Computational Economics : A Concise Introduction

Computational Economics: A concise introduction is a comprehensive textbook designed to help students move from the traditional and comparative static analysis of economic models, to a modern and dynamic computational study. The ability to equate an economic problem, to formulate it into a mathematical model and to solve it computationally is becoming a crucial and distinctive competence for most economists.

This vital textbook is organized around static and dynamic models, covering both macro and microeconomic topics, exploring the numerical techniques required to solve those models.

A key aim of the book is to enable students to develop the ability to modify the models themselves so that, using the MATLAB/Octave codes provided on the book and on the website, students can demonstrate a complete understanding of computational methods.

This textbook is innovative, easy to read and highly focused, providing students of economics with the skills needed to understand the essentials of using numerical methods to solve economic problems. It also provides more technical readers with an easy way to cope with economics through modelling and simulation. Later in the book, more elaborate economic models and advanced numerical methods are introduced which will prove valuable to those in more advanced study.

This book is ideal for all students of economics, mathematics, computer science and engineering taking classes on Computational or Numerical Economics.

Oscar Afonso, Paulo B. Vasconcelos