First Course In Optimization Theory

Product Description

This 1996 book introduces students to optimization theory & its use in economics & allied disciplines. The first of its three parts examines the existence of solutions to optimization problems in Rn & how these solutions may be identified. The second part explores how solutions to optimization problems change with changes in the underlying parameters & the last part provides an extensive description of the fundamental principles of finite- & infinite-horizon dynamic programming. Each chapter contains a number of detailed examples explaining both the theory & its applications for first-year masters & graduate students. Cookbook procedures are accompanied by a discussion of when such methods are guaranteed to be successful & equally importantly when they could fail. Each result in the main body of the text is also accompanied by a complete proof. A preliminary chapter & three appendices are designed to keep the book mathematically self-contained.