Functional Analysis, Optimization, and Mathematical Economics

This is a collection of papers dedicated to Leonid Kantorovich and his work. Kantorovich was a Russian mathematician and economist who published in the three areas covered in this book: functional analysis, optimization, and mathematical economics.

Kantorovich is credited as being amongst the first inventors of linear programming, the primary technique of optimization. Linear programming consists of creating a matrix of parameters relevant to a system and maximizing the unknown variables using those constraints. Kantorovich then applied this theory to optimal macroeconomic planning in a socialist economy, for which he received the Nobel prize.

The present book is dedicated to the memory of Kantorovich, who died in 1986, but is more than a Festschrift. It contains original contributions from several researchers in the USSR never before seen in the US, which enhances the value of the volume. It is organized in a logical sequence from the mathematics to the applications of the theories to concrete problems.