ECON201 Lecture 1: Economics 201 - math review

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Economics
• Course: ECON201
• Professor: Predrag Rajsic

Document Summary

This document reviews some of the main functions used throughout the course. The topics included here are polynomials, exponential and logarithmic functions. Also covered are rules of exponents and inequalities, and the absolute value operator. Functions of a single variable (pemberton and rau, mathematics for economists, sections. 1. 1, 4. 1, 4. 3 and 4. 4; chiang, fundamental methods section 2. 5). A general statement that describes a function is y = f (x). By definition, for each value of x x, there is a unique value y y. This states that f transforms or maps the argument x to the value y. We call x the independent variable and y the dependent variable, or in modeling, x the exogenous variable and y the endogenous variable. Functions of a single variable (with only one argument) are the simplest case. How y varies with x will depend upon the particular form given to the mapping.