Andreu Mas-Colell
Encyclopedia
Andreu Mas-Colell is a Spanish
economist
, an expert in microeconomics
and one of the world's leading mathematical economists
. He is the founder of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics
and a professor in the department of economics at Pompeu Fabra University
in Barcelona
, Catalonia
, Spain. He has also served several times in the cabinet
of the Catalonian government. Summarizing his and others research in general equilibrium theory, his monograph gave a thorough exposition of research using differential topology
. His textbook on microeconomics is the most used graduate microeconomics textbook in the world.
, earning a degree in economics in 1966. He moved to the University of Minnesota
for his graduate studies, and completed his Ph.D. in 1972 under the supervision of Marcel Richter. He took a faculty position in mathematics and economics at the University of California, Berkeley
, becoming a full professor in 1979. In 1981, he moved to Harvard University
, and in 1988 he became the Louis Berkman Professor of Economics at Harvard. In 1995 he moved to Pompeu Fabra to lead the Department of Economics and Business. He was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Mathematical Economics from 1985 to 1989, and of Econometrica
from 1988 to 1998. He was president of the Econometric Society
in 1993 and of the European Economic Association
in 2006.
In public service, Mas-Colell was the Commissioner for Universities and Research of the Generalitat of Catalonia in 1999–2000. While Minister of Universities, Research and the Information Society for the Generalitat from 2000 to 2003, Mas-Collel implemented a program of research programs called ICREA, that has been replicated in other regions in Spain. Mas-Collel served the Secretary General of the European Research Council
from 2009 to 2010. In the Catalonia Government beginning in 2010
, presided by Artur Mas, he was appointed as the Minister for Economy and Knowledge, being responsible for the government's budget, economic policy, and research policy.
(in the form of "global analysis") at the highest levels of mathematical economics. Following John von Neumann
's break-throughs in economics, and particularly after his introduction of functional analysis
and topology
in economic theory, advanced mathematical economics reduced its emphasis on differential calculus. In general equilibrium theory, mathematical economists used general topology
, convex geometry
, and optimization theory more than differential calculus. In the 1960s and 1970s, however, Gérard Debreu
and Stephen Smale
led a revival of the use of differential calculus in mathematical economics. In particular, they were able to prove the existence of a general equilibrium, where earlier writers had failed, because of their novel mathematics: Baire category from general topology and Sard's lemma
from differential topology
and differential geometry. Their publications initiated a period of research "characterized by the use of elementary differential topology": "almost every area in economic theory where the differential approach has been pursued, including general equilibrium" was covered by Mas-Colell's monograph on differentiable analysis and economics. Mas-Colell's book "offers a synthetic and thorough account of a major recent development in general equilibrium analysis, namely, the largely successful reconstruction of the theory using modern ideas of differential topology", according to its back cover.
Mas-Colell has also contributed to the theory of general equilibrium in topological
vector lattice
s. The sets of prices and quantities can be described as partially ordered vector spaces, often as vector lattices. Economies with uncertain or dynamic decisions typically require that the vector spaces be infinite-dimensional, in which case the order properties of vector lattices allow stronger conclusions to be made. Recently researchers have studied nonlinear pricing
: A "main motivation came from the fact that Mas-Colell's fundamental theory of welfare economics with no interiority assumptions crucially requires lattice properties of commodity spaces, even in finite-dimensional settings."
, a foreign honorary member of the American Economic Association
, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
, a member of the Academia Europaea
, a member of the Institute of Catalan Studies, a fellow of the Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas, and a fellow of the Econometric Society
. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Alicante
in Spain, the University of Toulouse
and HEC Paris in France, and the National University of the South
in Argentina. He is a recipient of the Creu de Sant Jordi
, the highest civil honor of Catalonia, and of the King Juan Carlos Prize in Economics.
In honor of his 65th birthday and his service on the European Research Council, two conferences were held in his honor at Pompeu Fabra in 2009, the Journal of Mathematical Economics published a special issue in his honor, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor of the university.
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
, an expert in microeconomics
Microeconomics
Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of how the individual modern household and firms make decisions to allocate limited resources. Typically, it applies to markets where goods or services are being bought and sold...
and one of the world's leading mathematical economists
Mathematical economics
Mathematical economics is the application of mathematical methods to represent economic theories and analyze problems posed in economics. It allows formulation and derivation of key relationships in a theory with clarity, generality, rigor, and simplicity...
. He is the founder of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics
Barcelona graduate school of economics
The Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, commonly referred to as Barcelona GSE, is an independent institution of research and graduate education located in Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain....
and a professor in the department of economics at Pompeu Fabra University
Pompeu Fabra University
Pompeu Fabra University is a university in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is widely considered to be one of the best universities in Spain and in Europe, and was ranked 1st in scientific productivity in Spain in 2009. Founded in 1990, it is named after the Catalan philologist Pompeu Fabra...
in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, Spain. He has also served several times in the cabinet
Catalonia Government 2010-2014 term of office
The Catalan Government of 2010-2014 term of office is the current composition of the Government of Catalonia since December 29, 2010.-References:*....
of the Catalonian government. Summarizing his and others research in general equilibrium theory, his monograph gave a thorough exposition of research using differential topology
Differential topology
In mathematics, differential topology is the field dealing with differentiable functions on differentiable manifolds. It is closely related to differential geometry and together they make up the geometric theory of differentiable manifolds.- Description :...
