A PRIMER ON MATHEMATICAL MODELLING IN ECONOMICS
针对经济学研究生教育中数学作用的争议，本文通过剖析效用函数概念，总结经济学家使用的数学概念和结果的共同模式，并利用阿罗不可能定理说明分类方案的有用性，旨在促进经济学子领域间的交流。
The Commission on Graduate Education in Economics had raised several concerns regarding the role of mathematics in graduate training in economics (Krueger, 1991; Colander, 1998, 2005). This paper undertakes a detailed scrutinrftxty of the notion of a utility function to motivate and describe the common patterns across mathematical concepts and results that are used by economists. In the process one arrives at a classification of mathematical terms which is used to state mathematical results in economics. The usefulness of the classification scheme is illustrated with the help of a discussion of Arrow's impossibility theorem. Common knowledge of the patterns in mathematical concepts and results could be effective in enhancing communication between students, teachers and researchers specializing in different sub-fields of economics. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.