Optimal Control Theory for Undergraduates

Ernst Weber ()

No 05-07, Economics Discussion / Working Papers from The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics

Abstract: Dynamic optimization is widely used in financial economics, macroeconomics and resource economics. This is accounting for some tension between the undergraduate and graduate teaching of economics because most undergraduate programs still concentrate on static economic analysis. This paper shows how, with the help of the Microsoft Excel Solver tool, the principles of dynamic economics can be taught to students with minimal knowledge of calculus. As it is assumed that the reader has no prior knowledge of optimal control theory, some attention is paid to the main concepts of dynamic optimization.

Keywords: Optimal Control Theory; Economic Education; Microsoft Excel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A22 C61 D91 D92 Q00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2005-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp and nep-edu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ecompapers.biz.uwa.edu.au/paper/PDF%20of%2 ... 2005/05_07_Weber.pdf First version, 2005 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwa:wpaper:05-07

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Discussion / Working Papers from The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sam Tang ().