. His textbook on microeconomics is the most used graduate microeconomics textbook in the world.
Biography
A native of Barcelona, Mas-Colell did his undergraduate studies at the University of BarcelonaUniversity of Barcelona
The University of Barcelona is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia in Spain. It is a member of the Coimbra Group, LERU, European University Association, Mediterranean Universities Union, International Research Universities Network and Vives Network...
, earning a degree in economics in 1966. He moved to the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
for his graduate studies, and completed his Ph.D. in 1972 under the supervision of Marcel Richter. He took a faculty position in mathematics and economics at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, becoming a full professor in 1979. In 1981, he moved to Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and in 1988 he became the Louis Berkman Professor of Economics at Harvard. In 1995 he moved to Pompeu Fabra to lead the Department of Economics and Business. He was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Mathematical Economics from 1985 to 1989, and of Econometrica
Econometrica
Econometrica is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics, publishing articles not only in econometrics but in many areas of economics. It is published by the Econometric Society and distributed by Wiley-Blackwell. Econometrica is one of the most highly ranked economics journals in the world...
from 1988 to 1998. He was president of the Econometric Society
Econometric Society
The Econometric Society is an international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation with statistics and mathematics. It was founded on December 29, 1930 at the Stalton Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio....
in 1993 and of the European Economic Association
European Economic Association
The European Economic Association is a professional academic body which links European economists. It was founded in the mid-1980s. Its first annual congress was in 1986 in Vienna, Austria...
in 2006.
In public service, Mas-Colell was the Commissioner for Universities and Research of the Generalitat of Catalonia in 1999–2000. While Minister of Universities, Research and the Information Society for the Generalitat from 2000 to 2003, Mas-Collel implemented a program of research programs called ICREA, that has been replicated in other regions in Spain. Mas-Collel served the Secretary General of the European Research Council
European Research Council
The European Research Council is the independent body that funds investigator-driven frontier research in the European Union . It is part of the Seventh Research Framework Programme ....
from 2009 to 2010. In the Catalonia Government beginning in 2010
Catalonia Government 2010-2014 term of office
The Catalan Government of 2010-2014 term of office is the current composition of the Government of Catalonia since December 29, 2010.-References:*....
, presided by Artur Mas, he was appointed as the Minister for Economy and Knowledge, being responsible for the government's budget, economic policy, and research policy.
Research
Mas-Collel's research has ranged broadly over mathematical economics. In particular, he has been associated with a revival of the use of differential calculusDifferential calculus
In mathematics, differential calculus is a subfield of calculus concerned with the study of the rates at which quantities change. It is one of the two traditional divisions of calculus, the other being integral calculus....
(in the form of "global analysis") at the highest levels of mathematical economics. Following John von Neumann
John von Neumann
John von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath who made major contributions to a vast number of fields, including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, geometry, fluid dynamics, economics and game theory, computer science, numerical analysis,...
's break-throughs in economics, and particularly after his introduction of functional analysis
Functional analysis
Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure and the linear operators acting upon these spaces and respecting these structures in a suitable sense...
and topology
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
in economic theory, advanced mathematical economics reduced its emphasis on differential calculus. In general equilibrium theory, mathematical economists used general topology
General topology
In mathematics, general topology or point-set topology is the branch of topology which studies properties of topological spaces and structures defined on them...
, convex geometry
Convex geometry
Convex geometry is the branch of geometry studying convex sets, mainly in Euclidean space.Convex sets occur naturally in many areas of mathematics: computational geometry, convex analysis, discrete geometry, functional analysis, geometry of numbers, integral geometry, linear programming,...
, and optimization theory more than differential calculus. In the 1960s and 1970s, however, Gérard Debreu
Gerard Debreu
Gérard Debreu was a French economist and mathematician, who also came to have United States citizenship. Best known as a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he began work in 1962, he won the 1983 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.-Biography:His father was the...
and Stephen Smale
Stephen Smale
Steven Smale a.k.a. Steve Smale, Stephen Smale is an American mathematician from Flint, Michigan. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966, and spent more than three decades on the mathematics faculty of the University of California, Berkeley .-Education and career:He entered the University of...
led a revival of the use of differential calculus in mathematical economics. In particular, they were able to prove the existence of a general equilibrium, where earlier writers had failed, because of their novel mathematics: Baire category from general topology and Sard's lemma
Sard's lemma
Sard's theorem, also known as Sard's lemma or the Morse–Sard theorem, is a result in mathematical analysis which asserts that the image of the set of critical points of a smooth function f from one Euclidean space or manifold to another has Lebesgue measure 0 – they form a null set...
from differential topology
Differential topology
In mathematics, differential topology is the field dealing with differentiable functions on differentiable manifolds. It is closely related to differential geometry and together they make up the geometric theory of differentiable manifolds.- Description :...
and differential geometry. Their publications initiated a period of research "characterized by the use of elementary differential topology": "almost every area in economic theory where the differential approach has been pursued, including general equilibrium" was covered by Mas-Colell's monograph on differentiable analysis and economics. Mas-Colell's book "offers a synthetic and thorough account of a major recent development in general equilibrium analysis, namely, the largely successful reconstruction of the theory using modern ideas of differential topology", according to its back cover.
