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Essential Mathematics for Economic Analysis
For undergraduate and postgraduate courses in math's for economics and math's for econometrics at level 1 and 2 in Economics Departments, also suitable for general math's courses on Social Science degrees.The first volume of this two volume series presents an introduction to mathematical analysis through comprehensive and rigorous topics ranging from elementary algebra to advanced topics, whilst focusing on the core topics of mathematics for economists. The major strength of this text is its mathematical reliability, and in-keeping the growing demand this text includes more elementary material, whilst more advanced topics will publish in Volume II. Through the incorporation of a wealth of problem and answer material and clear arguments and explanations of mathematical.
696 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
11 people are currently reading
230 people want to read
About the author
Knut Sydsæter
22 books3 followers Knut Sydsæter
Knut Sydsæter, Atle Seierstad, and Arne Strøm all have extensive experience in teaching mathematics for economists in the Department of Economics at the University of Oslo. With Peter Berck at Berkeley, Knut Sydsæter and Arne Strøm have written a widely used formula book, Economists’ Mathematical Manual (Springer, 2005). The 1987 North-Holland book Optimal Control Theory for Economists by Atle Seierstad and Knut Sydsæter is still a standard reference in the field.
Visit www.pearsoned.co.uk/sydsaeter to access the supplementary resources for this text including a new Student’s Manual with extended answers broken down step by step to selected problems in the text.
Knut Sydsæter, Atle Seierstad, and Arne Strøm all have extensive experience in teaching mathematics for economists in the Department of Economics at the University of Oslo. With Peter Berck at Berkeley, Knut Sydsæter and Arne Strøm have written a widely used formula book, Economists’ Mathematical Manual (Springer, 2005). The 1987 North-Holland book Optimal Control Theory for Economists by Atle Seierstad and Knut Sydsæter is still a standard reference in the field.
Visit www.pearsoned.co.uk/sydsaeter to access the supplementary resources for this text including a new Student’s Manual with extended answers broken down step by step to selected problems in the text.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 5, 2012
This is an excellent undergraduate calculus textbook for non maths students, which manages to be rigorous while mantaining and engaging style. It assumes very little in terms of pre-requisites, and indeed the first five chapters allow students to catch up on pre-calculus material (including factoring of polynomials, equations and inequalities and functions).
It is packed with exercises, with solutions available either at the end of the book or in the student's manual, and there is also a companion website to keep you entartained with multiple choice questions divided by chapter (you will get immediate feedback for them - however these should be meant as a quick check of your comprehension, as nothing substitutes sweating through the exercises in the textbook).
If you are an instructor, there are plenty more thoughtful exercises in the instructor's manual. In terms of coverage, it is almost perfect for students in economics, as it covers static optimisation (unconstrained, constrained with both equality and inequality constraints), a bit of linear algebra and linear programming. No dynamic optimization here, as for that you will need Further Mathematics for Economic Analysis.
Be warned however: this is not a mathematical economics textbook, but a text of the maths needed for economics and the social sciences. So there are a number of economic applications (e.g. cost functions and profit functions are used in exercises, and you are shown the connection between logarithmic derivatives and elasticity), but this in not a "baby" version of e.g. Foundations of Mathematical Economics.
It is packed with exercises, with solutions available either at the end of the book or in the student's manual, and there is also a companion website to keep you entartained with multiple choice questions divided by chapter (you will get immediate feedback for them - however these should be meant as a quick check of your comprehension, as nothing substitutes sweating through the exercises in the textbook).
If you are an instructor, there are plenty more thoughtful exercises in the instructor's manual. In terms of coverage, it is almost perfect for students in economics, as it covers static optimisation (unconstrained, constrained with both equality and inequality constraints), a bit of linear algebra and linear programming. No dynamic optimization here, as for that you will need Further Mathematics for Economic Analysis.
Be warned however: this is not a mathematical economics textbook, but a text of the maths needed for economics and the social sciences. So there are a number of economic applications (e.g. cost functions and profit functions are used in exercises, and you are shown the connection between logarithmic derivatives and elasticity), but this in not a "baby" version of e.g. Foundations of Mathematical Economics.
April 2, 2022
Very useful resource for a basic Math for Econs module. Explains concepts not elaborated on in class well.
February 7, 2026
The book itself is well-structured and provides good examples and intuition along with comprehensive answers and resources such as the student manual. I did however find there were questions which were unnecessarily rife with excessive algebra that often the conceptual understanding got lost in the moving parts -- I do however understand this is a skill. Overall, this book is a great undergraduate resource which makes mathematics less intimidating for the student.
December 31, 2024
#nsreads 66
Reaffirms my hunch that econs textbooks are the best place to learn applied math save vector calculus where physics textbook maintain comparative advantage
Reaffirms my hunch that econs textbooks are the best place to learn applied math save vector calculus where physics textbook maintain comparative advantage
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews