Book Description

Evolutionary game theory attempts to predict individual behavior (whether of humans or other species) when interactions between individuals are modeled as a noncooperative game. Most dynamic analyses of evolutionary games are based on their normal forms, despite the fact that many interesting games are specified more naturally through their extensive forms. Because every extensive form game has a normal form representation, some theorists hold that the best way to analyze an extensive form game is simply to ignore the extensive form structure and study the game in its normal form representation. This book rejects that suggestion, arguing that a game's normal form representation often omits essential information from the perspective of dynamic evolutionary game theory.

The book offers a synthesis of current knowledge about extensive form games from an evolutionary perspective, emphasizing connections between the extensive form representation and dynamic models that traditionally have been applied to biological and economic phenomena. It develops a general theory to analyze dynamically arbitrary extensive form games and applies this theory to a range of examples. It lays the foundation for the analysis of specific extensive form models of behavior and for the further theoretical study of extensive form evolutionary games. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is devoted to modern methodologies of financial risk management of pension plans, mostly defined benefit plans. The reader is expected to know basic probability theory and mathematical analysis, while all required concepts in financial and actuarial mathematics are developed in the text. The book outlines basic actuarial valuation concepts and then presents actuarial funding and valuation methods for defined benefit plans, and discusses their relationship to other types of pension plans. Optimal funding methodologies are developed in simple deterministic and in stochastic cases. The question of measurement of rate of return of a fund is analyzed in detail, pointing out how the choice of a market index affects it. The problem of stability of the value of liabilities is analyzed as well. Modern investment theory, including equilibrium and arbitrage models, is used to discuss ways to value both marketable and non-marketable assets, as well as liabilities. All commonly used methodologies of valuation of assets are listed and analyzed. Finally, financial risk management for pension plans is presented in detail, with emphasis on applicable asset-liability management methodologies. This portion of the book starts with the basics: duration, convexity, immunization, and develops alternative immunization methodologies, as well as other risk management tools, such as Value-at-Risk, Risk-Based-Capital, and shortfall constraint approach. A new optimal methodology, an alternative to classical immunization, is developed, and shown to be strikingly similar to conservative management approaches used by practitioners. Throughout the book, all concepts and methodologies are illustrated with examples and exercises, including past problems from the Society of Actuaries and Casualty Actuarial Society professional examinations (used with permission). ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

Big Statistics= Great Small Talk
This book is not a good read- it an excellent calender or mantra.Flip to any page look at the graph, read the explanatory paragraph and then sit back and absorb it. Tuck it away into that space of your brain that you pull out at social events and e-mail one liners,"Did you know that there are 512 Billionares while one in every four people lives off of 1$ a day?" This book does not preach, it just hits you over the head with statistics and easy to understand graphs.If you have ever wondered how countries and people within countries compare to the rest of the world then keep this on your coffee table and EAT IT UP with your coffee.Everything from Literacy Rates to Food to Labor Distribution is in this "book", making it a mini-crash course in World Health, Economics, Politics and Social Change all at once.

Clear, big font, has details if you want them, and half the book is nothin' but pictures. ... Read more

Book Description

Matrix Algebra is the first volume of the Econometric Exercises Series. It contains exercises relating to course material in matrix algebra that students are expected to know while enrolled in an (advanced) undergraduate or a postgraduate course in econometrics or statistics. The book contains a comprehensive collection of exercises, all with full answers. But the book is not just a collection of exercises; in fact, it is a textbook, though one that is organized in a completely different manner than the usual textbook. The volume can be used either as a self-contained course in matrix algebra or as a supplementary text. ... Read more

Book Description

Fischer Black is known for his brilliance as well as his sometimes controversial opinions. Highly respected for his scholarly writings in finance, he now moves into different territory with this incisive, unconventional assessment of general equilibrium theory and what that theory reveals about business cycles, growth, and labor economics.

The general equilibrium approach, Black asserts, can be used to explain most of the economy's behavior. It can explain business cycles and growth without using sticky prices, irrationality, economies of scale, or imperfect competition. It can explain the volatility of consumption, output, sales, investment, and inventories with axiomatic utility and constant-returns-to-scale production. It can explain temporary layoffs, job changes with and without intervening unemployment, and the behavior of vacancies. It can explain lower wages in part-time jobs, wages that increase rapidly with time on the job, and the forces that cause migration from poor to rich countries.

Although the general equilibrium approach can't be tested in conventional ways, it can be used to generate examples that explain stylized facts -- generalized observations from the real world -- that have preoccupied macroeconomists for the last decade. Black contrasts his interpretation of these facts with conventional interpretations. Finally, he reviews a substantial body of literature on these topics. ... Read more

Book Description

This Handbook focuses on specific microeconomics applications, rather than on conventional econometric theory.It covers the econometric issues involved in a variety of applied microeconomic problems:The measurement of productivity.Frontier production functions and the measurement of efficiency.Consumer demand.Income inequality and economic welfareEstimation of models of dynamic optimization.Search models and duration data.Quasi-likelihood methods for count data.Analysis of business surveys. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Concise and Complete
This is a fairly short book that nevertheless manages to give a complete and rigorous treatment of probability, statistics and econometrics at the first year level for graduate students in economics. It is a much better read than the econometric tomes by Greene, Judge, etc., firstly because it is an order of magnitude shorter, and secondly because it covers statistics very seriously. The book does not use the cookbook approach of merely teaching the techniques, but rather forces one to think more deeply about the fundamentals. ... Read more

Book Description

Many econometric models contain unknown functions as well as finite- dimensional parameters. Examples of such unknown functions are the distribution function of an unobserved random variable or a transformation of an observed variable. Econometric methods for estimating population parameters in the presence of unknown functions are called "semiparametric." During the past 15 years, much research has been carried out on semiparametric econometric models that are relevant to empirical economics. This book synthesizes the results that have been achieved for five important classes of models. The book is aimed at graduate students in econometrics and statistics as well as professionals who are not experts in semiparametic methods. The usefulness of the methods will be illustrated with applications that use real data. ... Read more

Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the mathematical foundations of economics, from basic set theory to fixed point theorems and constrained optimization. Rather than simply offer a collection of problem-solving techniques, the book emphasizes the unifying mathematical principles that underlie economics. Features include an extended presentation of separation theorems and their applications, an account of constraint qualification in constrained optimization, and an introduction to monotone comparative statics. These topics are developed by way of more than 800 exercises. The book is designed to be used as a graduate text, a resource for self-study, and a reference for the professional economist.

See the author's website (link at left) for additional information on this title, including solutions to each of the 845 exercises in the book. ... Read more

Book Description

This book deals with a number of mathematical topics that are of great importance in the study of classical econometrics. There is a lengthy chapter on matrix algebra, which introduces the reader from the most elementary aspects to partitioned inverses, characterisic roots and vectors, symmetric, orthogonal and positive (semi) definite matrices. The book also covers psuedo-inverses, solutions to systems of linear equations, solutions of vector difference equations with constant coefficients and random forcing functions, matrix differentiation, permutation matrices etc. Among its novel features is an introduction to asymptotic expansions, and examples of applications to the general linear model (regression) and the general linear structural econometric model (simultaneous equations). Professor Dhrymes is currently a Professor of Economics at Columbia University. Earlier he taught at Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, University of California at Los Angeles, and Monash University in Australia. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Statistical Association. He has been a managing editor and editor of the International Economic Review (itl), and one of the founding editors of the Journal of Econometrics (italicize). Professor Dhrymes serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Journal of Ecophometrics, and Econometric Theory. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Excellent Linear Algebra Review
Well, I was a student of Professor Dhrymes, so I am a bit biased as a reader. This book would be extremely helpful for a 1st year graduate course in Econometrics, as it contains many useful linear algebra results. I am glad it was reprinted, as we had had to use photocopies of the previous edition.

The Quality isn't a good explanatory variable for the price
Actually I do think that this book is too expensive, it is not worth to buy it. It spends five chapter (167 pages), more than 60% of the book, to teach matrix algebra, reader can easy read the detail matrix algebra review from many econometric texts such as Greene and Johnston. I don't think this part is helpful. For the last three chapters, it just discuss the material about OLS, all of these can be easy found in some introductory econometric text. I don't think it is very useful for anyone to read this book before studying other econometic text.

Best Book On Mathematical application in economics
I have done masters degree in MATHEMATICS and have done some management courses also. Here I am a PROFESSOR in a COLLEGE where students do B.SC. from LONDON university under EXTERNAL PROGRAM. One of the subjects I teach is "MATHEMATICS FOR ECONOMICS". This book has not only no alternate but also written in very simple way with technical examples and flow diagrams. My students last year got the DISTINCTION in this subject and this year I am also expecting DISTINCTION again from students. So I wanted to contact the auther and compliment the person. Finally as a teacher I would recommend strongly this book for the students of BSC. in Mathematics for economics as this book has a number of mathematical topics that are of great importance in the study of classical econometrics. And this is according to said syllabus. ... Read more

Book Description

This substantially revised second edition of the leading graduate textbook on panel data provides a reworked coverage of panel data techniques from a key author in this field. Updated topics include dynamic panels, limited dependent variable panel data models, spatial panels, GMM estimation, prediction in panels, serial correlation, heteroskedasticity, nested error component models, pseudo-panels, rotating panels, unbalanced panels and heterogeneous dynamic panels.

New material has been added to include:

• nonstationary panels with illustrations of their applications in economics including unit roots in panels and cointegration in panels

• spatial panel data models

• web site addresses for panel data sources

• recent empirical studies and worked examples using standard software

A review of the first edition of Econometric Analysis of Panel Data

"This is a definitive book written by one of the architects of modern panel data
econometrics. It provides both a practical introduction to the subject matter, as well as a thorough discussion of the underlying statistical principles without taxing the reader too greatly. Since its first publication in 1995, it has quickly become a standard accompanying text in advanced econometrics courses around the world, and a major reference for researchers doing empirical work with longitudinal data." — Professor Kajal Lahiri - State University of New York, Albany, USA

... Read more

Reviews (3)

Mistake
The first sentence of the first comment apparently confuses "mere" with "slight". Also, his judgement is too harsh. The book definitely deserves two stars.

It is not so bad after all
The review posted by the anonymous reader from CT seems a little too harsh to me. The book offers a decent overview over many interesting areas of panel data. In particular, one and two way error components are discussed, one chapter is devoted to hypotheses testing, heteroscedasticity and serial correlation and dynamic panel data models respectively. However it is true, that the authour does not provide much help to understand the literature which is just reproduced (often word by word from the papers!). The book is not recommended to someone who wants to read about Panel Data but doesn't have a lot of knowledge about the subject yet.

Still no acceptable book about Panel Data
To say that this book is scandalous would only be a mere exaggeration. Instead of clarifying the literature on Panel Data, the author just sums up some papers (often citing them word by word; why bother then buying a book? Just copy the articles!) without adding any value to them. Even worse, while summarizing, the essence of the papers often goes missing. The only value of the book consists of a quite complete reference list of the literature up to 1994. (However, the list is of course a little biased in favor of the author. He mentions every minuscule and unimportant publication of himself. One could almost get the impression that he contributed to Panel Data) Expecting a book that provides the main ideas and clarifies them together with a clear notation and proofs of the result, I was very disappointed with Badi Baltagi's book! Not recommended at all! (Unfortunately there is no alternative I know of!) ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A complete guido to Contingent Valuation Method
It have everything you need to learn about contingent valuation, an sophisticated and controversial method to value public goods. ... Read more

Book Description

Alex Cukierman is well known for his work on central bank behavior. This book brings together a large body of Cukierman's research and integrates it with recent developments in the political economy of monetary policy. Filled with applications and carefully worked out technical detail, it provides a valuable comprehensive analysis of central bank decisions, of the various effects of policy on inflation, and of the feedback from inflationary expectations to policy choices.

Cukierman uncovers and analyzes the reasons for positive inflation and rates of monetary expansion. He shows that the money supply, and therefore inflation, are not exogenous. They are influenced by interactions involving distributional considerations, private information, personal motives, and the political environment. This point of view makes it possible to identify the institutional, political, and other features of a country that may be conducive to inflationary environments.

Cukierman presents new multidimensional evidence on both legal and actual central bank independence for a sample of up to 70 countries and uses it to investigate the interconnections between the distributions of inflation and of central bank independence. He takes up such issues as why some countries have more independent central banks than others and identifies reasons for the substantial cross country variation in seigniorage. He provides positive explanations for the tendency of central banks, like the US Federal Reserve, to smooth interest rates and to be secretive. Observing that it is likely that the European Economic Community will have a monetary union before the turn of the century, Cukierman applies the techniques of modern political economy to discuss the effect of this change on the commitment to price stability.

