Mathematics for Economics and Business 9th

Book Preface

This text is intended primarily for students on economics, business studies and management courses. It assumes very little prerequisite knowledge, so it can be read by students who have not undertaken a mathematics course for some time. The style is informal, and the text contains a large number of worked examples. Students are encouraged to tackle problems for themselves as they read through each section. Detailed solutions are provided so that all answers can be checked. Consequently, it should be possible to work through this text on a self-study basis. The material is wide ranging and varies from elementary topics such as percentages and linear equations to more sophisticated topics such as constrained optimisation of multivariate functions. The text should therefore be suitable for use on both low- and high-level quantitative methods courses.

This text was first published in 1991. The prime motivation for writing it then was to try to produce a text that students could actually read and understand for themselves. This remains the guiding principle when writing this ninth edition. One of the main improvements is the inclusion of over 200 additional questions. Each chapter now ends with both multiple choice questions and a selection of longer examination-style questions.

Students usually enjoy tackling multiple choice questions since they provide a quick way of testing recall of the material covered in each chapter. Several universities include multiple choice as part of their assessment. The final section in each chapter entitled “Examination Questions” contains longer problems which require knowledge and understanding of more than one topic. Although these have been conveniently placed at the end of each chapter it may be best to leave these until the end of the academic year so that they can be used during the revision period just before the examinations.

Ian Jacques