Economic dynamics: an introduction
- 2nd ed.
- New York Macmillan Co. 1959
- 396 p.
I must begin by correcting a fundamental omission from the Preface to the First Edition, where the extent of my debt to Ralph Turvey was scarcely indicated. The first person plural was used throughout the book not in the sense of the editorial we but with the expectation that Turvey would be listed as co-author. I shall not venture to speculate whether his categorical refusal represented excessive modesty or an act of judicious criticism.
Most of the revision of this manuscript has consisted of addition rather than emendation. The additions have largely been mathe matical in subject matter in an attempt to provide introductions to subjects such as numerical computation in higher order systems (Chapter Twelve), non linear equations (Chapter Thirteen) and simultaneous difference and differential equation systems (Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen). After much hesitation I have decided not to include any discussion of transfer functions, Nyquist diagrams, Laplace transforms, or any of the other weapons in the electrical engineer's armory which have played so important a part in recent English work, particularly that of Professor Phillips. In this decision I was heavily influenced by the fact that Professor Allen has recently provided us with such excellent introductory material to several of these areas. Moreover, most of what can be accomplished by these techniques can also be done with the aid of the methods described in this volume and in a manner which, while it may not always be as efficient computationally, is usually more easily grasped in principle since the theory makes little use of such subjects as the functions of a complex variable. There even seems to be some evidence that the engineers themselves are returning to these more pedestrian tech niques.