ECONOMIC DYNAMICS AND THE CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

Mario Pomini

Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2018, vol. 40, issue 1, 57-79

Abstract: Analogies with rational mechanics played a pivotal role in the search for formal models in economics. In the period between the two world wars, a small group of mathematical economists tried to extend this view from statics to dynamics. The main result was the extensive application of calculus of variations to obtain a dynamic representation of economic variables. This approach began with the contributions put forward by Griffith C. Evans, a mathematician who, in the first phase of his scientific career, published widely in economics. Evans’s research was further developed by his student Charles Roos. At the international level, this dynamic approach found its main followers in Italy, within the Paretian tradition. During the 1930s, Luigi Amoroso, the leading exponent of the Paretian School, made major contributions, along with his student Giulio La Volpe, that anticipated the concept of temporary equilibrium. The analysis of the application of the calculus of variations to economic dynamics in the interwar period raises a set of questions on the application of mathematics designed to study mechanics and physics to economics.

Date: 2018
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