Based on over 15 years' experience in the design and delivery of successful first-year courses, this book equips undergraduates with the mathematical skills required for degree courses in economics, finance, management and business studies. The book starts with a summary of basic skills and takes its readers as far as constrained optimisation helping them to become confident and competent in the use of mathematical tools and techniques that can be applied to a range of problems in economics and finance.

Designed as both a course text and a handbook, the book assumes little prior mathematical knowledge beyond elementary algebra and is therefore suitable for students returning to mathematics after a long break. The fundamental ideas are described in the simplest mathematical terms, highlighting threads of common mathematical theory in the various topics.

Features include:

• a systematic approach: ideas are touched upon, introduced gradually and then consolidated through the use of illustrative examples;
• several entry points to accommodate differing mathematical backgrounds;
• numerous worked examples and exercises to illustrate the theory and applications;
• full solutions to exercises, available to lecturers via the web.

Vass Mavron is Professor of Mathematics in the Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Wales Aberystwyth. Tim Phillips is Professor of Mathematics and Professorial Fellow in the School of Mathematics at Cardiff University.

From the reviews:

Mathematics is an extremely important subject for economics. Areas such as linear equations, optimization, and regression techniques (both linear and nonlinear) play a major part in economic modeling. However, such topics are usually not covered in books of this nature.

As the title suggests, this book in every way provides the elements of mathematics to be used in economics and finance. Topics are presented in a very introductory manner. It seems as if it is even more approachable than some first semester caluclus text. Only the most important concepts are explained, which is the main focus of the book. The examples provided are the very simple and they all relate, naturally, to economics or finance. The presentation of examples is extremely detailed, something like a step-by-step analysis of the solution. The authors do not provide connections economics other than in examples. Rather, the mathematical theory is presented and then is followed by a simple example.

This is a very easy read if you ever had any higher mathematics (say, at the first year undergraduate level), which generally all economics students should have. After you are reminded of the methods you can go on and use some more advanced books on the same subject that will depcit real problems encountered when applying mathematical methods in economics and finance.

MathDL

"Students in economics and finance with no more than basic knowledge in mathematics are the target group for the authors Mavron and Phillips. ? Because the book starts at a very elementary level, but rather quickly speeds up to the formal level required in economics and finance, the book may also serve as a source for quick refresher courses in mathematics for economists." (Herbert S. Buscher, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1128 (6), 2008)