The Economics Pack

Mathematica programs for economics
and practical decision support

Update 2009 available for Mathematica 7.0.0 (and higher as far as Mathematica is upward compatible)

Thomas Cool (1999, 2001), "The Economics Pack. User Guide", ISBN 90-804774-1-9, ca 555 pp. (updated edition). JEL reference number is JEL 1999-0820.
(Journal of Economic Literature, volume 37, no. 3, September 1999).

Table of contents. The Pack provides a working environment that many will enjoy to have available.
It integrates more than 100 Mathematica packages and more than 1000 functions.

The Pack contains online help, a search index, 'click and paste' palettes, and additional exemplary notebooks.

You can freely download the Pack, install it on your computer and investigate it.
To actually run the software, you can order your password as explained below.

Available for Windows (also XP), Unix and Apple Macintosh.
For Mathematica 5.2, 6.0.3 and 7.0.0

Update notes

2009: Merely made fit for M7
2008: Extended with some notebooks and packages on risk in multiplicative processes that result into a lognormal distribution.
2007: Extended with "A logic of exceptions" (ALOE) and the 2nd edition of "Voting theory for democracy" (VTFD), and work in progress on causality.
2005 for the version for Mathematica 5.0: (a) Adaptation to changes in FindRoot, FindMinimum, Combinatorica package etcetera. (b) Inclusion of notebooks and packages on the life sciences (life table, lexis plot, survival analysis, disease test tables, epidemiology, meta analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, the value of life). (c) Support for the 2005 edition of DRGTPE.
1993-2003: Some update notes, at EconWPA
2001: Extended with "Voting theory for democracy" (VTFD)

Some user reactions.
Ron Shone (2000), Review of the 2000 version of the Pack, also by Ron Shone, requested by the EJ but not published since the EJ stopped doing software reviews. PM. See also his fine review: Ron Shone, "Mathematica v4.0 for Windows 95 / 98 / NT", The Economic Journal February 2000, page F171-186.
Ron Shone (1998), Review of the 1998 version of the Pack , in The Economic Journal published July 1 1998, v 108 n 449, page 1229-1234.

See my own research that was made possible by the Pack:

the book Definition & Reality in the General Theory of Political Economy (DRGTPE)
the book A Logic of Exceptions (ALOE)
the book Voting Theory for Democracy (VTFD)
general research
a description for a course "Introduction to Finance (using Mathematica)"

The Pack has proven its use many times over. The software was written in the course of more than 16 years of research, teaching and practical decision support. The Pack now has users in many countries in the world.

Ordering

A. Single user licence (buying)

See ordering details.

B. Site licences (software rental)

See ordering details.

C. Bonus licences

Schools who take a site licence for two years, get a personal Professional licence for free for a designated teacher.
If you are an established textbook writer and you want to investigate the possibilities of Mathematica and the Pack for your book and its use in class, you may be eligible for a free personal Standard licence.

D. Rules on free updates

A version of the Economics Pack will generally still work in a higher version of Mathematica, unless there are serious changes in Mathematica itself that require an adaptation of the Pack.
Users of the version for M2 can freely update to the version for M3.
Users of the version for M3 can freely update to the version for M4.
Users of the version for M4 can freely update to the version for M5.
Users of the version for M5 can freely update to the version for M6.
Users of the version for M6 can freely update to the version for M7.
It depends upon the seriousness of the changes in Mathematica in the future what the policy will be.

Deliveries will be made only after payment has arrived.

Please be aware that if you would order the User Guide book via a book seller, there can be an additional margin for the distributers. The User Guide has also been written in 1999 for Mathematica 4.0 but at the application level there have only been minor changes and the printed User Guide book still is a 99.9% relevant reference. Those minor changes have been made in the packages and the digital User Guide that comes in the Help function of the Pack.

The books ALOE on logic and VTFD on voting are in printed form for M5.2 (as they were published) but the digital files included in the Pack work with M7.

For installation you need to be able to unpack zip formats (which can be handled by e.g. Winzip).

Note that your personal data, on acquiring the Pack, will be used only to contact you on the Pack (Privacy Statement).

Please note that the price is set low to increase volume potential. The low price does not mean that it has low quality. (See Shapiro & Varian, "Information Rules", Harvard Business Press 1998 for network economics.)

Licence Statement

The Economics Pack requires a licence.

Use of this software without licence for other purposes than strictly testing, is illegal under Dutch and international law.
If you use these files, please notefy the address below. Your comments are welcome.
This page takes precedence over any MathSource submission of earlier versions.
It is understood that software is complicated, and that the author is not liable for possible damages.

See Wolfram Research or CANdiensten for information on Mathematica.

The Economics Pack is (c) Thomas Cool
Please do not use lightly: cool@dataweb.nl

January 2009