econyun Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 I found that... there are tons of courses with the term" Analysis " Intro to Analysis Real Analysis Numerical Analysis Statistical Analysis Regression Analysis Complex Analysis Even for some Department of Econ.. Micro Analysis Macro Analysis.... However, from this forum, it is not hard to see that Real Analysis is of paramount importance... if we just need to learn the ways to prove... what about other math courses with term" analysis"? Why do we just focus on Real analysis? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyb19 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 Real Analysis is usually the most difficult undergraduate math course, so performing well in this course provides the adcoms with a picture of your ablility to handle complex, highly theoretical arguments. Plus, you usually cover calculus in a rigorous way, and address issues such as metrics, measure, and topology of the real line. All of these are useful in economic theory (especially micro). Some of the other courses you listed, while difficult, I don't think have the same relevance to economics, and courses like numerical analyis and complex analyis usually don't have much application to economics until you get into your field courses, even then I don't know how much relevance they have. So in short, adcoms like Real Analysis because its really hard and has applications to economics theory, the other classes you listed are either hard, or relevant, but not really both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polkaparty Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 Certainly there are many uses of the word analysis, but in our TM discussions, “analysis” (real or complex) refers to the branch of mathematics concerned with the foundations of calculus. Since microeconomic theory is concerned with optimization (i.e., calculus), it follows that many microeconomics proofs require ideas from analysis. Furthermore, mathematics courses in analysis are almost always proof based. All analysis students have already had the non-proof based analysis courses: the lower level calculus sequence. This isn't true of upper division linear algebra courses, for example. 'Computational linear algebra' isn't a typical lower division requirement, so a course in ‘linear algebra’ is a less reliable signal of mathematical maturity to admissions committees. These two reasons highlight the importance of a course in real analysis. (If you school offers an intro to analysis course, it’s probably just an easier introduction to real analysis, the material isn’t really different.) The other courses you mention: Complex analysis: not as useful for economics, but probably just as rigorous as real analysis Numerical analysis: concerned with actually computing integrals and derivatives, useful for economics, but probably not very rigorous (i.e., not a lot of proofs) Statistical analysis: This could be anything. When studying a dataset (regardless of the method), we are analyzing the data, so statistical analysis is a very generic term, unlike mathematical analysis. Regression analysis is a little more precise, but this phrase also uses the word analysis generically, in that we are analyzing the results of a regression. It’s only slightly more precise because “regression analysis” generally always refers to a specific set of models and techniques. Micro analysis and macro analysis probably also use the word analysis loosely, in that we are analyzing the macroeconomy, etc. I hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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