Mathematics

The analysis of the economic agents' behavior and the complexity of the economic systems emerging from it requires right from the beginning both traditional mathematical tools, usually taught in introductive calculus course, and more nuanced -but still basic- mathematical notions coming from cross-boundary disciplines such as dynamical systems and agent-based modeling.
The aim of the course is to provide students with the basic mathematical ideas and techniques to fruitfully attend subsequent courses in a degree that is designed to tackle economic questions simultaneously from the perspective of behavior, data and policies, being these questions treated in economic courses or more advanced quantitative ones.
These notions and tools will be mainly approached with practical examples and exercises.

Students who successfully complete this course will master the fundamental techniques of univariate calculus like sketching graphs of functions, calculating derivative and integrals, approximating functions with different degree of accuracy, and finding maxima and minima in optimization problems. Moreover, they will perform the previous tasks both with paper and pencil and with the help of a powerful dedicated software like MATLAB as well as Python. They will also be ready to recognize the behavior of simple discrete dynamical system which will nevertheless make them aware of possible inherent chaotic dynamics. Finally, they will be able to device and play with basic agent-based models and appreciate the idea of emergence in socioeconomic dynamics.