learning a little calculus. It will be worth your while in terms of helping you learn advanced economics more

quickly.

Algebraic Models

Often economic models (or parts of models) are expressed in terms of mathematical functions. What is a
function? A function describes a relationship. Sometimes the relationship is a definition. For example (using

words), your professor is Adam Smith. This could be expressed as Professor = Adam Smith. Or Friends = Bob +

Shawn + Margaret.

Often in economics, functions describe cause and effect. The variable on the left-hand side is what is being

explained (“the effect”). On the right-hand side is what is doing the explaining (“the causes”). For example,

suppose your GPA was determined as follows:

This equation states that your GPA depends on three things: your combined SAT score, your class attendance,

and the number of hours you spend studying. It also says that study time is twice as important (0.50) as either
{"source": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "creationdate": "2022-12-07T14:15:44-06:00", "file_hash": "830b81f41611ac67a490444dbb5d6aed292224606965b06965b914443c93331a", "total_pages": 597, "file_size_mb": 26.99, "file_name": "Microeconomics3e.pdf", "upload_timestamp": "2026-02-07T15:24:38.309401", "title": "Principles of Microeconomics 3e", "creator": "PDFMiner", "producer": "Prince 14.2 (www.princexml.com)", "moddate": "2022-12-07T14:23:05-06:00", "source_file": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "batch_upload": true, "file_type": ".pdf", "uploaded_via": "batch_uploader"}