The book includes simple and advanced materials as well as informal summaries of the major technical results. The introduction contains a modular guide for reading and teaching the material. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

"Granas-Dugundji's book is an encyclopedic survey of the classical fixed point theory of continuous maps (the work of Poincaré, Brouwer, Lefschetz-Hopf, Leray-Schauder) and all its various modern extensions.This is certainly the most learned book ever likely to be published on this subject."

-Felix Browder, Rutgers University

"The theory of Fixed Points is one of the most powerful tools of modern mathematics.Not only is it used on a daily basis in pure and applied mathematics, but it also serves as a bridge between Analysis and Topology, and provides a very fruitful area of interaction between the two.This book contains a clear, detailed and well-organized presentation of the major results, together with an entertaining set of historical notes and an extensive bibliography describing further developments and applications"

-Haim Brézis, Rutgers University

This monograph gives a carefully worked out account of the most basic principles and applications of the theory of fixed points.Until now, a treatment of many of the discussed topics has been unavailable in book form.The presentation is self-contained and is accessible to a broad spectrum of readers, including mathematically oriented people interested in applications.The main text is complemented by numerous exercises, comments and a comprehenseive bibliography.

Andrzej Granas studied in Warsaw and then Moscow, where he earned his doctorate in 1958 under Lazar Lusternik.Since 1958 he has held various research and teaching posts in Poland, Canada, and elsewhere.During the Spring of 1970 he occupied a special chair at the Collège de France.In the early nineties, Dr. Granas founded the journal Topological Methods of Nonlinear Analysis, and since 1992, he has served on the Editorial Board of the Zentralblatt.He is an honorary member of the Gdansk Scientific Society. ... Read more

Book Description

This book explores econometrics using an intuitive approach that begins with an economic model. It emphasizes motivation, understanding, and implementation and shows readers how economic data are used with economic and statistical models as a basis for estimating key economic parameters, testing economic hypotheses and predicting economic outcomes. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Eviews
I have been using this workbook for undergraduate econometrics. E-views student version is a cut-down version of the 3.1 E-views program.

The workbook is the companion to Undergraduate Econometrics Hill, Griffiths and Judge and the examples used in the workbook are those contained in the textbook.

Unfortunately the workbook does not explain how to adapt the examples of other work. As the E-views program has complicated syntax which needs deciphering, the workbook was not much use for practising econometrics outside the examples in the text book.

The workbook does not contain an index. ... Read more

Book Description

The editors bring together examples of microsimulation modeling that are at the frontiers of developments in the field, either because they extend the range of techniques available to modelers, or because they demonstrate new applications for established methods. This volume represents the state of the art with chapters on the use of microsimulation for comparative policy research and for challenging conventional assumptions, combining microsimulation with other types of economic models and the much-neglected subjects of model alignment and validation. Data and case studies are taken from regions including Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America. ... Read more

Book Description

Intended primarily to prepare first-year graduate students for their ongoing work in econometrics, economic theory, and finance, this innovative book presents the fundamental concepts of theoretical econometrics, from measure-theoretic probability to statistics. A. Ronald Gallant covers these topics at an introductory level and develops the ideas to the point where they can be applied. He thereby provides the reader not only with a basic grasp of the key empirical tools but with sound intuition as well.

In addition to covering the basic tools of empirical work in economics and finance, Gallant devotes particular attention to motivating ideas and presenting them as the solution to practical problems. For example, he presents correlation, regression, and conditional expectation as a means of obtaining the best approximation of one random variable by some function of another. He considers linear, polynomial, and unrestricted functions, and leads the reader to the notion of conditioning on a sigma-algebra as a means for finding the unrestricted solution. The reader thus gains an understanding of the relationships among linear, polynomial, and unrestricted solutions. Proofs of results are presented when the proof itself aids understanding or when the proof technique has practical value.

A major text-treatise by one of the leading scholars in this field, An Introduction to Econometric Theory will prove valuable not only to graduate students but also to all economists, statisticians, and finance professionals interested in the ideas and implications of theoretical econometrics. ... Read more