ECON7720 · Economics

Math for Economists

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

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4.9 / 5Course rating

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Across 1 instructor

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Who teaches this? 1

Both ratings are out of 5, for each instructor’s sections of ECON7720.

Peter Ireland

Professor, Murray & Monti Chair in Economics, Economics Department

5 evaluations for this course

Instructor: 5.0
Course: 4.9

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Peter Ireland

Professor, Murray & Monti Chair in Economics, Economics Department

5 evaluations for this course

Instructor: 5.0
Course: 4.9

About this course

"Economics studies the efficient allocation of scarce resources." It follows almost immediately from this definition that while verbal and graphical analyses are often helpful too, economists derive their sharpest and most powerful results by setting up and solving constrained (because resources are "scarce") optimization (because allocations should be "efficient") problems. Hence, this course introduces first-year graduate students to variety of techniques for doing just that: setting up and solving constrained optimization problems. Specific methods covered include those based on the Kuhn-Tucker and envelope theorems, the maximum principle, and dynamic programming. Note that since this is a "math for economists course", its emphasis is not so much on stating and proving theorems but on developing an intuitive understanding of how and why each method works and determining when one particular approach may be easier or more convenient than all others to apply to a specific problem.

All evaluation ratings

Averages use numerical 1–5 ratings, including the ratings submitted with new anonymous reviews.

OrganizationHow well the course was organized: 5.00 / 5
ChallengeHow intellectually challenging students found it: 4.53 / 5
AttendanceHow necessary attendance was: 4.31 / 5
AssignmentsHow helpful assignments were: 4.98 / 5

Weekly effort: ~4.5 hours

Estimated from the original workload response buckets. Individual sections may differ.

Evaluation history Browse all evaluations

Evaluation history 5 terms

All available terms for ECON7720. Numerical averages use the five-point scale.
Term	Evaluations	Course rating	Instructor rating
Fall 2024	1	4.8	5.0
Fall 2023	1	4.9	5.0
Fall 2022	1	4.8	4.8
Fall 2021	1	5.0	5.0
Fall 2020	1	4.9	5.0