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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2023
Aims of the lecture
1. To explain the origins of modern mathematical economics, including game theory, modern general equilibrium theory and linear modelling.
2. To show the importance of institutions (notably the Cowles Commission) and events (the Second World War and military funding) for the development of mathematical economics.
3. To show the interaction between different communities: mathematicians and economists.
4. To show the human dimension to developments in a highly abstract field of economics.
For many students, the mere mention of mathematics is off-putting. It is important to emphasize that this is not a mathematical economics lecture and that knowing a lot of mathematics is not necessary to understand what the lecture is about. Though it is helpful to know what game theory and general equilibrium are, and to know what a linear equation is, the lecture is not about a series of mathematical theories but about the history that lies behind mathematical economics. Politics and human personalities are central to the story. The lecture should therefore be of as much interest to students who are sceptical about mathematical economics as to those who are committed to it.
Though the bibliography gives full details of the primary sources, this is not a lecture for which you are expected to focus on original texts. While you are encouraged to look inside some of the main works to see what they look like, you are not expected to read through them; many of you would struggle to understand the technical details. But even without studying the texts, you can understand what their authors were trying to achieve, and the context and significance of what they were doing. The secondary literature cited here has been chosen with this in mind: it contains much that you should find interesting even if you do not understand the mathematical details of the works it is discussing.
Bibliography
Overviews of the topic are given by G. Debreu and E. R. Weintraub in their articles “Mathematical Economics” and “Mathematics and Economics”, respectively, both of which appear in New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, second edition (London: Macmillan, 2008), available online at www.dictionaryofeconomics.com.
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