Book Description

The authors, leading researchers in the fields of mathematical economics and methodology, present the first comprehensive synthesis of literature on qualitative and other nonparametric techniques, which are important elements of comparative statics and stability analysis in economic theory. The topics covered show how to assess the comparative statics and stability of economic models without a precise quantitative knowledge of all model components. Applications of the analysis range from determining refutable hypotheses from theory to auditing the solutions of large, computer-based systems. This book discusses in depth the methodology involved in a nonparametric analysis of many neoclassical economic models. Constituting a virtually self-contained manual on such analysis, it provides detailed derivation of necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of restrictive comparative statics and stability results for a range of specified models. Further, algorithms for applying certain of these conditions are given, with examples, as well as the underlying mathematical approach taken. A large body of research is unified covering issues that have been dealt with piecemeal in scattered but important journal articles by the authors and others. The book will prove invaluable to mathematical economists, mathematicians specializing in matrix or graph theory, applied economists working with large-scale economic models, and advanced students of economics. Originally published in 1999. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.