IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ejw/journl/v2y2005i1p149-158.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Mathematical Romance: An Engineer's View of Mathematical Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Warren C. Gibson

Abstract

Mathematical economics is compared and contrasted with mathematical engineering. Engineers use mathematics where it is practical and cost-effective, sometimes cutting corners, and leaving theorems and derivations to professional mathematicians. In contrast, papers by mathematical economists are often loaded with theorems and lemmas, with only the slightest suggestion that human affairs are involved. I conclude that some economists have fallen for the romance of mathematics, as engineers occasionally do, and that considerable time and talent has been wasted in the process.

Suggested Citation

  • Warren C. Gibson, 2005. "The Mathematical Romance: An Engineer's View of Mathematical Economics," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 2(1), pages 149-158, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:2:y:2005:i:1:p:149-158
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econjwatch.org/File+download/68/2005-04-gibson-char_issue.pdf?mimetype=pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://econjwatch.org/185
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daniel B. Klein & Pedro Romero, 2007. "Model Building versus Theorizing: The Paucity of Theory in the _Journal of Economic Theory_," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 4(2), pages 241-271, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    mathematical economics; mathematical modeling; engineering;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology
    • C0 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General
    • C60 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - General
    • C62 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Existence and Stability Conditions of Equilibrium
    • C69 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:2:y:2005:i:1:p:149-158. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jason Briggeman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/edgmuus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.