Mas-Colell has also contributed to the theory of general equilibrium in topological
Topological vector space
In mathematics, a topological vector space is one of the basic structures investigated in functional analysis...
vector lattice
Riesz space
In mathematics a Riesz space, lattice-ordered vector space or vector lattice is an ordered vector space where the order structure is a lattice....
s. The sets of prices and quantities can be described as partially ordered vector spaces, often as vector lattices. Economies with uncertain or dynamic decisions typically require that the vector spaces be infinite-dimensional, in which case the order properties of vector lattices allow stronger conclusions to be made. Recently researchers have studied nonlinear pricing
Nonlinear pricing
Nonlinear pricing is a broad term that covers any kind of price structure in which there is a nonlinear relationship between price and the quantity of goods. An example is affine pricing.- References and links :...
: A "main motivation came from the fact that Mas-Colell's fundamental theory of welfare economics with no interiority assumptions crucially requires lattice properties of commodity spaces, even in finite-dimensional settings."
Books
Mas-Colell is the author or co-author of:- The Theory of General Economic Equilibrium: a Differentiable Approach (Econometric Society Monographs in Pure Theory 9, Cambridge University Press, 1990, ISBN 9780521388702). This book was evaluated for Mathematical ReviewsMathematical ReviewsMathematical Reviews is a journal and online database published by the American Mathematical Society that contains brief synopses of many articles in mathematics, statistics and theoretical computer science.- Reviews :...
by Dave Furth, who wrote that
-
- Mas-Colell's book is one of the first and still one of the most complete and most rigorous of the few textbooks on the applications of differential topology and global analysis to the theory of general economic equilibrium. .... People working in the field ought to own and to have used it already for some time. So those still wanting to consult for the first time and perhaps wanting to buy the book must be mathematicians interested in economic applications of the above-mentioned mathematical subjects. They will not regret consulting and/or buying it; the book is excellent.
- Microeconomic Theory (with Michael Dennis Whinston, Jerry R. Green, Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 9780195073409). writes that this "is the most commonly used textbook in microeconomics".
- Mas-Colell's book is one of the first and still one of the most complete and most rigorous of the few textbooks on the applications of differential topology and global analysis to the theory of general economic equilibrium. .... People working in the field ought to own and to have used it already for some time. So those still wanting to consult for the first time and perhaps wanting to buy the book must be mathematicians interested in economic applications of the above-mentioned mathematical subjects. They will not regret consulting and/or buying it; the book is excellent.
Awards and honors
Mas-Colell is a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, a foreign honorary member of the American Economic Association
American Economic Association
The American Economic Association, or AEA, is a learned society in the field of economics, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. It publishes one of the most prestigious academic journals in economics: the American Economic Review...
, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, a member of the Academia Europaea
Academia Europaea
Academia Europæa is a European non-governmental scientific academy founded in 1988. Its members are scientists and scholars who collectively aim to promote learning, education and research. It publishes European Review through Cambridge Journals....
, a member of the Institute of Catalan Studies, a fellow of the Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas, and a fellow of the Econometric Society
Econometric Society
The Econometric Society is an international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation with statistics and mathematics. It was founded on December 29, 1930 at the Stalton Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio....
. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Alicante
University of Alicante
The University of Alicante was established in 1979 on the basis of the Center for University Studies , which was founded in 1968. The University main campus is located in San Vicente del Raspeig/Sant Vicent del Raspeig, bordering the city of Alicante to the north...
in Spain, the University of Toulouse
University of Toulouse
The Université de Toulouse is a consortium of French universities, grandes écoles and other institutions of higher education and research, named after one of the earliest universities established in Europe in 1229, and including the successor universities to that earlier university...
and HEC Paris in France, and the National University of the South
National University of the South
The National Southern University is the largest national university in southern Argentina. Its motto is Ardua Veritatem, which means "truth is obtained by effort"....
in Argentina. He is a recipient of the Creu de Sant Jordi
Creu de Sant Jordi
The Creu de Sant Jordi is the highest civil distinction awarded in Catalonia . It was established by the Generalitat de Catalunya autonomous government by virtue of the Decret 457/1981 de 18 de desembre in 1981.. The medal was designed by goldsmith Joaquim Capdevila.-Recipients:*List of...
, the highest civil honor of Catalonia, and of the King Juan Carlos Prize in Economics.
In honor of his 65th birthday and his service on the European Research Council, two conferences were held in his honor at Pompeu Fabra in 2009, the Journal of Mathematical Economics published a special issue in his honor, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor of the university.
External links
- Web site at Pompeu Fabra University