • Go back to the textbook for more details on intermediate steps

  • Code inserts are for illustration, they are not assessable

In particular, you need to know:

  • The definitions from the notes

  • The facts from the notes

  • How to apply facts and definitions

If a concept in not in the lecture notes, it is not assessable

Definitions and facts#

The lectures notes/slides are full of definitions and facts.

Definition

Functions \(f: \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is called continuous at \(x\) if, for any sequence \(\{x_n\}\) converging to \(x\), we have \(f(x_n) \rightarrow f(x)\).

Possible exam question: “Show that if functions \(f\) and \(g\) are continuous at \(x\), so is \(f+g\).”

You should start the answer with the definition of continuity:

“Let \(\{x_n\}\) be any sequence converging to \(x\). We need to show that \(f(x_n) + g(x_n) \rightarrow f(x) + g(x)\). To see this, note that …”

Facts#

In the lecture notes/slides you will often see

Fact

The only \(N\)-dimensional subspace of \(\mathbb{R}^N\) is \(\mathbb{R}^N\).

This means either:

  • theorem

  • lemma

  • true statement taken without a proof

All well known results. You need to remember them, have some intuition for, and be able to apply.

Reading materials#

  1. Primary reference: lecture notes

  2. Essential mathematics for economic analysis (fifth edition)
    by Sydsæter, Hammond, Strøm and Carvajal

[Sydsæter, Hammond, Strøm, and Carvajal, 2016]:

_images/shsc2016.png

  • each lecture will reference book chapters in Sydsæter et.al., 2016

  • each lecture will give additional references for self-study

  1. Additional books

  • listed in the bibliography

  • additional material for self-study

  • including additional topics and deeper coverage

Key action points for the administrative part#

  • Tutorials start next week, please register before the next lecture

  • Course content = what’s in lecture notes/slides

  • Lecture slides are available online and will be updated throughout the semester