The problem of efficient or optimal allocation of resources is a fundamental concern of economic analysis. This book provides surveys of significant results of the theory of optimal growth, as well as the techniques of dynamic optimization theory on which they are based. Armed with the results and methods of this theory, a researcher will be in an advantageous position to apply these versatile methods of analysis to new issues in the area of dynamic economics.

The problem of efficient or optimal allocation of resources is a fundamental concern of economic analysis. This book provides surveys of significant results of the theory of optimal growth, as well as the techniques of dynamic optimization theory on which they are based. Armed with the results and methods of this theory, a researcher will be in an advantageous position to apply these versatile methods of analysis to new issues in the area of dynamic economics.

The book begins with an introduction to some of the basic concepts and results on chaotic dynamical systems. Next it turns to a detailed self-contained summary of the literature on discounted dynamic optimization. The first two chapters are of particular pedagogical interest. The volume also brings together a number of outstanding advanced research papers on complex behavior of dynamic economic models. These make it clear that complexity cannot be dismissed as "exceptional" or "pathological" and, for explanation and prediction of economic variables, it is imperative to develop models with special structures suggested by empirical studies. Graduate students in economics will find the book valuable for an introduction to optimization and chaos. Specialists will find new directions to explore themes like robustness of chaotic behavior and the role of discounting in generating cycles and complexity.

This collection of essays brings together some articles on dynamic optimization models that exhibit chaotic behavior. Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 appeared in a Symposium on Chaotic Dynamical Systems in Economic Theory (Volume 4, Number 5, 1994). Also, Chapters 10,11, and 12 appeared in the Journal of Economic The ory. We would like to thank the authors, and Academic Press for permission to reprint. We are grateful to Professor C.D. Aliprantis for suggesting the idea of a book structured around the Economic Theory Symposium, and without the support and patience of Dr. Mueller this project could not have been completed. We would like to thank Ms. Amy Gowan who cheerfully per formed the arduous task of typing the manuscript. Thanks are also due to Xiao Qing Yu, Tridip Ray and Malabika Majumdar for their help at various stages in the preparation of the manuscript. For a course on dynamic optimization addressed to students with a good background in economic theory and real analysis, one can assign Chapter 2 as a partial introduction to the basic tech niques. Chapters 3 and 4 can be assigned to provide examples of simple optmization models generating complicated behavior."

Influential neoclassical economist Lionel McKenzie has made major contributions to postwar economic thought in the fields of equilibrium, trade, and capital accumulation. This selection of his papers traces the development of his thinking in these three crucial areas.McKenzie's early academic life took him to Duke, Princeton, Oxford, the University of Chicago, and the Cowles Commission. In 1957, he went to the University of Rochester to head the economics department there, and he remains at Rochester, now Wilson Professor Emeritus of Economics. McKenzie's most significant research was undertaken during a period that saw the development of the major themes of neoclassical economics and the use of fundamental mathematical methods to do so. McKenzie contributed to both aspects of this research program. He helped shape the direction of the field and, at Rochester, influenced generations of future scholars. In 2002, The MIT Press published McKenzie's Classical General Equilibrium Theory, a detailed summary of the model and methodology. This book, collecting his most important papers in the form in which they were originally published, can be seen as a companion to that one. The many state-of-the-art results achieved in McKenzie's original papers present sophisticated theoretical work that will continue to be important to future developments in the discipline.

The problem of efficient or optimal allocation of resources is a fundamental concern of economic analysis. The theory of optimal economic growth can be viewed as an aspect of this central theme, which emphasizes in general the issues arising in the allocation of resources over an infinite time horizon, and in particular the consumption-investment decision process in models in which there is no natural "terminal date". This broad scope of "optimal growth theory" is one which has evolved over time, as economists have discovered new interpretations of its central results, as well as new applications of its basic methods. The "Handbook on Optimal Growth" provides surveys of significant results of the theory of optimal growth, as well as the techniques of dynamic optimization theory on which they are based. Armed with the results and methods of this theory, a researcher will be in an advantageous position to apply these versatile methods of analysis to new issues in the area of dynamic economics.